The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had recently introduced a new tariff regime in order to make TV viewing a more customer controlled experience. However, these new rules that have already come into effect as on 1 February, are most likely to increase the monthly bills of customers and benefit revenues of popular channels according to a rating agency.

The rating agency, Crisil, feels that the network capacity fee and channel prices that were announced by broadcasting companies and distributors based on the new TRAI regime would increase the monthly bills of the subscribers by as much as 25 percent.

"Our analysis of the impact of the regulations indicates a varied impact on monthly TV bills. Based on current pricing, the monthly TV bill can go up by 25 percent from Rs 230-240 to around Rs 300 per month for viewers who opt for the top 10 channels, but will come down for those who opt for the top five channels," it said.

"Subscription revenues of broadcasters would rise around 40 percent to Rs 94 per subscriber per month compared with Rs 60-70 now. With viewers likely to opt for popular channels, large broadcasters will have greater pricing power. Conversely, broadcasters with less-popular channels will find it tough to piggyback on packages, and the least popular ones will hardly have a business case and could go off air," it added.

The new framework by TRAI was intended to bring transparency in pricing and give the viewers freedom of choice to select and pay only for channels they wish to watch.