TV watchers say bye to DTH, cable; move to Netflix, Hotstar after TRAI’s well-meaning rule backfires

It has been a year since TRAI rolled out its revised plan for DTH and cable TV users. While TRAI’s well-meaning plan intended to provide more power to customers, one in every two TV watchers has since moved online to content providers such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hotstar, among others. “Not only have people increased their digital content viewing time in the past year, but some have also unsubscribed their DTH connections and moved completely online for content,” UK-based market research company YouGov said this week. Last year, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) directed service providers to allow users to choose channels they liked and pay standardised rates for only those.