Airtel Digital TV subscribers can now choose the wide-range of regional top-up plans introduced by the DTH operator. On the whole, Airtel Digital TV has launched 14 regional top-up plans across various languages like Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali among others. The prices of these local top-up plans start at just Rs 7 and it goes all the way up to Rs 135 per month. Do make a note that these prices are monthly charges excluding NCF charges, meaning Airtel Digital TV will add another Rs 153 to the overall bill of the customer which results in the final TV bill for a month. Furthermore, Airtel Digital TV is even providing regional FTA channels which can be activated for free, but the monthly FTA charges on your account will see a rise with the number of channels inside the FTA channel pack.
Airtel Digital TV Regional Top-Ups: What You Need to Know
Firstly, Airtel Digital TV introduced a total of 13 regional top-ups for various languages. The first one on the list is Bengali regional top-up which is priced at Rs 67, followed by Mini Bengali regional which costs Rs 42 per month. Then there's a Gujarati regional top-up pack that costs Rs 7 as Airtel Digital TV has very limited Gujarati channels on offer. Moving on, we have Kannada regional and Mini Kannada regional priced at Rs 114 and Rs 86 respectively.
The list also includes other regional top-ups such as Malayalam regional, Mini Malayalam regional, Marathi regional, Mini Malayalam regional priced at Rs 84, Rs 54, Rs 53 and Rs 45. On the brighter side, Airtel Digital TV also launched regional top-up plans for Tamil and Telugu viewers as well. The Tamil regional top-up costs Rs 113, while the Mini Tamil regional top-up pack is priced at Rs 71. Lastly, we have the Telugu regional and Telugu Mini regional priced at Rs 135 and Rs 88 respectively.
Airtel Digital TV also revealed the complete list of channels these add-on packs come bundled with. For example, the Airtel Mini Tami Regional Pack priced at Rs 71 offers Sun TV, Chutti TV, Sun News, Star Vijay, Zee Tamizh, Raj Musix Tamil, Jaya Plus, Adithya and New18 Tamil Nadu channels for a month.
Do make a note that the DTH operator with over 15 million subscribers is yet to reveal top-ups for Hindi, English Sports and New Channels. There's no timeline on when Airtel Digital TV will introduce the missing top-ups. In addition to these top-ups, Airtel is also displaying some suggested packs and it's providing some discount on those suggested packs. It will be interesting to see if Airtel Digital TV provides any such discount with the regional top-ups.
NCF Charges Will Apply on Top of the Selected Combo Top-Up
As you might be aware of by now, Trai's new tariff regime adds NCF charges of Rs 153 (it includes FTA channels) on top of Ala-Carte channels you select. The regional top-ups mentioned above fall under the Ala-Carte category, so additional charges of Rs 153 will be applicable up front. So if you select the Telugu Regional combo top-up, then the overall charge will come to Rs 153+Rs135 which is Rs 288. These charges are entirely reasonable, but for those who don't watch the channels which come bundled with the Rs 135 pack, they can choose the channels individually as well.
