Big TV- Problems - Hidden Cost

There was no access to HBO, zee movies etc since yesterday. Called up customer care and they said that apparently we have to pay to see these channels. For a yearly subscription of Rs. 300 you get 4 movie channels. I do not know which other channels are not available right now.

There is some time lag for the CAS to be updated, during which all channels are available!

If you are planning to take this service, do take a look at the additional charges for channels you would want to watch.

-Saikat.

Like the prudent Indian wisdom, it always better to wait for things to settle down. Big and Airtel have only begun and are bound to have teething problems. Remember teething problems of RCom with DAPO beginning as a hot sell out and then people cribbing about hidden costs.

I am using Dish TV for last one year. No service problems, no channel problems. Only Neo sports is not available and I think that will always remain un-available due to BCCI - ICL rivalry. Dish is an established player so his backend operations have improved with time. BIG and Airtel are going to take time.

What happens if everyone waits for others to settle down?

Just wanted other's to make an informed decision.

Cheers!

thats a nice gesture saikat.

another problem is star sports ,espn is a addon and has a subsription charge of Rs40 and u will need to take it for 6 months,so u will need to pay outright Rs240,this applies to neo channels which is a seperate addon.

Trai should look into the same as this is a malpractice, if u want to watch a test series which is happening only in October, still you got to pay for 6 months for that package , one should be able to pay and use the service for 1 month for whatever channels they desire

Think TRAI is the telecom regulator. Who should look into this? Ministry of Communication?

Ministry of I&B will look into this. As per last known Supreme Court directives, A La Carte subscription was supposed to be provided for CAS. There was no such directive for DTH. As of now, there is no regulatory body on lines of TRAI for cable or DTH. Dayanidhi Maran took full advantage of this situation by launching his own Sun Direct. As of now Govt thinks DTH is an elitist option, so we may not see a regulation in this sector for a looooong time to come.

So as of now, we are at mercy of DTH operators. Only bright side is, now there are 4 big players in arena and field should become competitive.

sadly, the law permits a compulsory 5 month subscription, for Cable TV & DTH

This was done on the insistance of ESPN & STAR Sports.

The TRAI is the Regulator for BOTH : The Telecomm Sector and the Broadcast sector.

For the telecom Sector, the TRAI reports to the Telecom Ministry.

For Broadcast... the Information & Broadacasting (I&B) ministry...

i believe trai did recommend that all channels should be priced at Rs5 each and the subscribes as to pay for what he watches,but from what i heard the DTH providers have challenged TRAI and the case is still pending in the court of law.
dth providers claim unlike for CAS and local cable operators the broadcasters dont give them(DTH) the same prices and packages.

i wouldnt mind subsribing for 6 months ,but at Rs40 for just 2 channels its like getting robbed,when people who have CAS can get it for Rs 10 for the 2channels.and quality difference is not that great for BIG tv to command a premium,worst of all there annoying BIG tv symbol in each and every channels makes it hard to see the scores in sports channels especially when u are watching some MOTORSPORTS like F1.