New DTH tarrif proposed by TRAI    to kick in

With barely two days to go for Trai’s new tariff regime to kick in, cable subscribers are still scrambling to finalise their TV packages. A look at what you need to do if you are a customer of any of these platforms.

This is the new tariff regime proposed by TRAI:

Network Capacity Fee (NCF): Compulsory 100 channels to be provided to customers for Rs. 130 + 18% GST, which works out to Rs. 153.40. Of these 25 channels will be DD, while the remaining 75 can be chosen by the consumer. For every slab of additional 25 channels, an additional NCF of Rs. 20 will be levied.

For example, currently you might be paying Rs. 300 for 200 channels. Under the new pricing scheme, 100 channels will cost you Rs. 153.40. Assuming you choose another 100 Free to Air (FTA) channels, you will pay an additional Rs. 80 as NCF. Choosing Pay Channels over and above the 100 channels will cost you the price quoted by the broadcaster for each channel and the additional NCF for the slab of 25 channels.

Tatasky,Airtel DTH,Dish TV, Videocon D2H, Sun Direct

Head over the respective websites where a banner ad runs on the homepage. Clicking on this will lead the customers to a channels- selection page, that also provides an estimate of how much a package that matches the current one will cost. Customers can also choose ‘A La carte’ channels (Single channels with their pricing info provided) instead of the suggested bouquets.

Each HD (High Definition) channel will be counted as two SD (Standard Definition) channels and prices may vary, especially in the A La Carte selection compared to bouquet pricing. In some cases, certain bouquets work out cheaper than individual channels. In certain instances, pricing for HD and SD might be same. For example, on Tata Sky, Star Sports1 HD and Star Sports 1 cost the same.

On Videocon D2H’s website, subscribers need to head over to ‘Subscriber Corner’ to make their selections. On  Sun Direct, the selections are available on ‘Consumer Corner’ on their website.