Sun Direct lists new channel packs under TRAI rules, Star plans missing

Sun Direct has become the third DTH service to announce its list of supported channel packs and their prices. As expected none of Star’s channel packs are available on the platform.

With this, only Airtel Digital and Tata Sky remain to reveal their channel packs and pricing under the new TRAI rules.

As for Sun Direct, its pack distribution is very similar to that of D2h.

Like in case of D2h, the highest number of packs are for Zee, at around 34.

Second is Sun TV, the parent of Sun Direct, which has around 20 packs present on the DTH service. TV18 has 19 packs.

Like D2h, Sun Direct also doesn’t offer even a single package from Star India.

UPDATE: Sun Direct has decided to cap its network fee at Rs 153. Users can watch unlimited channels under the Rs 153 pack, as long as they pay the content charges required. See the link below

The inability of D2h and Sun TV to offer Star India’s package is related to the channels that they carry at present.

Under the TRAI rules, DTH players cannot modify the packs given by a broadcaster like Star India, and Star has, in its wisdom, opted to come out with only broad packages which include practically all its channels in that particular language.

However, DTH players like D2h and Sun Direct do not carry all of Star’s channels, and therefore cannot offer such mega packages.

To get over this, either Star has to allow consumers to buy smaller packages, or D2h and Sun Direct have to add all of Star’s channels on their platforms. However, that would in turn depend on how much satellite capacity these two players have.

The situation is the result of an judgment by Justice M Sundar of the Madras High Court, who struck down many of the anti-bundling provisions that the TRAI had put in.

If these anti-bundling provisions were present, the prices of individual channels would have been no more than Rs 4 or 5 per month and customers would have been able to buy only the channels they require, instead of buying whole bouquets.

It would also have allowed DTH companies to offer genre-based packs and offerings, as they do now.

Below, you can find the full list of channel packs supported and available on Sun Direct from Feb 1.

In addition, customers can also activate channels one-by-one at the MRP rates. You can find individual channel prices here.

Sun Direct will also charge Rs 154 per month as basic network charge.