TRIA has set a new regulation for cable operators and DTH providers which gives the subscribers authority to select channels till January 31, 2019. The earlier deadline was Dec 28, 2018, but it has been extended now to give time to the operators to get prepared for the newly built framework. This extension has also been made to make the consumers aware of the changes in the previous rule.
Why The Change Was Made? What are New DTH Rules?
Since many years DTH is providing a lot of channels. All these channels are also not liked by masses as everybody has a different choice. People are paying extra money for all those unnecessarily channels which they don’t like. After studying this problem, Telecom Regulatory of India has decided to take action to redress this problem.
TRAI is a government organization which supports and control telecommunication all over India. The new regulations will give authority to the customer in choosing the channels which they like. This will help every household in controlling their monthly bill. According to the reports, there is a chance that DTH expenses are going to come down at least 30-40% from the 31st of January.
Benefits Of The New Regulation
There is a lot of benefits from this change. Now customer will be aware of the price that he/she is paying for each channel. Before this new regulation, a customer had to choose a pack from DTH providers like Tata Sky and Airtel. There are various channels in the pack. Even if the customer didn’t like all the channels, he had to pay the complete price. By this system, the customer will get a chance to know about the pricing of each channel.
TRAI’S Statement
New rule supports the customers by giving them the authority of choosing the channels that they want to watch. TRAI has made it mandatory to reveal the price of each channel. Customers have one month time to choose their desired channels. The Secretary of TRAI SK Gupta said “This will facilitate all service providers to migrate their subscribers to the new framework without causing any inconvenience. Accordingly, it has been permitted by distribution platform operators (DPOs) to seek all the possible options from the consumers till January 31”.
Almost every broadcaster under DTH has released the pricing details for each channel and also the details of channel packs. Now every individual will decide which channel they want to watch and which one they want to remove.
After this new regulation, Zee Entertainment has introduced new 68 packs which start from rupees 45. Each pack consists of 24 channels. Similarly, other channels have also started their pack like Star India’s pack is starting from rupees 49 for Hindi and Rs 25 for the Tamil language. Sony Entertainment also has certain rights to broadcast several channels in India. Sony’s pack is starting from Rs 90 for some channels.
This is a very great step to increase customer satisfaction. Now it’s really hard for broadcasters to rob the customers and overload them with the unwanted channels that they don’t want to watch.