Why Airtel DTH is Better Than Tata Play

 

Last year, I was forced to switch to Airtel DTH and give up my Tata Play connection. I was quite happy with my Tata Play (earlier, Tata Sky) connection and used to consider myself their loyal customer. I kept delaying switching to Airtel for more than a year and when I switched to it, I did not hope for any better service. But I was shocked to find Airtel much better than Tata Play!

The very first thing I noticed with Airtel DTH’s set up box was that if I switched off my TV/DTH, or if power cut happens, and DTH is back after a while, the TV started from the channel I was watching last! It was a great convenience and I liked it. It was only the beginning.

I noticed that the picture quality was much better on Airtel as compared to Tata DTH, although I discounted this by thinking perhaps because its machine was new for my TV.

The next great, or perhaps the greatest advantage I found with Airtel DTH was that it did not charge “extra” fee for HD channels. Tata Play/Sky used to charge a fixed monthly fee (perhaps Rs 150) just to watch any HD channel, even if only one. HD channels are costlier than SD channels anyway, and I did not understand why they needed to charge fixed monthly fee merely to enable HD quality. Airtel does not charge anything extra, and I am free to choose any number of HD channels along with other SD channels. The price difference between SD and HD channels is also very low, mostly Rs 5, for each channel. And this has enabled me to subscribe to many HD channels in my ala-carte list, and it greatly enhanced my TV viewing experience.

To summarize, I like Airtel DTH much more than my previous Tata Play DTH and I recommend Airtel DTH highly to everyone.

- Rahul

DTH for Media Control

When I bought TataSky HD, they provided one month access to all channels for free. Before renewing for the second month, I modified my plan and subscribed only to a selected TV channels. While selecting the channels I chose the ones I or my family loved to watch while I excluded the ones which we disliked. The outcome was a list of only those channels we liked. There could have been a case when I had to select a channel which I didn’t like because someone else in my family liked, but fortunately there was no such case with us.

I think while DTH has helped consumers in many ways, it has also resulted in increased media responsibility. If a news channel doesn’t care for viewers’ sensibilities and preferences, for example by hosting too many vulgar programs or those showing excessive violence, or by inserting too many commercial advertisements, the users will simply stop subscribing to the channel. A channel can cost the subscriber anything from Rs 5 to 40 and if we multiply it with lakhs of subscribers that adds up to huge revenue for the TV channels. This didn’t happen earlier when the Cable Wallah provided a host of channels without choice and you had to keep all of them whether you watched them or not. So I think popularity of DTH will be resulting in TV channels becoming more responsible towards viewers’ choices and they won’t ever feel like operating in a monopoly.

- Rahul 

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