[FAQ] How to Choose TV Channels Pack / Plan After New TRAI Tariff Order in India

If you are living in India, you might have seen various advertisements on TV channels, ads in newspapers and banners in your city about the new TRAI tariff order or regulation. Some people have also received SMS on their mobile phones about the new TRAI tariff order. Many TV channels are showing that you can subscribe to their channels pack at Rs. 1 per day or Rs. 30 per month, etc. Many TV channels are also showing information about the new TRAI order that you’ll need to choose your desired TV channels pack before 31 January, 2019 to be able to continue watching your favorite TV channels and shows.

Now you might be wondering what is TRAI and what is this new TRAI tariff order and how will it affect your TV watching experience? You might be having several questions in your mind like is it necessary to choose and select new TV channels pack? If yes, how to choose your custom TV channels pack at cheapest/lowest/minimum possible price and how many TV channels will you get in your pack? What will happen after 31 January if you don’t select a channel pack? What will happen to your current balance/money available in your DTH account? What will happen to your LDP/ARP connection and Multi-TV connection? etc.

Today in this FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) article, we’ll try to answer all these questions related to new TRAI tariff regulation.

Let’s start:

Q.1. What is TRAI and new TRAI Tariff Order?

Ans. TRAI stands for Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. TRAI was established by government of India to regulate telecom services and tariffs in India.

Recently TRAI announced a new tariff order in favor of public. Actually in past all DTH (Direct-To-Home) companies, MSO (Multiple System Operators) and LCO (Local Cable TV Operators) were providing their own very costly packs and plans to their customers. There were charging too much money for popular pay channels. There was no fixed price for any TV channel among all these service providers. People were forced to pay huge monthly charges to watch their favorite TV channels.

Also there was no way to create custom pack of selected TV channels and pay for those selected channels only. People had to subscribe for limited channel packs and plans provided by the service provider.

To solve this problem, TRAI announced the new tariff order. Now all DTH companies, MSO, LCO and IPTV will not be able to charge any random high price for any TV channel or pack.

According to new TRAI tariff order, all DTH companies, MSO and cable operators will have to follow following procedure to charge their customers:

NCF will be fixed which is maximum Rs. 130 per month + taxes (GST) = Rs. 153 per month.

Price of pay channels and packs will be defined by the channel broadcasters not the service provider. So now all DTH companies, MSO and cable operators will charge almost same amount of money for particular channel or packs.

Q.2. What is NCF and is it compulsory to pay NCF?

Ans. NCF stands for Network Capacity Fees which will be charged by the service provider company i.e. DTH, MSO and LCO. It’s the money which is going into pocket of service providers as they are providing services to their customers and spending on network arrangements.

NCF will be fixed for all service providers. It’ll be Rs. 130 + Rs. 23 (GST) = Rs. 153 per month.

You can consider NCF as monthly fixed rental or charge which will be required to pay even if you don’t select any TV channel or pack. If you take a connection of DTH service or cable operator service, you’ll need to spend minimum Rs. 153 per month as rental.

NOTE: Rs. 130 (GST extra) is the maximum limit for NCF and service providers are free to declare anything lower than Rs. 130.

If you select more pay channels or FTA channels in your pack, your monthly pack or plan cost will increase.

Q.3. What are Pay Channel and FTA Channel?

Ans. There are 2 types of TV channels: Pay and FTA.

Pay channels (also called à la carte) are provided by the broadcaster (such as Star, Zee, Viacom18, Sony, Sun, Turner, Disney, Times, etc) to service providers on contract basis. Service providers need to pay money to broadcasters to get and distribute pay channels. That’s why these channels are called pay channels.

On the other hand, FTA channels are provided for free. That’s why FTA stands for Free To Air channel. Service providers get these channels for free from broadcasters.

Q.4. Will I get all available FTA channels for free in my selected channels pack or plan?

Ans. No. There is a limit on selecting and getting FTA channels in your pack.

By paying NCF i.e. Rs. 153 per month, you become eligible to select 100 FTA SD channels in your pack. In which 25 channels will belong to Doordarshan (DD) network. All 25 DD channels are mandatory and you can’t skip or remove them. So you can select 100 – 25 = 75 other FTA channels in your pack.

If you want to select more than 100 FTA channels in your pack, you’ll need to pay Rs. 20 + taxes extra for each subsequent 25 FTA channels.

PS: If a service provider wants, it can provide extra FTA channels free to its customers along with default 100 FTA channels as complementary offer.

Q.5. What are HD and SD TV channels? What is the difference between HD and SD channels?

Ans. SD (Standard Definition) channels are normal and traditional TV channels which you used to watch on old CRT TV sets. HD (High Definition) channels are new format of TV channels which telecast programs in high definition suitable for modern TV sets. You get better picture quality (PQ) and audio quality (AQ) in HD channels.

HD channels are costlier than SD channels and also consume more TP space than SD channels, that’s why TRAI has decided to count 1 HD channel = 2 SD channels in channels pack.

So if you select 1 HD channel in your pack/plan, it’ll be counted as 2 SD channels.

Related: [Review] Which DTH Service Provides Maximum HD Channels in India

Q.6. Which are the mandatory 25 DD channels in my channels pack? Can you provide a list?

