Half of Indians expect pay-TV bill hike under TRAI regime
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Rebecca Hawkes
| 28 March 2019

More than half (54%) of Indian TV viewers feel they will spend more on their channel subscription than they paid before new nationwide regulations came into place, according to a new survey by YouGov.

The regulations, imposed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and set to come into force on 31 March 2019, were intended to offer subscribers greater transparency and choice over the channels they paid for.

The research shows that 9 in 10 people (92%) are aware of the new TRAI tariff order and three in four (76%) have already made alterations to their direct-to-home (DTH) subscription as per the new guidelines.

Around 62% of North India residents look at the new TRAI framework favourably. However, a third of residents from South India (32%) are not optimistic about the new regulation.

Half of those surveyed (49%) feel that the new TRAI regulation will increase the amount of time they spend watching original content on over-the-top (OTT) video platforms (such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video). Additionally, 2 in 5 people feel this move will increase the amount of time they spend online watching TV content.

Those who have revisited their DTH subscriptions as per the new TRAI guidelines are more likely to increase their time spent online, either watching TV content or original content, than those who are yet to make the switch.

Only 1 in 5 respondents (23%) feel the new framework will increase their TV viewing time, and 1 in 3 (31%) feel it will expand the variety of content consumed on TV. Almost half (46%) worry the regime will increase their monthly spend on their DTH subscriptions. Indeed almost half (46%) said they are likely to switch to another DTH provider, now that channel prices are standardised.

“The countrywide implementation of the new regulation is bound to have an impact on viewership and advertisers need to revisit their media plans in accordance with the changing consumer behaviour. Although TV viewing may not change drastically, we see the likelihood of people moving online. Advertisers thus need to carefully align and study how they can reallocate their budgets,” said YouGov India GM Deepa Bhatia.

Of those who have made changes to their DTH subscriptions, half (52%) said they have individually selected all the channels for their household, a quarter (24%) have kept all free channels whilst adding very few new ones and the remaining (24%) have bought a bundle pack which allows them to watch most of the channels at an affordable price.

Of those who are going to make the shift in future, 37% said they will individually select the channels, 31% will keep all free channels and add few new ones and 32% will buy a bundle pack.

Movies (82%), news (81%), GEC channels (77%), sports (72%) and music (70%) are the most popular genres selected.

Some 81% of people living in tier-1 cities will buy general entertainment channels compared to 66% of tier-3 city residents. According to the survey, almost half of respondents (46%) selected the Star value pack, followed in popularity by Zee Family Pack Hindi (32%).