With Most HD Channels Tata Sky Gets An Edge Over Other DTH, Cable Operators Under New TRAI Regulations

A new tariff regime has been introduced in India by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) which regulates channel pricing of all DTH and Cable broadcasters via a pay-per-channel basis.

Tata Sky has an edge under this new regulation as it provides the most number of High Definition (HD) channels, reports Telecom Talk.

Under the new rules one HD channel is equivalent to two Standard Definition (SD) channels. Hence under the base pack the customer will be able to subscribe to a maximum of 100 SD channels or 50 HD channels or any corresponding combination.

This can prove advantageous to the DTH operators who offer more HD channels as the base pack can potentially contain less number of channels provided the subscriber prefers them over the SD variants.

As per figures released by TRAI, Tata Sky provides 92 out of the total 95 HD channels available in India right now. 44 out of them are in the English and Sports category, four are for Kids and rest cater to regional audiences.

Airtel Digital TV is at number two and Sun Direct is number three when it comes to the HD channel race.

Airtel Digital TV though wins the battle in the Hindi segment as it offers all the available 15 HD channels in this language. Tata Sky falls one short in this aspect by not offering the Jeet HD channel.