DTH and cable subscription rates are going to change from December 29. The industry regulator believes consumers will pay less, but not everyone is convinced. The regulator is stipulating a subscription of Rs 130 for the first set of 100 channels. The idea is to give subscribers right of choice, and pay only for the channels they want to watch.
The broadcasters and operators now bundle channels and create packages, often forcing on subscribers channels they would never watch. By December 29, DTH (direct to home) subscribers are expected to choose which channels they want to watch. The MRP for each channel is fixed by the channel.
Free-to-air channels, such as Doordarshan, are covered under the minimum subscription of Rs 130. You pay for others, such as Star and Sony, separately. TRAI says it wants to bring about transparency by separating the ‘network capacity fee’ and pay-channel fee.