Cable TV Plans from Zee, TV18 Reduced By 60%; Get Ready To Pay Rs 1500/month For Cable TV
The recent price cut comes after TRAI updated MRPs of all pay channels. Good news for consumers.
TRAI’s new cable TV rules will be effective after December 29th, and will become full-fledged starting January 1st, 2019.
In view of this development, major broadcasting networks such as Zee Entertainment, TV18, Times Network has announced a major price cut for their packs. Some of the packs have been reduced as much as 60%.
Note here, that the MRPs of all the 332 pay channels have already been updated to TRAI, and this we have already reported. These recent price cuts have been announced in the last 48 hours.
Meanwhile, cable TV operators in Bengaluru has said that monthly expenses of cable TV in an average household will become as high as Rs 1500 per month.
How will this happen?
Massive Price Cut Announced
Times Network has announced a major price cut for their pack with channels such as Times Now, Movies Now, Mirror Now and MNX. This range between 15-40%.
The price of their popular Engish news channel: Times Now has been reduced by 40%.
Besides, the SD and HD packs have been combined, and the price reduced by 60%. Now, for Rs 20 per month, viewers can choose 5 SD channels and 3 HD channels. Earlier, the price was Rs 32.20 for 5 HD channels.
TV18 too have reduced prices of 23 channels, out of 55 channels.
10% price cut for Colors Marathi HD to 88% price cut for Nick Junior kids channel has also been announced. Regional News18 channels saw a price drop of 50%.
At the same time, some broadcasters have started re-packaging their channels for better-customized offers.
Zee Entertainment has created a separate pack for English viewers. Now, the English version of their Prime Pack will have these English channels: &Flix and &Prive, international news channel WION, English entertainment channel Zee Cafe and food channel Living Foodz.
This is priced at Rs 25, and HD pack at Rs 35.
Earlier, the Zee Prime pack had both English and Hindi channels.
It is expected that more price cuts will be announced in the coming days.
Rs 1500 Per Month For Cable TV?
Meanwhile, cable operators in Bengaluru have warned that soon, monthly cable TV expense for an average household will increase to Rs 1500 per month.
As per the association representing cable TV operators in the city, accessing 400 premium channels will now cost anywhere between Rs 500 to Rs 1500, per month.
Last week, Karnataka State Cable TV Operators’ Association president VS confirmed this, as he said that the consumers will need to pay Rs 130 per month for network connect fees and get 130 odd free to air channels. But beyond that, Rs 1 to Rs 19 is the cost of each pay channel.
Cable Operators have said that they used to charge between Rs 150 to Rs 300 per month for cable access in the city.
But now, things will drastically change.
TRAI has already assured that the price of cable TV will not increase due to the implementation of the new rule.
We will keep you updated, as more details come in.