Ans. Following are the mandatory DD channels which will be automatically added to your channels pack:

DD Bangla, DD Bharati, DD Bihar, DD Chandana, DD Girnar, DD India, DD Kashir, DD Kisan, DD Madhya Pradesh, DD Malayalam, DD National, DD News, DD North East, DD Oriya, DD Podhigai, DD Punjabi, DD Rajasthan, DD Sahyadri, DD Saptagiri, DD Sports, DD Urdu, DD Uttar Pradesh, Gyan Darshan, Lok Sabha TV, Rajya Sabha TV.

Q.7. How can I know price/MRP of my desired TV channel or all TV channels?

Ans. Now-a-days all TV channels are announcing their price/MRP during commercial breaks. You can also visit TV channel broadcaster’s website to learn about their TV channels price and all channel pack (bouquet) price.

According to TRAI order, all DTH companies and cable operators will have to show TV channel price on EPG (Electronic Programme Guide). So you can easily get any particular channel price by using its EPG by pressing Select or OK button on your STB (Set Top Box) remote. The channel price/MRP will be shown near the channel name on EPG.

Q.8. How can I choose my desired custom TV channels pack or plan?

Ans. All DTH companies have updated their websites and mobile apps as per TRAI order. Now you can open your DTH service provider’s website or mobile app and you’ll get an option to create your new channels pack or plan. Once you create a plan and submit it, your selected pack or plan will be activated for your account.

Very soon DTH companies will allow customers to create channels pack using Set Top Box as well.

For people convenience, TRAI has also launched a web portal named as “Channel Selector Application” to choose desired channels pack and plan. Visit following link:

Open the above mentioned link and click on “Get started” button given at the bottom of the page. You’ll be asked 5 questions. You can skip all questions if you want but we’ll advise you to answer the questions to get help in selecting desired TV channels. After answering or skipping questions, the web page will show a form to select desired TV channels. The mandatory DD channels are automatically pre-selected and the web page shows total price as Rs. 153 because of fixed NCF or rental.

All available TV channels are listed with their price. You can filter the channels list using given filters such as genre, price, broadcaster, language and HD/SD type.

As soon as you select a TV channel, the channel count and total price will be updated at the top-right corner. You can select pay channels, FTA channels or channel bouquet (packs) using the top menubar given on the page.

Once you select desired channels, click on “View Selection” button. The next page will show information about your selected TV channels pack or plan like no. of free channels, no. of pay channels, total no. of channels, total price, etc. You can also double-check which channels did you select by clicking on given categories like pay channels, bouquet channels, free channels, etc.

At the end click on “Optimize” button which will automatically calculate and find if any extra TV channel can be added to your selected channels pack without spending extra money. It’ll also help in reducing total price if some of your selected TV channels can be replaced by a cheaper channels bouquet. So basically optimizing pack option will provide lowest possible pack or plan with all selected channels.

After selecting channels pack, you can take a printout and send it to the service provider and they’ll activate the selected plan for your account. You can also download the selected channels details and email the file to the official email ID of your service provider.

We’ll advise you to use your DTH provider’s website or mobile app to choose your channels pack or plan so that you don’t face any problem in changing your monthly plan. You can use TRAI channel selector application to get an idea and information about all available channels and their price.

You can also go to the nearest dealer office and tell them about your selected channels pack or plan.

Q.9. What will happen if I don’t choose my channels pack or plan before 31 January, 2019?

Ans. If you don’t choose your new channels pack, the Basic Service Tier pack will be activated for your account by the service provider. You might be able to watch FTA channels but you’ll lose your favorite pay channels until you choose your custom channels pack.

PS: Service providers may also migrate your old pack to a new best matching/fit plan if they want.

Q.10. What will happen to my existing monthly plan?

Ans. All existing plans will be removed by service providers and customers will be migrated to their new selected pack or plan.

Q.11. I have subscribed to LDP (Long Duration Pack) or ARP (Advanced Rental Pack), What will happen to my LDP/ARP after new tariff order?

Ans. If you are subscribed to an LDP (Long Duration Pack) or ARP (Advanced Rental Pack) such as Semi-Annual pack, Annual pack, etc, it’ll continue till the expiry date. After expiry of the plan, you’ll need to select your custom channels pack. If you want to switch over to a new pack or plan before your existing LDP/ARP expires, you can choose desired plan and your remaining balance will be adjusted for the new package.

Q.12. I have some balance/money in my DTH account, what will happen to it after 31 January, 2019?

Ans. The remaining balance will carry forward to your new channels pack. If it doesn’t happen, immediately contact your service provider’s customer care.

Q.13. What about Multi-TV (additional TV) connection?

Ans. It’ll depend upon the service provider company. They’ll decide and provide their customized offers on multi-tv connections based upon the primary pack amount chosen by the customer. Keep in mind, Multi-TV connection price will increase once new TRAI tariff order comes into force. You’ll need to contact your service provider to know new Multi-TV connection price for your selected TV channels pack.

Q.14. I don’t want to pay monthly fees (NCF) but I want to watch FTA channels for free. Is it possible?

Ans. Of course. DD Free Dish is an alternative for you. It provides many FTA TV channels free of cost. You just need to buy a dish antenna, LNB and FTA set top box. Align the dish antenna to receive DD Free Dish signals and scan your STB to start getting all available FTA channels from DD Free Dish. You don’t need to pay any monthly fees. Enjoy it for free forever.

If you have any other question in your mind, feel free to ask in comments section…

UPDATE:

Today I received following message from “TRAI (IX-TRAI)” on my mobile phone:

So TRAI is making awareness about new tariff order among public.