Airtel DTH Packs and Plans 2019: List of Channels Packs, Price Available on Airtel Digital TV

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India aka TRAI's 2019 regulations for TV subscribers came into effect a while back and this has resulted in service providers offering new plans and offers for subscribers. The likes of Tata Sky have come up with custom plans and packs, and Airtel Digital TV too has done something similar. If you are an Airtel DTH subscriber, read on to find details about the channels and new Airtel DTH plans that are on the table, complete with the pricing and conditions of the Network Capacity Fee (NCF) associated with them.

Airtel's DTH offerings can broadly be divided into three categories – FTA Bouquets comprising of free-to-air channels, A-la-carte for handpicking individual channels, and 'Broadcaster Bouquet' for selecting channels offered by a single broadcast network.

But before we go into the details and list out the channels as well as the pricing structure, it is important to first lay down the Network Capacity Fees i.e. NCF rules. Following TRAI's regulation, Airtel DTH subscribers will be charged a total Rs. 153.4 (inclusive of taxes) for the first 100 channels in their library. Once the number of channels in the library has exceeded 100, subscribers will have to pay Rs. 23.60 (inclusive of taxes) for every 25 new channels added to the library. Note that this is just the NCF — you'll have to pay over and above the channels themselves.

In case multiple TV connections are availed under the same Airtel DTH account, an NCF charge of Rs. 80 (plus taxes) will be charged for the first 100 channels (standard definition) in the library, while an additional Rs. 20 (excluding taxes) will be levied for every new slot of 25 new channels.

With that out of the way, listed below are the details of plans and channels available to Airtel DTH subscribers:

Airtel DTH Broadcaster Bouquet

The Broadcaster Bouquet is Airtel DTH's equivalent of the Broadcaster plans offered by Tata Sky, and consists of plans offered by broadcasting entities. But unlike Tata Sky, Airtel's Broadcaster plans are more branched and offer multiple plans from the same broadcaster under different names.

Airtel DTH offers bouquet plans from broadcasters such as Discovery, Sony, Star, and NDTV among others. The channel plans in the Broadcaster Bouquet start at Rs. 0.59 per month and go all the way up to Rs. 171.1 per month. Following is a list of broadcasters, the number of channel plans, and the pricing structure:

Airtel DTH A-la-carte channels

The a-la-carte class is basically the entire catalogue of channels offered by Airtel DTH from where subscribers can cherry-pick both free and paid channels in HD (High Definition) and SD (Standard Definition) quality. The total number of channels in the a-la-carte division stands at 563 in multiple languages and across different categories such as sports, movies, entertainment, etc. Out of the 563 channels, 266 of them are free to air channels. As for the paid channels, they start at Rs. 0.1 per month and go all the way up to Rs. 59 per month.

Airtel DTH FTA Bouquets

Just like Tata Sky, Airtel also offers free to air channels, but under two separate classes – Welcome North and Welcome South. Since these are free-to-air channels, subscribers don't have to pay for them if they include them all in their personal channel library, except for the NCF charges that will be applicable as per the rule mentioned above.

In addition to the three aforesaid categories, Airtel will also offer personalised plans to subscribers consisting of channels based on their content consumption habits. The FTA channels offered by Airtel cover content across genres such as news, devotional, movies, entertainment, and more.

Which is the best budget TV to buy in India right now? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.