Star India revises 71 bouquet prices; launches 15 new bouquets

Over the last 2 days, we exclusively brought to you the in-depth coverage of changes in a-la-carte and bouquets offerings made by Viacom18, Sony Pictures Network India and Zee Entertainment. We now bring to you all the major changes that Star India has made to its bouquet and a-la-carte offerings.

Star India earlier this week has published its new Reference Interconnect Offer (RIO) which will be applicable from 1 February 2020. The broadcaster has announced the revision of a-la-carte rates of around two dozen of its channels, along with the launch of 5 new channels, the rebrand of Movies OK, the shutdown of three of its channels, discontinuation & launch of bouquets and a major price hike to its bouquet offerings.

It is pertinent to note that these changes are in no way related to the TRAI Tariff Order amendment released on 1st January. The amended Tariff Order will come into action on 1st March whereas existing signed RIOs will expire on 31st January which will force DPOs to sign new RIOs for February. These rates will go live on 1st February and will remain valid until the amended Tariff Order comes into play.

In this article, we bring you all the changes Star India has made to its a-la-carte and bouquet offerings. DreamDTH compared STAR RIO Version 2 dated 6.12.2018 – as amended on 12.07.19 (#4) with the STAR RIO Version 3 dated 01.01.2020. The changes are listed below.

Star India A-la-Carte MRP Hike

The broadcaster has revised the pricing of around 27 of its channels with most of them getting a price hike while some had a price cut. Bindass and UTV Movies will now cost Rs 1 while Star Gold Select, Movies OK (soon Star Gold 2), Hungama TV and Baby TV HD will cost Rs 2. Star World, Marvel HQ, Star Gold Select HD, and Disney Junior will cost Rs 4.

Star Gold and Star Movies will cost Rs 7, Star Movies Select HD will cost Rs 8, Disney Channel will cost Rs 9 while Jalsha Movies and Star Pravah will now cost Rs 10. Star Bharat, Star Suvarna and Star World HD will cost Rs 12 while Disney International HD will cost Rs 14.

Maa Movies, Star Bharat HD, Star Gold HD, Star Movies HD will cost Rs 15 while Vijay, Star Sports 1 Tamil, and Star Sports 1 Marathi will cost Rs 19. UTV Movies, Star Gold Select, Hungama TV, Star World, Star Gold Select HD, Star Movies, Star Movies Select HD, Star Bharat HD, and Star Movies HD have had a price cut while others have seen a price hike.

Star India introduces 15 New Bouquets; discontinues 6 Bouquets

Star has introduced 15 new bouquets while discontinuing 6 of its bouquets increasing its bouquet offerings from 93 to 102. Disney Kids Pack HD (A, B), SVP Hindi 69, SVP HD Hindi 105, SVP Marathi 69, SVP HD Marathi 105, SVP Bangla 69(A, B), SVP HD Bangla 106, SVP Tamil 32, SVP HD Tamil 49 (A, B, C, D), SVP Kannada 36 (A, B, C, D, E), SVP HD Kannada 90, SVP Telugu 50, SVP HD Telugu 90, SVP Malayalam 50 and SVP HD Malayalam 90 are the newly introduced bouquets.

Disney Kids Pack HD (A) will be available from the launch date of Disney Channel HD. SVP Bengali-Hindi, SPP Bengali-Hindi, SPP HD Bengali-Hindi, SVP Kannada (B), SVP Kannada (C) and SVP HD Lite Tamil have made way for the 15 new bouquets.

Star India Revises 71 Bouquet Prices

The broadcaster has done a massive revamp of its bouquet offerings with a change in nomenclature, the introduction of different variants of same bouquets, discontinuation, and introduction of new bouquets and price hike to most of the existing bouquets.

10 bouquets have seen a price cut in the range of Rs 3 – Rs 28 while the rest 61 bouquets have seen a price hike in the range of Rs 2 – Rs 16. The price hike varies as per bouquet basis with Premium packs getting bigger hike compared to Value packs.

SVP HD Tamil which earlier cost Rs 75 is now available as SVP HD Tamil 48 (A, B) at Rs 48. SVP Kannada (B) and SVP Kannada (C) have made way for two new bouquets while keeping the number of Kannada specific bouquets the same as earlier. A lot of bouquets now comes with different variants as compared to earlier.

Star English Special Pack HD, SPP HD English 85, SVP HD Lite Kannada 40, SPP Hindi -Malayalam 95, SPP HD Hindi -Malayalam 135, SPP Hindi – Telugu 95 (A, B), SPP HD Hindi – Telugu 135 (A, B), SVP HD Kannada – Malayalam 85 (A, B), SVP HD Tamil – Malayalam 85 (A, B), SPP Tamil -Telugu 79 (A, B), SVP HD Tamil -Telugu 85 (A, B), SPP Telugu- Kannada 79 (A, B), SVP HD Telugu- Kannada 85 (A, B), SVP HD Kannada – Tamil 85 (A, B), SVP All South 75 (A, B, C, D) and SVP HD All South 95 (A, B, C, D) are among the bouquets that haven’t received a price hike.

Star Movies Select, Star Gold 2 HD, Star Sports 3 HD, Hungama TV, Vijay Music have been added to a lot of existing packages while UTV Action has been dropped from few.

Star has also announced the launch of 5 new TV channels before 1st March 2020 along with the rebranding of Movies OK and shutdown of three of its existing channels. The broadcaster is now left with 10 days to declare its pricing in line with the amended Tariff Order released on 1st January. What is your take on the major price revision of the bouquets of Star India? Let us know your opinion in the comments section.