The broadcasters are said to be changing the prices of their channels because of TRAI's New Tariff Order.
The prices of petrol and diesel are already burning the pocket of people and now, watching TV is going to be an expensive affair. The prices of TV channels are going to increase from December 1 as the country's leading broadcasting networks Zee, Star, Sony and Viacom18 have excluded some channels from their bouquet, or the pack of channels. Because of this, people may have to spend up to 50% more to watch the same channels now.
The broadcasters have hiked the prices due to the new tariff order (NTO) of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
TRAI, the authority that regulates broadcasting and mobile services in the country, had issued a New Tariff Order (NTO) regarding the prices of TV channels in March 2017. The authority's motive behind the NTO was to ensure that people only pay for the channels they want to watch. However, there were certain issues with the NTO after which, on January 1, 2020, the tariff order was issued once again. It was called NTO 2.0.
The companies are said to be changing the prices of their channels because of NTO 2.0.
Notably, in NTO 2.0, TRAI has mandated that the minimum price of viewing a channel in the bouquet will be Rs 12. Earlier, the value of a channel offered in a bouquet of broadcasting networks was kept between Rs 15-25 per month. This means that broadcasters will have to reduce the price of the channel in their bouquet to Rs 12. In order to attract more customers, the channels had provided bouquets at the lowest rates. But since the price came down from Rs 15 to Rs 12, the companies found it to affect their revenues.
To reduce the loss, the broadcasters took out some popular channels from the bouquet and found a way to charge for them separately. Now, if anyone wants to watch those popular channels, they will not be available in the bouquet and customers will have to pay for them separately.
Overall, the effort made by TRAI for the betterment of customers seems to be affecting their pockets heavily. This new pricing system is to come into effect from December 1. In such a situation, the price for watching popular TV channels is set to go up.
To watch Star Plus, Colors, Zee TV, Sony and some popular regional channels, viewers will have to pay 35 to 50 percent more. Taking a rough look at the new prices, if viewers want to continue watching Star and Disney India channels, they will have to spend Rs 69 every month instead of Rs 49. For Sony, they will have to spend Rs 71 a month instead of Rs 39. For Zee, it will be Rs 49 instead of Rs 39 and for Viacom18 channels, it will be Rs 39 instead of Rs 25.
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