Satellite TV in India - Dish TV versus Tata Sky
In India, Direct-To-Home Satellite television is a recent phenomenon. The majority of the people still use a signal provided by Cable Operators. So did I till earlier this year. There are several problems with this:
- The quality of signal is almost always a problem.
- The availability is dependent upon the power backup situation of the cable provider (in India, we get frequent brownouts).
- A lot of the times, the channels that the cable operator provides can be pirated signals.
- Lack of professionalism by these operators.
So, I decided to get a satellite TV installed. There are two major providers in the Indian market: DishTV and TataSky. I went and got DishTV. I was satisfied as it was a huge step up from my Cable operator. But soon enough problems started showing. The support system is really bad. I had problems with billing even though I paid up online. And in the last month and a half, I have not received any channels and the support guys have been unable to rectify the problem despite several calls that I made.
As was inevitable, I today got a TataSky system installed. Here are the major points in how these guys are better than DishTV:
- The work crew is much more professional. They seemed to know exactly what they were doing and were able to answer most of my questions. They took a very short time to install compared to when I got DishTV installed.
- Cleanliness of work. The DishTV dudes had left dangling wires and loose connectors when they had installed their equipment at my premises. The TataSky crew made sure that the cable was attached to the wall properly, there were no dangling wires, and the connectors that put in the cables were properly attached.
- The user interface: the TataSKY has a much better user interface than DishTV. There are multiple ways through which you can surf the channels. The channel information is much better: the DishTV only gave information for the current program and the next (and even this information was sometimes wrong); TataSky gives me the whole day’s information for a particular channel and also for the following days.
- Responsiveness. I logged online and registered my box on their website. I then went ahead and made an online payment to add money to my account. After 10 minutes, I got an alert on my TV which reflected the payment.
I think DishTV is on its way down. I climbed onto the roof where the engineers installed the satellite Dish. 90% of the dishes on other people’s rooftops were TataSky.
If you are in India, and are contemplating getting a Satellite TV, get TataSky.
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August 2nd, 2007 at 1:30 pm
Dear Vaibhav,
I agreee that Tata Sky is great as far as infrastructure is concerned but what about content - 4 Zee move channels are missing, only 2 music channel (no etc, zee music, B4u), quality of Zee channels is deliberately distorted. No toll free numbers. Sports channel come and go at will. Movies is too costly (Rs.75) of course their collection is good. DD channels and AIR channels are being unnecessary added. Only form and no content cannot lead you anywhere. I went for Tata Sky for the reasons stated by you. But today I regret it because of the content issue. They really have to do something about it
August 2nd, 2007 at 5:41 pm
Hello TS User,
Well, if there are all those problems, then yes people should consider them as well.
Me, I watch a small collection of channels, and they are all available on Tata Sky.
The other point to consider is that being the market, TataSky will (should) improve on all those fronts.
I originally had a DishTV installed because earlier it was offering a whole lot more in terms of content and channels. However, TataSky has caught up a lot and I think it will surpass DishTV in this area soon as well.
(Or at least I hope so).
Cheers.
August 3rd, 2007 at 9:04 am
hardly any music channels, hardly any english movies in their showcase, if you type a channel no. that does not exist, it takes you to channel help, unlike dish tv that took you to the next channel no. that existed… no time commitment from the service staff, they are supposed to arrive at 10 and arrive at 3… but i don’t think anything can beat dish tv in their pathetic customer sevice, dumb and rude customer sevice support staff… tata sky guys at least come at the same day… dish tv service staff will not come for a week… or more… and they can also close tickets without fixing them…
August 7th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
Dishtv india’s official website has the Link put up for more information on the dishtv stb which can be connected to the pc which they have dubbed as the vga box.
There is nothing there other than its a stb which you can use on your pc as well as your tv set.There isnt any technical information as to where the stb will be connected to your pc or what are the requirements. There is no information on whether existing users can upgrade to this stb if they wish to. I belive such information should be provided. Furthermore it should also have inbuilt recording capability , an inbulit hard disk will do just fine. On another note , instead of bundling a pc connectible hardware in the stb , they shouldve tied up with some dvd drive manufacturer & come out with a product thats an stb as well as a dvd drive, that would be something that really has a market, it would make things easier for many people (specially those who have just one a/v port & can connect only one device at a time) and also for space & easy of use considerations.
Read more: More on the Dish TV India’s VGA Box
August 14th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
hi i am a dish tv user an i am not happy with their service i want to shift to tatasky.but i would like to know that before switching to the tata sky what have u done to the dish tv.
have u given it back or not had u taken all the deposit.if yes please give me details
August 15th, 2007 at 12:48 am
Hello Shivam,
I have retained the DishTV because I have another television set. Of course, as of now it’s not working.
My strategy is that I will wait till they come around to asking me to pay the bill for it and at that time when I have their attention, I will tell them about all the problems I have faced and how it’s not been working for so long.
