How much you will have to pay for DTH and Cable TV now..

The new tariff regime of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) now allows viewers to select the television channels that they want to watch and pay the maximum retail price (MRP) set by respective broadcasters for each channel or for a bouquet of channels. Our calculations and analysis shows that consumers will eventually end up paying more than they do now, if they wish to have a variety of options such as — news, entertainment, kid channels, sports and infotainment—that too in multiple languages. Since many families have members across generations, they will have to subscribe to multiple bouquets, since they are priced far lower than a-la-carte options. But that too, restricts choice, since opting for a bouquet would mean, leaving out specific channels of other broadcasters. 

At the moment, although all channels are luring consumers with subscription offers, many viewers have been advised by their cable operators not to be rush since the TRAI’s proposals are unworkable and they are still offering the most cost-effective option at around Rs300 to Rs 350 a month in Mumbai. The number of channels offered by each cable operator differs, but several of them offer as many as 300 channels.

Consumer viewers now have an option either to watch 100 free to air-FTA channels, or add individual paid channels or bouquet/s offered by broadcasters. There is one more option. Distributors are allowed by TRAI to offer bouquets as per local demand. This means, a distributor from Maharashtra can offer a bouquet of all/selected Marathi channels to his customer at a discounted price. 

The network capacity fee is fixed at Rs130 for first 100 channels. For the next slot of every 25 channels, you will have to pay a NCF of Rs20.

Free to Air- FTA Channels

Under the new tariff regime, TV viewers will get 100 free to air (FTA) channels for Rs130 plus goods and services tax (GST) at 18% and can then select and pay only for those channels that they want to watch regularly. The amount of Rs154 (Rs130+Rs24 GST) is network capacity fee to access the channels in your home. 

In these 100 FTA channels, 26 channels from Doordarshan are mandatory, which means consumer viewer will have to choose 74 channels out of the total 549 FTA channels. If you decide to choose high-definition (HD) channel then it would be considered equivalent of two standard definition (SD) channels. That means, in your 100 FTA channels, you can get 26 channels from Doordarshan plus 37 channels in HD.  

Many popular channels, like ABP News (English/Hindi), Republic TV, BTVi, Aastha, UTV Movies, MTV Indies, Star Cricket Asia, SAB Marathi, TEN Cricket, and Al Jazeera News among others are FTA channels. You can include these channels in your package of 100 FTA channels. 

Paid Channels

At present, there are 17 broadcasters. This includes, Eenadu Television Pvt Ltd, Raj Television Network Ltd, Disney Broadcasting (India) Ltd, Bennett, Coleman & Company Ltd (TimesNetwork), Turner International Pvt Ltd, Sliverstar Communications Ltd, ABP News Network Pvt Ltd, Mavis Satcom Ltd, Odisha Television Ltd, New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV), TV Today Network Ltd, SUN TV Network Ltd, Discovery Communications India, STAR India Pvt Ltd, TV 18 Broadcast Ltd, Sony Pictures Networks India Pvt Ltd and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd.

As per TRAI directions, all these broadcasters have announced MRP of their individual paid channels. Since, the regulator has made it clear that under the paid channels, no channel could be offered at zero value, there are several channels that charge as low as 25 paisa. This goes to a maximum of Rs19 per paid channel. Many popular TV channels are charging Rs19. 

At the same time, all broadcasters have come out with a bouquet of their own channels at a substantially low tariff. For example, Discovery Communications is offering a bouquet of its eight channels at Rs8 against a MRP of Rs18.

Star India is offering 10 of its channel, including Star Plus, Star Sports, National Geographic Channel, Star Movies and Star Gold at Rs79 as against a MRP of Rs146.

What should be My Package?

This brings us to the most relevant question about your own package. As I mentioned above, individual consumer viewer's package would contain maximum of 100 FTA channels plus paid channels, subscribed either individually or in bouquet. 

TRAI has tried to provide some basic combination of FTA and channels. Accordingly, for a package of 100 SD channels for Hindi speaking market, there could be 25 pay channels, 50 FTA channels and 25 channels from Doordarshan. This would cost Rs130+Rs26 (MRP of 25 paid channel)+GST= Rs184.

Similarly, for Maharashra region, TRAI had suggested similar number of channels. However, some of the paid channels in Marathi are priced at Rs19, which takes total price of paid channels to Rs79. This package would cost Rs246.

Here is a package chosen on a la carte basis…

Here is a package prepared using bouquets offered by broadcasters…

Distributor Bouquets

At present cable operators offer a bouquet of several channels from different broadcasters for about Rs300 to Rs350. This includes, general entertainment, news, movies, music, infotainment, kids and sports channels. If your cable operator continues to provide same channel at same rates, it is better to stick with his services. 

With Reliance Jio coming up with its GigaFiber high-speed broadband internet connections, TV viewing would undergo major changes. Jio GigaFiber offers internet-based TV services. So it is worth to wait for this development instead of rushing to subscriber new packages for your TV viewing. 

[Yogesh Sapkale for MoneyLife].