Tata Sky settles dispute with Sony

Tata Sky and Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) have mutually resolved a commercial dispute between the two companies. After 2 months-long partial blackout, all the dropped Sony channels are back on the network, bringing  a lot of relief to Tata Sky subscribers, accustomed to watching Sony channels.

Tata Sky pulled off 22 SPN channels from the platform on October 1, 2018. The decision led to a lot of anger among consumers of the DTH network. Owing to the backlash, the platform had retained some of the Sony channels on a-la-carte rates.

Earlier, SPN had issued a disconnection notice to Tata Sky on September 7, 2018 and was followed by a public notice on September 10, 2018 detailing the disconnection. SPNI’s 3-year contract with Tata Sky had expired on July 31, 2018.
Henceforth, Tata Sky had asked for an extension and tried to reach a new pricing deal but the talks failed. The case was later heard by Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), who advised both the companies to take four weeks and reach a mutually acceptable negotiated agreement. The two companies have now reached such an agreement.

Harit Nagpal CEO, Tata Sky
“The commercial negotiations with the broadcaster had broken down as deals being sought by SPNI would have forced the distribution platform to hike prices for the consumers. Meanwhile, Sony had claimed that the decision by the leading DTH platform was unilateral”.