As per the rating agency Crisil, the monthly bill of most of the customers is likely to increase after the new pricing model.
The new pricing model of cable television set up by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has come into existence from February 1. But, there is a lot of confusion among people about the new pricing model. The customers have begun to speak against the new model as they say that the prices has increased.
As per the rating agency Crisil, the monthly bill of most of the customers is likely to increase after the new pricing model.
Although the customers will have transparency in making choices of channels they want to view, but choosing the top ten channels will definitely increase the monthly TV bill. However, choosing top five channels may decrease their bills.
“Our analysis of the impact of the regulations indicates a varied impact on monthly TV bills. Based on current pricing, the monthly TV bill can go up by 25 per cent from Rs 230-240 to Rs 300 per month for viewers who opt for the top 10 channels, but will come down for those who opt up to top 5 channels,” Sachin Gupta, Senior Director, Ratings said to various media houses.
The users have been found exasperated by the new move. One of the users said that he now needs to pay two times the money for half of the channels. He expressed his disappointment by saying that the new model was expected to be consumer friendly but sadly it is not.
It seems that the cable TV operators are also clueless about the new model. While they are offering value packs, they also have single channel price on their list.
When the uproar mounted, the TRAI took to Twitter to direct the operators to address the issues of customers related to the new pricing model. But, still, people are not happy with the way things are going on.
The TRAI has also launched a channel selector application for the subscribers to choose channels of their choice. But, the pricing remains the issue as most of the subscribers are not happy with the increase in the prices.
On top of it, there is a fear that the broadcasters will have greater pricing power as most of the subscribers will be going to opt for the popular channels. The lesser popular channels will lose out under this model as there will be less likelihood that they will be included in the packages.
The TRAI has capped the price of channels at Rs 19. But, important thing to note here is that the High Definition (HD) channels will be counted as two Standard Definition (SD) channels. So, people opting for HD channels will have to shell out more money.
