MUMBAI: Reliance Digital TV (earlier Big TV), the direct-to-home arm of the Reliance ADA Group, today moved the Supreme Court challenging the directive by the Tdsat setting aside the notification by Trai fixing 35 per cent of the rates paid by cable operators for TV channels.

The Supreme Court bench comprising Justice RV Raveendran and Justice AK Patnaik admitted the plea and tagged it along with the other petitions filed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and other DTH operators.
 
On 18 April, the apex court had stayed the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal order and fixed a new tariff formula for all digital addressable platforms, which is 42 per cent of the non-CAS tariffs till the time the matter was pending in the court.

The court had also added that current agreements between the DTH operators and broadcasters shall continue. 
 
The order came on a petition filed by Trai against the order of the Appellate body. Earlier, broadcasters charged from DTH and IPTV players 50 per cent of what they got from cable operators.

In its order, Tdsat had set aside Trai‘s notification mandating that broadcasters charge from DTH and IPTV providers only up to 35 per cent of rates paid by cable operators for their channels.

The Tdsat order had come on a petition moved on 23 August by leading broadcasters including Zee Turner, Viacom18, Sun TV and Star Den Media Services.