Shady practice by 24 news with the help of Kerala Vision

Once you turn on **Kerala Vision cable TV**, a default channel opens up. **In my area, it’s Reporter TV.** Annoying, but fine—there has to be some default channel anyway. But here’s the real issue: **no matter which button you press twice, it forces you into 24 News before letting you go anywhere else.** How is this even legal? This feels like a shady way to **inflate TRP ratings** without people actually choosing to watch the channel. # What Rules Are They Ignoring? From what I understand, this goes against multiple TRAI and broadcasting regulations: * **Viewers must have full control over channel selection.** Forcing a channel on users is not allowed under **TRAI’s Interconnection Regulations & QoS norms**. * **Cable operators can’t favor one channel over others.** Giving 24 News special treatment like this is **against TRAI’s non-discrimination rules**. * **Tricking people into watching a channel could be considered an unfair trade practice.** Under the **Consumer Protection Act, 2019**, companies can’t manipulate consumers like this. * **We are supposed to have free channel choice.** TRAI’s **Tariff Order (TTO)** ensures that people pick what they want to watch, not what the cable provider forces on them. # Why This Is a Problem 24 News already behaves like the world is ending every five minutes, with **flashing banners, dramatic music, and auction-style newsreading**. Now, on top of that, **Kerala Vision is forcing people to tune in**, making their numbers look bigger than they actually are. We **pay for cable TV** and sit through **enough ads as it is**. Now they’re adding forced channel selection to the mix? That just seems wrong. Has anyone else noticed this? Has TRAI ever taken action on something like this before? If enough people complain, can we actually get this fixed?