In July, Dish TV dropped 50+ channels from SES8 while Airtel Digital TV added the highest number of channels, no operator has added any HD channel and Tata Sky brought more new offers than others. Find out every major activity from Tata Sky, Airtel Digital TV, Dish TV, d2h and Sun Direct from the month of June 2020 in this exclusive article.
Tata Sky
Tata Sky added 4 broadcaster channels on its platform including Lokshahi, Sadhna News Plus, Sadhna News UP/UK and Bhaskar News. The operator also dropped 4 channels- AXN, AXN HD, Jai Maharashtra and FYI TV18 (3 of which are shut down by broadcasters).
This month the DTH operator launched ‘HD PVR Big Sale’ under which it has dropped the price of its +HD recording box from Rs 8,900 to Rs 4,499. The cost of upgrading to this box and multi TV connection of +HD STB is also reduced to Rs 4,499.
A new ‘Double Dhamaka Offer‘ is also introduced by the company to provide a flat 50% discount on 6 platform services namely Tata Sky Smart Games, Tata Sky Dance Studio, Tata Sky English, Tata Sky Vedic Maths, Tata Sky Fitness, and Tata Sky Fun Learn along with double Zeetos on eligible PS channels.
Apart from offers, Tata Sky rolled out an OTA software update from its SD and HD boxes which brought a revamped Guide menu and many new features such as personalized channel suggestions, hidden SD version of channels who are subscribed in HD and new search window.
For new acquisitions from DAS 3 & DAS 4 markets, Tata Sky replaced the ‘Annual Hindi Value’ pack with ‘Annual Hindi Value New’ which will cost Rs 2,423 on buying SD Zapper and Rs 2,799 on purchasing HD Zapper. For Punjab and Chandigarh, the operator launched Semi-Annual Punjab Super pack and Punjab Super packs for Rs 1920 and Rs 188.41 respectively.
Airtel Digital TV
Performance of ADTV was good this month, the operator has added a total of 13 channels- BBC CBeebies, DD Arunprabha, A1 TV, Dhinchaak, Vendhar, IBC 24, Filamchi, Ishwar TV, Network 10, Darshana TV, Abzy Dhakad, Abzy Movies and Abzy Cool. 8 channels were removed from ADTV which includes AP 24X7, Praja TV Kannada, IBC 24, Prameya News 7, Nepal 1, FYI TV18, AXN and AXN HD (3 of which are shut down by broadcasters).
For existing Airtel DTH SD and HD users, the company launched an Online Recharge Dhamaka Contest under which every user which recharges their DTH through online modes will get assured Rs 100 Myntra discount voucher while a few randomly selected users will receive prizes of Rs 20 cashback, 6 months ARP or 12 months ARP, Airtel Xstream STB and Samsung 43′ TV.
Airtel also offered a 10% discount up to Rs 300 to its new customers who paid online for their SD, HD, and Xstream Box connections. It is also offering heavy discounts on new connections bought with annual packs. Apart from this, the company has launched the ‘AP SD Plus’ 6 months bundle pack and also increased prices for some of its curated packs.
Dish TV & d2h
Dish TV has added 8 channels- ABP Ganga, VIP News, India News UP/UK, India News Haryana, India News MP/CG, India News Rajasthan, Lokshahi and PTC Punjabi Gold. It also introduced ‘Box Service Plan’ at Rs 99 to offer a 1 year extended warranty on its set-top-boxes.
d2h has added 5 channels including ABP Ganga, Jinvani TV, Lokshahi, News 24 and PTC Punjabi Gold while 7 channels including Showbox, Food Food, DD Sharada, DD Kishore Manch, Zee Hindustan Tamil, Zee Hindustan Telugu and Tamilan TV are dropped from this platform.
d2h is owned by Dish TV and now the company seems to be making d2h south India focussed and Dish TV focussed in catering to the north Indian audience. In June, Dish TV has removed more than 50 south Indian channels from its SES8, now those customers who want to view these channels have to request for a free realignment of their dish antenna to ST-2 direction for getting d2h channels.
Sun Direct
Sun Direct was last active in July, it has not added any channel and 4 channels- FYI TV18, FYI TV18 HD, AXN and AXN HD which were shut down by broadcasters have been removed. For new customers, Sun Direct brought a new connection offer in West Bengal, Odisha, and Maharashtra under which it is offering SD+ connections at as low as Rs 1,499.
Bro is the price of semi-annual punjabi pack at 188.41 right.
Semi-Annual Punjab Super pack will cost Rs 1,920 and Rs 188.41 + Rs 153.40 NCF is the price for monthly Punjab Super pack. Prices were interchanged in the article which is now corrected. Do note that semi-annual pack can only be brought from dealers.
Tata Sky being Tata Sky. No genuine offer provided to existing customers. Their effort always seems to be on acquiring new customers. Nobody likes these service channels. It’s useless mostly. I get Tata Sky’s service is excellent but it’s chargeable. It’s time to step up their game and offer discounts on NCF specially when competitors likes Sun and D2H are offering almost all SD channels under ₹200. They already lost 15 lakh customers. I wonder how much more they can afford to lose.
And Airtel needs to get Viacom’s HD music channel on board. How many more years do we have to get HD Music channels? There is a drought of HD Music channel on Airtel since almost a year and a half.