Three more days till TRAI’s new plan kicks in and if you belong to more than half the population who have yet to exercise their TV channel choice, it may be a good idea to do it now as your TV viewing bill may actually soar up once the new plan becomes effective.

Wondering how will that work? Here’s how

TRAI has said in their FAQ segment that the customers who will fail to submit the choices might experience a disruption in paid channel services. But for those who have already subscribed to longer plans, it may be a case that their existing services will continue after adjusting the current plan with the remaining balance.

Also read: Yet to choose your DTH, cable TV channels? Hurry up! Services may get disrupted from 1 February

However, there is a possibility that your existing subscription costs more on an a-la-carte basis than your existing plan. For example, if your current subscription plan gives you 150 channels for say Rs 350 and has, say, 70 paid channels, your bill may rise to Rs 700-800 after adding the individual channels cost, extended network capacity fees and HD channel pricing to the base pack of Rs 154. In that case, it is wise for a consumer to review their existing plan and exercise the choice now to avoid the dreaded scenario.

If you are wondering how is TRAI’s new pricing regime better than the old one, here it is. It gives TV viewers the choice to subscribe to each channel separately, and pay only for the ones they watch. In such a scenario, TV viewing bills may actually fall, since BARC said that almost 85%-90% of the people watch not more than 50 channels.

How to select your channels?

TRAI had launched a TV channel selector app so that the customers may get a preview of the TV bill after the implementation of the new plan. Once you are done selecting your channels from the application, a print out of the same can be submitted to your service provider who will further register your choices.

Alternatively, one can visit the website of the service provider and after entering details, the choice can be exercised. This process may be different for different service providers. Also, one can be contacted by the service provider for the channel selection. You can also access channel number 999 on your TV sets to get customer care and individual prices of the channels.

The new plan becomes effective on February 1.