New TV channel tariffs and how the cookie crumbled during Digitisation

India has amongst the lowest Pay TV tariffs, worldwide. Historically, Indian consumers have been provided a large bundle of Free-To-Air (FTA) and Pay channels at a flat monthly fee from around Rs 150 to over Rs 300. Viewers in rural areas and shanties were often charged less than their urban counterparts.
Compulsory Digitisation and its associated Set Top Box (STB) promised the consumer the power to pick and pay for only those channels they wished to view.

However, pay channel broadcasters like Star, Zee, Sony, Colors and others created large bouquets that included several laggard channels compulsorily bundled with some Prime channels. The pricing was intentionally skewed, making it disadvantageous to selectively pick only Prime channels. Individual channel prices were highly inflated, while bouquets were discounted by 50 to 80 percent! As a result, consumers continued to receive inflated bouquets with several channels of no interest to them.