Tata Sky and Airtel Digital TV Front in the Line to Implement NTO 2.0 The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had made a lot of amendments to NTO 1.0 and made it NTO 2.0. Ever since the announcement of the amendments, broadcasters have been fighting with the regulator seeking relief as they are yet to recover from NTO 1.0. While the issue between broadcasters and Trai will continue, DTH operators have started implementing the new NTO 2.0 changes with Tata Sky and Airtel Digital TV being the front runners. 200 FTA Channels Will Be Offered at Rs 153.4 DTH operators are making changes based on the changes required by Trai, so all the new improvements will be common amongst the industry. Airtel Digital TV and Tata Sky will charge Rs 153.4 as NCF for the first 200 FTA channels, instead of 100 channels which were offered during NTO 1.0. They also said that Rs 188.80 would be charged for subscription to channels greater than 200 SD channels. “NCF = Rs 130 (w/o tax) + Rs 23.4 (GST) = Rs 153.4 (total price with tax) for subscription up to 200 SD channels and Rs 160 (w/o tax) + Rs 28.80 (GST) = Rs 188.80 (Total price with tax) for subscription to channels greater than 200 SD channels,” mentioned Tata Sky in the updated NCF declaration release. Multi TV NCF Reduced to Rs 61.36 Every Month Moving on, DTH operators also reduced Multi TV NCF charges for every connection. For the unaware, Trai stated that any operator should not charge more than 40% as NCF for the secondary connection, so there will be two new fixed NCF charges for Multi TV subscribers. Network Capacity Fee of Rs 52 (Rs 61.36 including taxes) will be applicable for up to 200 SD channels for all Multi TV connections getting activated under the same account in a single home. Airtel Digital TV says an additional NCF of Rs 30 will apply for subscription to channels over and above the 200 SD channels. However, Tata Sky will be charging fixed NCF of Rs 75.52 (including taxes) per month for more than 200 SD channels. Compared to Airtel Digital TV, Tata Sky Multi TV charges became affordable after the latest changes. Rest of the NCF details like one HD channel shall be treated equally to two SD channels for the purpose of calculating NCF will remain the same. As of this writing, only Tata Sky and Airtel Digital TV have implemented the new NTO 2.0 rules. We are expecting other operators to follow the suit today as Trai has strictly urged them to implement NTO 2.0 on March 1.
