Tata Sky has been the de-facto DTH service provider for consumers after the new Trai tariff mandate came into effect. However, over the last month or so, the opinion of consumers has changed, thanks to Tata Sky's removal of Multi TV policy. Effective June 15, Tata Sky has removed its Multi TV policy and the existing subscribers will now have to pay mandatory Rs 153 as NCF charges for every connection they choose. However, on the brighter side, the company has come up with a new service called 'Tata Sky Room TV' allowing users to choose the channels they just want to watch. However, the Rs 153 NCF charges are mandatory for every connection. On the flip side, DTH operators like Airtel Digital TV, D2h and Dish TV are charging a maximum of Rs 80 as NCF charges for secondary connection, which clearly shows Tata Sky Multi TV service is overpriced.
Rs 153 NCF Now Mandatory for All Connections
Another grey area which Tata Sky was touching with its multi-TV policy had to do with the channels which the customers were able to watch on their secondary TVs. The Tata Sky subscribers with multi-TV connections were experiencing mirroring of channels, meaning that they had to see the same channels as their primary connection, and this also hindered the flexibility of the subscribers. Now, given all these reasons, Tata Sky finally decided to make the shift to a new pricing structure for multiple-TV connections. As TelecomTalk confirmed with the Tata Sky customer service team, we got to know that now the Rs 153 NCF will be applicable for all DTH connections across India, without exception.
Tata Sky Multi-TV is Replaced With Room TV Service
To understand the basis of this decision by Tata Sky, it is worth looking at some of the clauses which Trai had set for multi-TV policies of the DTH providers. Trai in its regulatory framework had said that there was no limit of discount that a DTH provider could offer on multiple-TV connection NCF, however, the content charge of a particular connection was to be charged as it is without any discount from the subscription bearer. Hence, we got to see such a wide variety of multi-TV policies in the market, including Dish TV’s flat Rs 50 NCF and Airtel Digital TV’s Rs 80 NCF policy.
Tata Sky has been the go-to choice for subscribers after the rollout of the new tariff regime, but the company's decision to remove multi-TV policy altogether will create confusion in consumer's mind whether to go for the operator or not. In other news, Tata Sky yet again slashed prices of its STBs by Rs 200 bringing down the prices of HD and SD boxes to Rs 1,499 and Rs 1,399 respectively.
