How much are you willing to pay for a DTH package...

[gregory house]

Terrestrial television - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Digital terrestrial television - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

DD DTH seems to be the only viable alternative for a FTA DTH service with some good FTA channels. But unless something is done to provide DD DTH STBs at low costs to a majority of Indian tv viewers (something which makes economic sense, not some asinine law passed by the parliament which makes people pay more taxex so that others can have free STBs), it won't work.

Competing DTH services might be not be feasible in the near future. Who in his right mind will lease 12 tps for 60-72 crores a year, distribute free STBs and show FTA channels. How is he supposed to recover the money?

 

[skorpio1]

Dude,I dunno what the cost is in pune,but here on lamington Rd we bought a FTA reciever+Normal size dish+KuBand LNB+cabling,mount etc For just 1550 bucks................Thats even cheaper than DD DTH pacakge.It was decent been working without any problems since dec 2005 and he gets upto 136 FTA channels on various satellites,most in languages he cant understand .I bet the current rates for STB+Dish wont be above 2kIf people pay 700 or 800 and installation charges for cable in a apartment here,plus 300 odd each month to the cable wala......I bet people will make a one time investment of 2kheck a decade or more ago when we bought a new terrestrial antenna,coz the old one got screwed in heavy winds........even that cost 300 back in those days

 

[gregory house]

Direct broadcast satellite - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It is a possibility. A good businessman will look at anything that can make him money. If this makes it possible, why not? But the other operators will have to do something really special to keep their paying subscribers if the free thing succeeds. It might actually help in the growth of quality programming via pay channels. Let all the trash move over to free services. And let the paid ones do something good.

 

[skorpio1]

all said and done,if its possible to get if for free I'm not willing to payGive me decent programming with decent amounts of ads and I'll be happy.This is a huge county with a huge ad revenue potential and I'm waiting for the einstein that will give me what i want if I only invest in a STB.they dont even have to worry about maintainance of the equipment for it will be my head ache just like my GSM cell phoneYou give me programming(not premium,but still watchable) and I shall watch ur ads.Einsteins of the world awake...........some of you have given me free incoming call minutes,free budget airline tickets(with hidden airport tax and charges)I now implore you to give me FREE good TV content in between your ads,for i shall dedicate myself to the idiot box and be a couch potato for as long as I live so u can make millions on ad revenue

 

[disher]

I am ready to pay upto Rs.300 to get good quality channels.

 

[SVK]

I voted for Rs. 300 option
I agree that PAY channels should have no adds or they should get converted to FTA channels and viewers should be able to watch them with their own STB's (or DD D+) like in UK, there are some channels downlinked by SKY which are FTA, so they earn their revenue from advertisements (which are many). We can receive this FTA channels by any FTA STB's or even by SKY STB even after contract with SKY expires.
I also agree that INDIAN MINDS work better outside India, but may be these minds have not really challenged to be productive in India or we haven't yet got that demand in some fields where these MINDS can be really utilised instead serving outside India in that field (like IT, Banking, Telecom, Medical, Space research) oh! it got somewhat offtopic

 

[jkd]

I won't mind paying upto Rs-300 for channels that I watch. I don't spend more than an hour or two in front of Tv and when you see cablewallah charging Rs-250 for same channels with picture and sound quality bit on the lower side you cannot help asking this question"Why are they charging more"?100 or 1000 channels,you cannot watch all of the all the time.

 

[kopindian]

300

 

[~Hami~]

Rs.300 :thumbsup:

 

[gregory house]

Just to clarify, my 'Indian brain' comment was not a moral take on the matter. I know precisely why Indians find it difficult to work in India and so do most people.

That apart, there are very few ad-free channels world-wide. These mostly include channels from the HBO and Showtime networks and some sports channels. You can find a basic list here.Category:Commercial-free television networks - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Let us forget the mess censorship in India creates and consider DirecTv USA. They too have their list of crap channels (apparently, everybody loves crap), but they also have channels with ad-free programming. Their packages range from Rs. 1000 (basic) - Rs. 4000 (premium) per month. It is cheaper if you pay the subscription for 3-4 months in one go. Their package-wise channel line-up is as follows:
List of DirecTV channels - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://www.directv.com/see/pdf/chnllineup.pdf (~400KB)
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/9188/packagecomparisonchartvg9.jpg

Note that the rupee prices are approx ones. Consider the dollar ones as authoritative.

The only problem is the price. How do we get ad-free channels like the HBO group into India if we don't pay for the same. Considering the votes polled till now, Rs. 300 seems to be the price people are gravitating towards. But for such a price, nothing drastic can be expected. It is extremely difficult to get in premium channels for such a price. So, the ad-infested mess that is currently prevalent is apt to continue.

Considering the per-capita income difference between the two countries, Rs. 500 pm should get us a substantial boost in the quality of programming and service. See the graphic above and you will see that everything from STB's to DVR's are offered free depending on the subscription type and period.

DirecTv always ranks high in QoS surveys and that is because of their customer-oriented approach. Unfortunately, Indian companies have become used to behaving like feudal lords, their motto being - customers can go to hell. Indian broadcasters and DTH providers should learn from their American counterparts and improve their offerings and QoS. Coz, if the current experience is anything to go by, people might simply switch off. The internet is waiting, and it offers a lot more than tv does at present.