Airtel Digital TV, the third-largest DTH operator of the country in terms of subscriber base has recently increased Network Capacity Fee (NCF) for all secondary connections from Rs 80 to Rs 100 per month for the first 100 channels.
Now, ADTV users have to pay NCF of Rs. 100 + Rs 18 (18% GST) for 100 SD channels, for each of multiple TV connection getting activated under the same account in a home. Additional NCF of Rs 20 (taxes extra) will be applicable for subsequent slots of 25 SD channels over and above the 100 channels. For the unknown, 1 HD channel is treated equally as 2 SD channels.
Dish TV and D2H continue to be the preferred option for multi TV users as they are providing the cheapest NCF rates of Rs 50 on secondary connections. Tata Sky, on the other hand, offers no discount at all on NCF charging full NCF of Rs 130 over secondary connections also.
This move of ADTV comes just weeks before the expected implementation of TRAI’s NTO 2.0 from 1st March which will check the high NCF costs for secondary connections. As per the new rules, DTH operators will no longer be able to charge more than 40% of the full NCF for multi TV connections, which means ADTV and Tata Sky will have to reduce their NCF prices to Rs 52. The new rules will also double channels allowed in initial NCF from 100 to 200.
