BENGALURU : Over 29 lakh Bengalureans will be affected when the new rules to stop packaging of unwanted channels comes into play on April 1. As per Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) data, 29,05,000 Bengalureans might be affected due to the increase in monthly television bills.
“Any subscriber who wishes to view two or more of the popular general entertainment channels (GEC) and sports channels is likely to either witness an increase in the monthly bill by 13-23% or a substantial reduction in the number of pay channels to be viewed.
While earlier, a monthly budget of Rs 230 - Rs 240 could give access to 250-300 channels, the same budget will now fetch three GECs and one sports channel, besides Free-To-Air (FTA) channels,” said Sakshi Suneja, assistant VP, ICRA. “Subscribers, can however, lower their monthly bills by up to 15%, if they opt for only sports, news and movies, which was not previously available.”