Direct-To-Home television in India

[khanak]

Besides TataSky, Dishtv and Bigtv You telecom have advertised their DTH services in TOI. Now with Bharati coming up too the competition is heating up for sure.

[condor]

iraghava :You mean buy them out Condor?
SumitB : Any source for this?

No idea about a buy-out. Heard about it from a person who was very familiar with & doing Dish TV field activities. Basically, Dish TV is supposed to have realised that it's hands are more than full.

[yogi1771]

Originally Posted by khanak

The change they made is actually quite good. You can still get the entire package for 300 - 260 + 40 for the Sports Package. However for someone not interested in watching any of the sports channels, you are given the option of saving 40 per month - i.e. pay 260 per month instead of 300. As for annual subcribers, they continue to get the Sports Package for the same 300 per month.

How can this change be good for 300 bucks you used to get all four sports channel that is including Ten Sports now it is 315 bucks,they are just taking the consumer for a ride by telling you can activate the channels when you want it and later deactivate and pay less when they know people will subscribe for all the sports channel throughout the year

[shankar.balan]

just suggesting;
you can get a Tata Sky connection and pick up one of the relatively inexpensive CRT Tvs and watch to your hearts content!

now for people with more than one TV in the house, Tata Sky has some decent addons - like a second set top box at a lower price plus a marginal increase in monthly subscription etc - seems worth it IMO

Originally Posted by wanderlustindia

I was looking to install a DTH service that can play live TV on my laptop. With the European championships (football) in two months time, I want to view the matches without getting into trouble with my home minister. She can then keenly watch her choice of programs on the TV kept in the drawing room.

DishTV offers a STB that works on a desktop computer. I am hoping it works well with a laptop as well. For that matter, my laptop even has a TV Tuner Card, but dont think this comes into play for a DTH service.

Any ideas, suggestions, alternatives?

[anuragn]

Originally Posted by yogi1771

How can this change be good for 300 bucks you used to get all four sports channel that is including Ten Sports now it is 315 bucks,they are just taking the consumer for a ride by telling you can activate the channels when you want it and later deactivate and pay less when they know people will subscribe for all the sports channel throughout the year

My personal opinion: Me happy about this change. Now I would save 40 bucks per month. I watch sports channels only when team India is playing a cricket match, IPL being an exception which I used to watch. And if they migrate music channels also to a pack and reduce the monthly charges accordingly, I would be even happier because I prefer to listen to my own collection of music.

[karanraheja]

Originally Posted by condor

Reliance / Big TV may join hands with Dish TV.

I had also heard about the same. But i heard Reliance gave up and decided to move on with BIG TV.

Source : my Cable Operator

[finneyp]

Originally Posted by yogi1771

How can this change be good for 300 bucks you used to get all four sports channel that is including Ten Sports now it is 315 bucks,they are just taking the consumer for a ride by telling you can activate the channels when you want it and later deactivate and pay less when they know people will subscribe for all the sports channel throughout the year

Fully agree Yogi!

Tata Sky acted very smart by creating a seperate Add-on Sports package with ESPN, Star Sports & Star Cricket for Rs.40 pm, I would've kept quite had they included Ten Sport too, now I have to pay additional Rs.15 for getting Ten Sports.

Also to the dismay of my kid, they removed Cbeebies (and BBC World, BBC Entertainment) and put them in a seperate add-on (Lifestyle Silver).
To get that, I have to pay another Rs.40 pm.
So now I have shell out Rs.355 pm instead of Rs.300 earlier! :(

I have to now seriously consider other DTH providers.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by finneyp

Fully agree Yogi!

Tata Sky acted very smart by creating a seperate Add-on Sports package with ESPN, Star Sports & Star Cricket for Rs.40 pm, I would've kept quite had they included Ten Sport too, now I have to pay additional Rs.15 for getting Ten Sports.

Also to the dismay of my kid, they removed Cbeebies (and BBC World, BBC Entertainment) and put them in a seperate add-on (Lifestyle Silver).
To get that, I have to pay another Rs.40 pm.
So now I have shell out Rs.355 pm instead of Rs.300 earlier! :(

I have to now seriously consider other DTH providers.

Third concurrence. And, this change happened at the worst possible time ( missed the Motogp on sunday ) and i was shocked that they discontinued the channel so casually. IMO, they should give atleast 2 months notice ( whereas now i think they are giving around 3 weeks only) with that stupid scroller at the bottom.

Offtopic: i find those digits in white background quite annoying as it comes bang on the center of the screen and stays on for quite some time

[emkay456]

I also believe Tata Sky is behaving arrogantly and they have to be shown the door soon.. Dunno why BigTV is taking so much time to announce their arrival. Any one checked out the MTNL IPTV as an alternative..?

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by finneyp

I have to now seriously consider other DTH providers.

So far dishtv has not done anything like that, hope that continues. BTW, the friendly neighbourhood cablewallah is offering Rs.5 per channel subject to a minimum of 12 channels, i think thats a good deal. It is a matter of time before these DTH guys do the same.

[rsjaurr]

Originally Posted by anuragn

My personal opinion: Me happy about this change. Now I would save 40 bucks per month. I watch sports channels only when team India is playing a cricket match, IPL being an exception which I used to watch. And if they migrate music channels also to a pack and reduce the monthly charges accordingly, I would be even happier because I prefer to listen to my own collection of music.

But what about people like me who paid 4000/-Rs in feb/march for STB+Installation+6 month free subs?
Tata Sky had promised all these channels at the time of purchase.

Even if they had to make separate package for sports channels,they should now give me more than 6months free. What say??


BTW i tried calling their helpline numbers but just could not get through.Now i believe that i should not have gone for tata sky and waited for competition to hot up 1st.

[Ho0ligaN]

I am in the same boat as well, whats the point in charging 4k and give only the DD channels free, hopeless rip off, earlier they used to give those lifestyle channels also free, now nothing. Sports also extra money :(

[FERRO]

I regret switching over to Tata from Hathway,

Hathway is waay better then Tatas atleast they give you options like addon channels for Rs. 5.60 per channel.



Hathway has got much clear & easy to use user interface, In Tata I have to stress my eyes to read all the details.

By the way anyone noticed the kind of cheap quality Cable wire used by Tata for connecting Dish Antenna to TV.

I hope BigTv comes sooner Tata's will have to reduce cost to stay in competition.

[tsk1979]

Today morning I saw an advertisement from ESPN/Star Cricket/Star Sports saying that they have not hiked any charges, but Tata Sky has gone ahead with separate bundle scheme.
They will be taking legal action against Tata Sky.
Moreover Tata Sky users will miss out French Open etc,
However Cable TV and Dish TV networks will have these channels coming.

[emkay456]

Should the cable from the Dish to the STB be disconnected during lightening/thunderstorms to protect the STB ? I am doing it, but it is a pain unscrewing/screwing it all the time. Any suggestions ?