Tag Archives: Regulatory agency

Bugged By Excessive TV Advertisements? You Are Not Alone, Telecom Regulator Is Equally Irritated!

Featured

Posted on by
1
Bugged By TV Advertisements, TRAI Wants To Help

Bugged By TV Advertisements, TRAI Wants To Help

How many times have you spent more time watching the advertisements than watching your favourite show? How many times have you repeated this cycle-Surf, Back, Damn! Still Not Started.

Of course you are not alone. Out of the numerous waking hours that all of us spend watching television, more than one-fourth of it is wasted on ads and that is a very conservative estimate. We understand the ‘need’ for the commercials, the money games behind it and we do gladly put up with them. Until they start testing our patience, that is.

We don’t mind the ads, heck, we even enjoy some of them. But if an hour long program is interspersed with 40 minute commercials, we are so not okay with it.

Guess, TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) too was troubled…umm, well someone within TRAI was. And they decided to put an end to the menace. The regulations imposed by TRAI amongst several other restrictions, specified that time gap between any two advertisements breaks should not be less than 15 minutes for a TV program and 30 minutes for a movie.

Broadcasters were obviously not too happy and approached the appellate body TDSAT questioning the very authority of TRAI to issue such regulations, which according to them is only empowered to make recommendations. To cut a very long story short, the regulations have been suspended till August 30 while TRAI has promised to look into the broad matter.

We couch potatoes bless TRAI’s soul for taking note of our grievance. Now, we sincerely hope that TRAI does not soften this once and give us a smooth TV viewing experience. The chances of this happening, however, do not seem too bright. So till the time the final verdict comes in

Milte Hain Break Ke Baad!

TRAI Softens Stand On TV Ad Diktat (Business Today)

TRAI to act like a civil court?

Posted on by
2

Economic Times reported yesterday that, Telecom Ministry has made it clear to give more powers to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) acting like a watchdog.

Like SEBI and CCI, TRAI will also be empowered to ‘summon persons, examine them on oath, demand documents and evidence on affidavits and, in appropriate cases, call for expert assistance in conducting inquiries.’

These powers are expected to be made official in the upcoming National Telecom Policy 2012.

The Telecom Commission approved the bulk of Trai’s suggestions on NTP 2012 at the Wednesday meeting, said the official cited above. The commission is expected to complete the remaining work on NTP this week and forward it to the cabinet for approval by 23 March. The cabinet is expected to clear NTP 2012 by April. – Livemint

It also added – “Trai is considering the establishment of a grievance monitoring system to protect the interests of consumers.”

However few things are still not clear:

1.) Whether TRAI will be permitted to penalize operators for non-compliance of the terms and conditions of their license?

2.) Whether individual grievances against telecom companies will be entertained by TRAI or not?

Currently TRAI’s FAQ page says – “The TRAI Act, 1997 does not envisage handling  of individual consumer complaints by TRAI.”

CCI Act under the term ‘consumer’ includes a single person. So an individual can approach CCI, however in the landmark cases it has been observed that group of aggrieved people have approached the court. And for SEBi too an individual can file a case against a LISTED COMPANY, but only after he/she has approached the company, then the NSE/BSE.

Pic from here.

You can file your consumer complaint here.