Tata Sky and Airtel Digital TV Competing Head-on for Channel Numbers When we last reported about the channel count in the industry, there were only 95 channels available to the subscribers in total. However, now given the rise of the industry and the affinity of the people, the number of HD channels has risen up to 100. Also, while during the start of the year, Tata Sky was only offering 92 of these channels, the popular DTH service provider is now offering 91 HD channel options to its subscribers. Out of the total 100 HD channels available in the industry, 40 of them are General Entertainment (GEC) channels, 3 of them are News channels, 10 of them are Sports channels, and 11 are Infotainment channels. The next big DTH service provider, which is offering the most number of HD channels is Airtel Digital TV. The DTH platform currently offers 84 HD channels to the customers. It is also the platform will all the 15 Hindi HD channels, as Tata Sky misses out on Jeet HD channel. South India based other DTH provider, Sun Direct in this regard offers a total of 65 HD channels to its customers. More Affordable Channel Packs Might Not See Light of the Day During the early implementation of the Trai tariff regime, there were speculations about the unbundling of the channels to bring down the prices. As currently, the broadcasters are offering discounts on the bundle of channels which come with a large number of channels. However, there don’t seem to be new channel packs which come with a lesser number of channels and are more cost-effective for the subscribers. It can be said that the competitiveness of the DTH industry has seen a little slump as the prices have now normalised and almost all the subscribers have made their choices about the channels.
