TRAI Bats For Cheaper DTH: New Regulations Including Pay-Per-Channel To Come Into Force From 1 February

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has brought in new regulations to make Direct To Home (DTH) TV like Tata Sky, Airtel Digital TV, D2H, Dish TV and other local DTH more affordable for consumers, India Today reports.

The latest regulation will be effective from 1 February, and both subscribers and DTH service providers need to adapt to the system.

Users will need to pay for the channels they want to watch and hence not waste money on channels they do not watch. Further, the new regulations will bring in a change in the base prices of TV packs with the the new plans to be implemented from 1 February.

According to the new regulations, all the broadcasters need to list the prices of their channel and consumers need to choose and pay for only the channels they want to watch. DTH service providers will still be able to introduce packs but need to revise the prices, resulting in lower final costs for the consumers.

The TRAI has also asked the operators to ensure that there is no blackout period in the transition phase and consumers will not have to experience a disruption in services due to the transitional phase. Further, service providers need to maintain a constant and regular service till 31 January as well as the transition phase.

For 100 Standard Definition (SD) channels, the maximum amount needs to be Rs 130, and if a customer opts more than 100 SD channels, he needs to pay additional network capacity of a maximum price of Rs 20 per slab for the 25 extra channels in each slab.

The price for every channel that a broadcaster announces is set upto Rs 19 by the TRAI. The service providers cannot charge their users over the rates published by the broadcasters for their channels. All the prices are exclusive taxes.