The month of March has been very troublesome for India and the entire world because of COVID-19 and in such hard times, the responsibility of DTH operators increases as they are the medium in providing important information and news to the citizens.
While the entire country remains under lockdown, DTH players are trying their best to continue serving their customers. Almost all of them are taking more time in resolving customers’ complaints due to reduced staff but some are bringing new offers also to keep people entertained at their homes.
In March Dish TV added the highest number of channels while Airtel Digital TV removed more channels than others. Find out every major activity from Tata Sky, Airtel Digital TV, Dish TV, d2h and Sun Direct from the month of March 2020 in this article.
Tata Sky
Tata Sky has added 3 new channels which consist of 2 satellite channels and 1 platform service channel. Tata Sky Adbhut Kahaniyan is the service channel launched in partnership with Shemaroo to bring horror, crime and thriller shows 24×7 to its subscribers, while Zee Picchar and Awakening are the normal satellite channels added. No channel had been discontinued in March by the DPO.
From 4th March onwards Tata Sky raised prices for new HD, SD connections and multi-TV SD, HD connections by Rs 1,000. The company also introduced ‘Only Box’ offer under which new HD connections would be installed without dish antenna or LNB at a discounted rate of Rs 1,100.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic and national lockdown, the operator has introduced some offers as well in the last week of March. It has decided to provide Tata Sky Fitness for free for 1 month along with free access to additional 12 of its other interactive services during the lockdown so that viewers can learn something new.
Apart from these offers, Tata Sky modified its emergency top-up service to provide 7 days of advance balance as loan in customers’ accounts who are not able to recharge after their due date.
Airtel Digital TV
Airtel Digital TV (ADTV) has added 4 satellite channels and 2 service channels this month while 2 channels were discontinued by the DTH operator. Janta TV, News State UP/UK, INH 24×7 and Zee Picchar are the satellite channels added while channels which are discontinued include P Plus and Bharat Samachar.
Airtel Curiosity Stream and Airtel Seniors TV are the platform services added. ADTV will air documentaries from CuriosityStream 24×7 without any advertisements for free on the Airtel Curiosity Stream Channel while Seniors TV is a specially curated service for senior citizens.
In March ADTV offered ‘Miniplex’ service for free and changed the way it deducts money on channel activation. Now, the operator is deducting balance upfront on a-la-carte activation.
Dish TV and d2h
Dish TV added 10 satellite channels and dropped 1 channel. Surya Cinema, Fun TV, 1 Sports, R9 TV UP/UK, Siripoli, Jaya TV, Isai Aruvi, Surya Comedy, Surya Music and Kairali News are newly added channels while the operator dropped Hindi Music channel I Love Pen Studios. d2h, on the other hand, added ‘India News’ channel and dropped ‘Total TV’ channel.
Both of these operators started counting FTA channels in NCF calculation from March. Due to Janta Curfew, d2h extended validity for all of its consumers by one day.
Sun Direct
Sun Direct added new HD sports channel Eurosport HD on its platform. The company also added 4 channels- Sony Pal, Star Utsav, Zee Anmol and Colors Rishtey in all of its DPO A1 packs. These channels are available for free by the broadcasters for the next 2 months because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
