(a) the methodology adopted by the Government to assess the popularity of Direct to Home (DTH) services;
(b) whether the need to maintain a record of viewers was not felt in Direct to Home (DTH) system;
(c) if so, the reasons therefor and the reaction of the Government thereto; and
(d) the extent to which it is beneficial to both consumers, operators and the Government?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING (SHRI C. M. JATUA)
(a)to(c) In so far as Doordarshan’s DTH service “DD Direct Plus†is concerned, this is free to air and at present
does not have Conditional Access System (CAS) to maintain record of viewers. It was started primarily for providing
TV coverage to the areas uncovered by terrestrial transmitters. Doordarshan’s DTH platform at present has capacity
of transmission of 59 TV channels. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) vide its order dated 30.7.2008,
had asked the private Direct to Home (DTH) operators to submit the quarterly Performance Monitoring Report (PMR)
in accordance with the proforma annexed with the order. As a part of this PMR, the operators are required to submit
their subscriber base at the end of every quarter, to the Authority. The aggregate registered subscriber base of
all the private DTH operators is also published by TRAI on its website on quarterly basis as a part of the report
titled “The Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicatorsâ€.
(d) The data of the subscriber base of all the private DTH operators has an inherent benefit to the operators in
terms of better management of businesses and transparency in competitive positioning, to the Government in terms
of increased tax revenue and greater transparency in business transactions helping in reducing litigation among
service providers and the need for regulatory interventions and better business management ultimately benefits the
consumer in providing them better quality of services at competitive prices.