DTH "pay per channel" - are fees acceptable?

[sakumar79]

Hi,
I was looking into the option of purchasing DTH with a la carte channels since there were many channels offered that I did not require. I was surprised that the cost was coming more than regular package deals. So, I did some comparison and was surprised... Let me give a couple of examples...

1. In Tatasky, cost of english movies pack (8 movie channels like HBO, etc. ) is 60 per month, but if you go a la carte and choose the same 8 channels, it comes to 175 per month a whopping 190% above the package rate...
2. In Airtel, cost of english plus pack (11 channels) is 60 per month, but if you go a la carte and choose the same 11 channels, it comes to 137 per month, which is almost 130% above the package rate...

In many other cases, rate increase is at least 40%...

I vaguely remember that TRAI had given guidelines about a couple of years ago that a la carte costing should not be much higher than package cost (I think 20 or 30% was allowed). I am not able to get the details now...

Anybody can confirm if I am right or wrong? If I am right, what can we do? Should we send mail to the DTH providers or to TRAI regarding this?

Thanks in advance
Arun

 

[reniarahim1]

yes...ala carte is too costly in all DTHs..go for the basic pack and add only required channels later.

 

[sakumar79]

My question is "Are DTH service providers actually allowed to make such huge cost increase for a la carte services and if not, how should we follow lodging a protest - should we mail to customer care of the service providers or should we write to TRAI or such agency? "

Arun

 

[desai_amogh]

Hi,

This should help you

*www.trai.gov.in/presspre.asp?id=743

 

[sakumar79]

^^ I am getting error page with the link... Could you please check and correct the link?

Thanks in advance
Arun

 

[Revolution]

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