The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (T.R.A.I.), as per a newspaper report, has released it’s recommendations on the Monopoly and Market Dominance in the cable T.V. Sector. The document has not as yet been uploaded on the T.R.A.I. Website, so will post a link whenever it’s available, and if required, may even comment upon it.
In the meantime, you can read our comments on the issue here and here. (Long story on the why they are on different blogs.)
Update: Click here for the recommendations.
A quick reading gives the following impression:
1. Overall, it is a well drafted and well researched Recommendation Paper.
2. It agrees with our reasoning that the particular state should be considered as the relevant market.
3. The Authority recommends that market dominance should be determined based on market share in terms of the number of active subscribers of M.S.O.’s in the relevant market and that for measuring the level of competition or market concentration in a relevant market, the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (H.H.I.) should be used. I have already outlined by disagreements with this method in the previous posts.
4. The Paper has favoured the T.R.A.I. to look into mergers and acquisitions in the sector. This is obviously debatable, as has been noted in the Paper itself, and will most likely lead to some initial conflict and requiring clarification. And what doesn’t help is the fact that the Recommendations are based on definitions given under the Competition Act, 2002.
Indian Competition and Anti-Trust Blog 