“Price is content, content is price”, Abhishek Manu Singhvi argues against TRAI Tariff order in Madras HC

After P Chidambaram’s rose bouquet analogy, Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi today drew interesting parallels to the conduct of a restaurant business while arguing against the tariff order and interconnection regulations introduced by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in 2017..Justice MM Sundresh of the Madras High Court is currently hearing the challenge made by petitioners Star India and its subsidiary Vijay TV (among others) to the TRAI order, following a split verdict rendered by the Division Bench last month..The broad argument of the petitioners is that impugned provisions touch upon content regulation, which fall in the realm of copyright and Broadcaster’s Reproduction Rights (BRR), and beyond the jurisdiction of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)..The new regulations include preventing broadcasters from offering a mix of pay channels and free to air channels in a bouquet of channels. Another restriction sought to be imposed by TRAI is that high definition and standard definition formats of the same channel should not be in the same bouquet. The impugned provisions also place caps on the MRP of a channel and the maximum discount that can be offered for bouquets of channels..Appearing for Vijay TV, Singhvi presented the analogy of a restaurateur and the manner in which he would conduct his business to simplify his case. Singhvi pointed out that a restaurateur may choose to offer a dish free of cost or at discounted rates to a customer. No one can stop him from offering such complimentary or discounted meals..Attributing a similar role to the broadcasters in this case, Singhvi argued that TRAI cannot claim that content (i.e. the dish in this analogy) is not regulated only because TRAI does not dictate what spices would go into the preparation of the dishes..The spice here refers to the possible stand of the TRAI that the impugned order does not dictate what kind of programme is broadcast..Emphasising that the price of a channel is inextricably tied to the manner in which the channel is run, Singhvi has contended,.“Price is content, content is price…How I offer my product is content.”.Senior Advocate P Chidambaram had earlier made a similar analogy while arguing for Star India, when he compared BRR to the discretion exercised in pricing differently valued roses in a bouquet of flowers. This analogy was also expressly mentioned by Justice M Sundar as he delivered his verdict in favour of the petitioners last month.