Breaking Airtel DTH has increased Lock In Period For A-La-carte to 30 days

[Arun Nehra]

I still remember those days when lock in period for a la carte channel in Tata Sky was 90 days.. back in 2010

Pls forget no need to remember that

 

[Ashok Varma]

No, I think after 30 days it will be charged on dbr basis.

No DBR basis for A-la- carte channel as Airtel wants to increase ARPU for its DTH.

 

[satyajeet]

No DBR basis for A-la- carte channel as Airtel wants to increase ARPU for its DTH.

Are you sure? Looks like they doing it deliberately to promote bouquets. May be this is part of deal with broadcasters.

 

[Ashok Varma]

No DBR basis for A-la- carte channel as Airtel wants to increase ARPU for its DTH.

Now Airtel takes lead in Indirect Price Hike in DTH sector as they were done in mobile services, others might follow.

 

[satyajeet]

Now Airtel takes lead in Indirect Price Hike in DTH sector as they were done in mobile services, others might follow.

There is no replacement for mobile. So they were able to force hike but dth sector will lose more subscribers to OTT/DDFD

 

[rajrocks]

No DBR basis for A-la- carte channel as Airtel wants to increase ARPU for its DTH.

No Bro, from 31st day onwards it will be charged on DBR basis till you remove that top-up

 

[Ashok Varma]

There is no replacement for mobile. So they were able to force hike but dth sector will lose more subscribers to OTT/DDFD

Now Airtel proposes all users into BLACK service (DTH+Broadband+postpaid) for discounts as Indians wants discount for every purchase/service.

 

[dino29]

No, Dish D2H had 30 days lock in period earlier. Also, NTO 2.0 changes were implemented by DTH operators at first deadline, only provisions related to broadcasters were pending.

Abhinav Da, Dish-d2h had introduced 30 day Lock in policy in Pre NTO days and same was discontinued in June 2020. I remember even reading articles that NTO 1.0 did not allow for lock in period to be there for channels, maybe NTO 2.0 now allows for the same. If this is not the case then maybe operators took joint call to not have 30 day lock in policy and now r implementing it again to increase ARPU.

What i was wondering is that why operators would voluntarily take a decision to not have 30 day lock in policy for channels / bouquets as it adversely impacts their revenue , more so when they r facing intense competition from OTT and DD Free Dish. They did not even give such option in Pre NTO days when still there was not such risk of losing subscribers.

Anyways i thought over possible reasons as to why Airtel Digital TV would have implemented this 30 day lock in policy for a-la-carte channels and would like to list them out

1 - NTO 1.0 regulations disllowed having lock in period while NTO 2.0 allows for the same.

Or

2 - This has nothing to do with NTO regulations and operators earlier took unanimous decision to not have lock in policy for channels but now with dwindling/low revenue as a result of slow upward trend or negative growth in subscribe base and people opting for lesser channels they have decided to bring this policy back


In both the above cases it is quite possible that gradually all DTH operators will implement the 30 day lock in period. If cable operators too take a joint decision then same will get applicable for their subscribers


Last reason is a little different and is more of an decision taken for operational basis rather than focusing on revenue.
We know at since February 1 2023 DTH operators have not made revised broadcasters bouquets available to its subscribers hence there is a strong possibility that with people opting to select or remove channels via a-la-carte mode there would be immense load created on the system / server of the operator....also right now operators are themselves extremely busy making changes in their system for complying with New Regulations and thus both the above things posses a risk of technical glitches or slowing/crashing issues to occur on the server hence causing inconvenience to subscribers as well as hamper the work being done by the operator. In order to ease of this traffic/load maybe Airtel Digital TV has taken this temporary decision to implement 30 day lock in period for a-la-carte channels and same will be rolled back once broadcaster bouquets get listed or other such things/work is completely.

@Vadirocks request u to please confirm the real reason from ur sources. Thank You

 

[Ashok Varma]

Abhinav Da, Dish-d2h had introduced 30 day Lock in policy in Pre NTO days and same was discontinued in June 2020. I remember even reading articles that NTO 1.0 did not allow for lock in period to be there for channels, maybe NTO 2.0 now allows for the same. If this is not the case then maybe operators took joint call to not have 30 day lock in policy and now r implementing it again to increase ARPU.

What i was wondering is that why operators would voluntarily take a decision to not have 30 day lock in policy for channels / bouquets as it adversely impacts their revenue , more so when they r facing intense competition from OTT and DD Free Dish. They did not even give such option in Pre NTO days when still there was not such risk of losing subscribers.

Anyways i thought over possible reasons as to why Airtel Digital TV would have implemented this 30 day lock in policy for a-la-carte channels and would like to list them out

1 - NTO 1.0 regulations disllowed having lock in period while NTO 2.0 allows for the same.

Or

2 - This has nothing to do with NTO regulations and operators earlier took unanimous decision to not have lock in policy for channels but now with dwindling/low revenue as a result of slow upward trend or negative growth in subscribe base and people opting for lesser channels they have decided to bring this policy back


In both the above cases it is quite possible that gradually all DTH operators will implement the 30 day lock in period. If cable operators too take a joint decision then same will get applicable for their subscribers


Last reason is a little different and is more of an decision taken for operational basis rather than focusing on revenue.
We know at since February 1 2023 DTH operators have not made revised broadcasters bouquets available to its subscribers hence there is a strong possibility that with people opting to select or remove channels via a-la-carte mode there would be immense load created on the system / server of the operator....also right now operators are themselves extremely busy making changes in their system for complying with New Regulations and thus both the above things posses a risk of technical glitches or slowing/crashing issues to occur on the server hence causing inconvenience to subscribers as well as hamper the work being done by the operator. In order to ease of this traffic/load maybe Airtel Digital TV has taken this temporary decision to implement 30 day lock in period for a-la-carte channels and same will be rolled back once broadcaster bouquets get listed or other such things/work is completely.

@Vadirocks request u to please confirm the real reason from ur sources. Thank You

Our Cable tv has 30 day lock-in-period from day1 of NTO for either a-la-carte or bouquets.

 

[iDJ]

Our Cable tv has 30 day lock-in-period from day1 of NTO for either a-la-carte or bouquets.

If you go on cable's portals of most operators during NTO 1.0. You will notice that isn't the case. Sadly even LCO's doesn't even knows about this.