Direct to home (DTH) service providers are busy fine-tuning the tariff packages as part of the ongoing changes following the implementation of the Telecom Regulatory Authority’s (TRAI) New Tariff Order earlier this year. As part of the new guidelines, TRAI set a price ceiling on the pricing of individual channels and a bouquet of channels, among other measures intended to bring down the television subscription bill for consumers. DTH companies including Tata Sky, Dish TV, D2H and Airtel Digital TV have now announced changes to the multi-tv policies for their consumers.
Dish TV is the latest to update its multi-tv policy. The company says that for any additional set top boxes (STBs) that a consumer may have, they will need to pay a network capacity fee (NCF) of Rs 50 plus the channel or bouquet prices in full for the selections made on the primary STB. Whichever channels or curated packs or broadcaster bouquets you select on the primary connection will also be replicated on the secondary connection as well, with a flat NCF of Rs 50 only.
The NCF was introduced as a part of the new regulations dictating the pricing and subscriptions for cable TV and DTH connections. At present, the NCF is calculated at Rs 130 plus taxes for the first 100 channels that you select, and then an additional Rs 20 for every 25 channels you add to your subscription. Till now, cable TV and DTH subscriptions did not have any NCF element.
“Subscribers can avail up to 3 multi connections in addition to their Primary connection and can choose to have different content on each multi connection or “mirror” the same content as their primary connection. In case the subscriber does not choose any specific channel/pack, same content as primary connection will be offered in the multi connection(s),” says Dish TV’s multi-tv policy.
The Dish TV owned D2H also has a similar policy of charging Rs 50 as flat NCF plus the subscription charges as if for the channel and bouquets selected.
Tata Sky has a slightly different policy in place for subscribers who have more than one STB linked to one subscriber ID. The pricing of the multi-tv connections is dependent on the package pricing of the primary connection. For instance, if the channel and bouquet selections on your primary connection cost up to Rs 200 per month, you pay Rs 200 per month for the secondary connection as well. However, the discounted pricing kicks in if you have higher value packs on the primary connection. For instance, if your primary connection subscription totals to Rs 300 per month, you pay Rs 250 for the secondary connection. If the primary subscription totals Rs 400 per month, you pay Rs 300 for the secondary connection.
The last updates from Airtel Digital TV on the multi-TV policy indicated that they would charge Rs 80 as flat NCF for secondary connections for first 100 channels—instead of Rs 130 plus taxes as on the primary connection, but continue to charge Rs 20 for every 25 channels added subsequently. The channel packages on the secondary connections would be the same as the primary connection.
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