Tata Sky has 'unilaterally' dropped all of Sony Pictures Networks's TV channels, Sony said in a statement. Tata Sky's CEO said that under Sony's terms, prices would go up for customers. Sony said that it had not hiked any of its rates. Tata Sky also said in a newspaper ad last month that its agreement with Network18 and Viacom18 (jointly owned by Reliance Industries and Viacom) couldn't be renewed, leading to multiple channels going offline. As one user pointed out, the company did not reveal any plans to refund users who had already paid for access to those channels. Tata Sky's subscription contract (pdf) gives them this right — "Upon required notice to you, We reserve the right, at any time, without liability to You to [...] withdraw Packages or [channels]." The below ad seems to be that 'required notice'. https://twitter.com/beastoftraal/status/1039357665791500289 Sony said in its statement (in full below) that subscribers are legally entitled to get Sony channels under the TRAI-mandated Reference Interconnect Offer (RIO), which puts a publicly available price on all TV networks' channels. This conflict comes as Tata Sky faces a market where millions have gotten greater access to internet video because of falling data prices. The company behind those falling data prices, Jio, itself plans to get in on the DTH television market, jolting the share prices of established players. JioGigaFiber, the proposed service, will bundle gigabit internet with a TV subscription. Tata Sky accounts for around a fourth of the DTH market, and paid ₹561 crore in…