Cheers.
August 27th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
Hey Vaibhav,
Good to hear that you chose TataSky. I too was in a dilemma and went through a lot of reviews online and asked many people for their personal opinions. TataSky came out as a clear winner and so I’ve purchased two connections at my house. My experience has been incredible. I’ve written a review on my blog too. Do read it
Ciao
August 27th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Hi Preshit,
Well TataSky is coming out alright so far…. I have (after some usage) come across a few niggles… For example, if you are in active mode the ‘back’ button (the one which takes you to previous channel) doesn’t work.
Again, in the active mode, if you change volume, the volume indicator doesn’t show.
One other major usability concern is that if you key-in a channel number such as 111, and it’s not a valid channel, it cancels the input and stays on the current channel. In DishTV it used to take you to the nearest valid channel to 111.
But overall, TataSky is still feeling better.
Cheers.
August 27th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Heya Vaibhav,
Well yes, I am supposed to outline all the drawbacks and a few more comments in the Part 3 of the review. The one on the blog is just Part one so far
About the channel available, I rather prefer it this way. Say I key in some number, and its not available and it takes me to the nearest number which happens to be FTV, that would be a disaster, init ? Anyway, I’ve memorised almost all the channel numbers
About volume bar not shown in the status mode, yes, I agree they should look upon that.
About going back when in active mode, you can press TV first, and then back. That works.
August 27th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
Yes.. all correct… but the problem with going back from Active Mode is that it takes about 5-10 seconds to come into active mode in the first place.
Well… anyway, bottom line for me is still the same: TataSky is better.
November 22nd, 2007 at 7:33 pm
Dish TV sucks! I am facing similar problems with Dish TV since it was installed. We only watch a few channels such as Travel & Living, sony Pix etc and every two days I ca’t access those channels as there is no signal. Moreover the local service people charge Rs 150 (minimum) for every visit. In the beginning I paid but I was calling them almost every other day! Their customer care people cannot rectify the problem and keep asking me to tune the TV and check the signal strength which I have done a million times. They don’t seem to know anything else. My complaint was supposed to be handled by the ‘technical’ dept but so far I have not got a response from them. I guess they are busy handling so many other complaints. Don’t know if TATA SKY will be any better but good to read some positive comments about it. I may just decide to switch.
November 22nd, 2007 at 7:55 pm
@Ruchika,
Well I have heard the same complaints about DishTV again and again. You really should switch, so far, I still haven’t had any problems with Tata Sky.
Cheers.
April 5th, 2008 at 6:26 am
I am Suvrajyoti, a customer of dishTV since last one year having VC No 015XXXXXX48. I have very bad experiences with the services and
customer care support of dishTV. After paying the monthly subscription, every month I have to request customer care to start services even after paying the charges in time. In this month (March’08), I have paid the subscription through credit card on 18/03/2008 vide transaction no 744XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX06 for Rs.524 through ICICI Bank. The amount was credited to ASC Enterprises Ltd, Noida as confirmed by ICICI Bank. On 31/03/08, suddenly all channels stopped transmitting. Immediately I contacted customer care and came to know that they have not received any payment and unable to start services. It is more than 72 hours since the line is disconnected. We have been repeatedly contacting customer care Noida over phone requesting them to resume the services but they do not pay any attention and disconnect the telephone line desparately.
THIS IS CALLED SANTUSHTI FOR PROVIDING HORRIBLE SERVICE AND SUPPORT BY DISHTV.
THANKS A LOT TO DISHTV FOR CHEATING CUSTOMER……
Thanks
Suvrajyoti Banerjee
Kolkata
[note]: I edited the comment to remove personal information from it - Vaibhav
June 4th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
wow, this is a huge sham..i guess these guys have been paid by tata sky to put in this shit…its attrocious. i wish i could sell the damn box off and switch to some other option cable or dish…im serious…write to me here in case you need to buy teh digicom box from me at a real discount. im that fed up with this thing.
bottomline…never ever go for tata sky.
June 4th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
@Vinu
Are you kidding?
While you are welcome to express your opinion or talk about your experience on this blog… you are nobody to say that all the others who have expressed their opinions (including myself) are lying.
October 13th, 2008 at 11:04 am
okay, so I know you prefer Tata Sky.. but what about IPTV as an option instead? Of course, reliance and Airtel are new in the satellite TV game, so it would be too early to comment on that. I use Hathway cable, and the signal is as clear as Tata, and I can run my PC off it as well..
October 13th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
@Man_who_knew_too_much - well sure, IPTV should be a good option. I have not tried it so, there is no comment. As long as channel selection is good, and quality is fine, I would probably prefer it (no problem in stormy weather).
However, the biggest drawback is obviously that this is not available everywhere, while Satellite TV by definition would be available almost everywhere.