Trai Rule Changes in DTH Will Allow You to Watch More FTA Channels Without Additional Cost

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) announced new changes for the DTH industry last year and with these changes, it divided channels into two types which included FTA (Free-to-Air) channels and Pay channels. The difference between these two types of channels was exactly what the name said. However, even the FTA channels were not entirely free. The subscribers still had to pay the Network Capacity Fee (NCF) which is the cost of carrying these channels paid to the DTH operator. Whereas, in the Pay channels, the content charges have also to be paid to the broadcasters, which increase the cost borne by the subscriber to view these channels. Previously, the subscribers used to enjoy 100 SD channels in Rs 130 NCF. But, now with the increase in the channel limit, the appetite for the FTA channels for the consumers will increase by twofold and even a bit more. How will this happen? Read ahead to find out.

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FTA Channels on New NCF Price

Firstly, it is imperative to look at what the subscribers were enjoying before. As per the previous Trai rules on the matter, the subscribers had to pay the minimum base NCF of Rs 130 which would get them 100 SD channels or 50 HD channels. This was the cost for carrying the channels. The subscribers might decide to subscribe to 75 FTA channels, and the cost that they would have paid month on month would have only been Rs 130. We say 75 channels only, you ask. This is because there were also mandatory DD (Doordarshan) channels which were counted against the allotted NCF which the subscribers paid for. So while the subscribers paid for 100 SD channels, they only got the slots for 75. This meant that the subscribers could subscribe to 75 FTA channels without paying anything more than Rs 130 plus taxes.