Zee Ent, Sun TV Shares Fall Over 6% After TRAI’s New Tariff Order

Shares of Zee Entertainment and Sun TV Network fell in the range of 2-6% in early trade on Thursday after TRAI in a bid to ease rising cost for cable viewers has fixed Rs. 160 as the maximum price for all channels offered by a distributor.

TRAI on January 1 in a statement said that it is considering changing some of the provisions of the new tariff order that came into effect from February 2019 for tackling the issue of heavy discounts being provided by broadcasting companies when channels are being subscribed to in a bouquet in comparison to sum of the cost of ala carte channels.

"One, the sum of the à la carte rates of the pay channels (MRP) forming part of a bouquet shall in no case exceed one-and-a-half times the rate of the bouquet of which such pay channels are a part; and two, the a la carte rates of each pay channel (MRP), forming part of a bouquet, shall in no case exceed three times the average rate of a pay channel of the bouquet of which such pay channel is a part," Trai said in a statement on Wednesday.

After considering different provisions, the regulator TRAI has also lowered the maximum NCF charge for 200 channels to Rs. 130 excluding taxes.

At the same time, it has been decided that the channels that have been mandated by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting will not be considered among channels counted in the NCF. Also, it has been decided that only channels with a price of Rs. 12 or less will form the part of the bouquet offerings of broadcasters.

The new rules will come into effect from March 1, 2020.

Share price of Sun TV touched an intra-day low of Rs. 411.45 as against previous close of Rs. 439.45 per share on the BSE. At the time of reporting, the stock quoted at Rs. 427.70, down Rs. -11.75 or 2.67%.

Zee Entertainment shares have been dragged as much as 3% and last quoted at Rs. 285.70, down 0.97%.

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