After Telecom Regulatory Authority of India issued new guidelines for the Cable TV and Direct to Home (DTH) services, it has been a bit tough for the TV consumers to switch to new tariff policy. The new guidelines under which TV consumer now will be paying for each channel they wish to see has been in place from last month.
As per the recent data by the TRAI around 90 million users have switched to the new tariff plans. Out of these 90 million, 25 million are DTH users and the rest of them watch Cable TV.
“Out of the total 170 Million TV homes (which includes 70 Million DTH homes and 100 Million cable TV homes), about 90 Million homes have already registered their choice with the operators, which is a big number,” said RS Sharma, chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, to PTI. “The speed (of onboarding) has increased as per our data and we expect the rest of the people to also register their choice of channels soon,” he added. Sharma.
The new guidelines were issued by TRAI with a aim to reduce the tariff cost, as new policy allows costumer to pay for only those channel which it has selected to see. The benefits of new tariff policy are debatable, as there are some reports which reveal a hike in prices due to new policy.
Earlier, a report by Crisil revealed this, as per report new tariff policy has resulted to a increase of 25% to 30% the tariff price, although TRAI refused to accept the report.