Should I dump TataSky HD for Airtel HD or should I wait for some more time

I was an happy Tata Sky customer even though they don't have many Tamil channels. They have good customer support than other DTH. They were the ones to add good HD channels and providing important sports in temp HD channel and then adding stat cricket HD & ESPN HD.But I se ethat advantage going away . Now Airtel HD has the most number of asli HD channels - 14. Tatasky has only 8. They don't have Ten HD & History HD yet. Based on what read in forums and blogs they may not add important channels till end of 2012. They are not adding the current top Tamil news channel: Pudiya Thalaimurai as well.I have Tata HD and regular Tatasky as secondary connection. My patience is running out. Should I wait for few more months or dump it to go for Airtel HD?

Since you have been happy with Tata Sky's service. I feel you should wait for few months. I am sure they will add many more regional as well as HD channels. About Puthiya Thalaimurai, it has come in todays live mint that they are in talks with Tata Sky and it will be added shortly here is the link to the article: New Tamil channel’s promise of balance finds takers. This looks good and hope they add more HD channels soon.

Dont Ditch Tata Sky HD Now.Gsat 10 is supposed to launch in May.You can expect many more channels from August or September.Meanwhile they will remove few unpopular channels and add few new ones.One HD Channel is in Test Phase which might for the upcoming Asia Cup and IPL in HD.I ditched Airtel HD few months ago due to their crappy HD Boxes mainly and disaster support.

Airtel's online portal for DTH is a disaster; and the customer support isn't great too. Stick with Tata Sky, it is miles ahead of ADTV.

I was in the same situation as you. My first need was Malayalam channels and then Tamil channels. I moved to Airtel HD last month. My choice was easier because TS had only 4 malayalam channels while Airtel had 13. Tamil channels are closer with TS having I think 12 and Airtel has 20. I am not sure about Tamil channels, But I am pretty sure that they are not going to add more malayalam channels. So it was an easy decision for me. Even when Customer Care called me to find out why I am not recharging, when I told the reason, they did not really try to change my mind. From a technical perspective(installation, clarity etc..) I find Airtel as good as TS. But I agree that their customer support sucks big time. Once you get past that and have everything working, it should be fine.

My annual TS base pack subscription will end in September. I subscribed Annual HD Gold pack too in hope they will add more HD channels. But I am sad that Airtel has more HD channels now than TS. 🙁TS should add Colors, UTV and History HD channels immediately otherwise they will lose big time from Airtel in HD war. HD is the future!!

videocon D2H is the way to go.All HD channels,good service also.

Well, if u really feel cheated, only then u shud leave ur DTH player. Just because they are not adding a channel, u shudnt decide against leaving it. C'mon, they are in the market to do business. SO they wud be well aware of the competition & will have plans to add channels. Just that they might be having space constraints, due to which they are not adding it as of now.Similar thing is happening in D2h....they are removing few of the better channels to add new ones. V r hoping that once they move to a new Satellite, they will add back those channels as well.The reason why i m telling to stick to ur operator is that u are used to certain pros & cons of it. Once u change the provider, u will soon realise that u dont have the pros like before. Further, u might not even find any utility in the good points of the new player, plus u will be even more frustrated over its bad points.WHat is the deadline they gave? End of 2012? SO is it that u will shift to Airtel today & once TS adds more channels in December, u will switch back to TS? Will u spend for the STB and other costs again?

Airtel dth has me living in another part of the country 😛Just a hint of their qos 😛

Thanks for all your valuable reply guys!

Well, if u really feel cheated, only then u shud leave ur DTH player. Just because they are not adding a channel, u shudnt decide against leaving it. C'mon, they are in the market to do business. SO they wud be well aware of the competition & will have plans to add channels. Just that they might be having space constraints, due to which they are not adding it as of now.

Similar thing is happening in D2h....they are removing few of the better channels to add new ones. V r hoping that once they move to a new Satellite, they will add back those channels as well.

The reason why i m telling to stick to ur operator is that u are used to certain pros & cons of it. Once u change the provider, u will soon realise that u dont have the pros like before. Further, u might not even find any utility in the good points of the new player, plus u will be even more frustrated over its bad points.
WHat is the deadline they gave? End of 2012? SO is it that u will shift to Airtel today & once TS adds more channels in December, u will switch back to TS? Will u spend for the STB and other costs again?

@Jaymin:
Cool it buddy 🙂
1) I have not decided to go to airtel yet . that's the reason I am posting my frustration here. Also want feedback on ADTV so that I am well prepared for any shortcomings in it than TS
2) Its not about single channel: TS has 8 HD channels vs 14 in ADTV. TS has only 11 Tamil channels vs 20 in ADTV. What's the point is sticking to a provider just for service when they don't have the content? Content is the King!
3) You are talking about coming back to TS from ADTV after dec 2012... why should I unless there is something is 'totally' wrong with ADTV? I am sure ADTV will soon catch up TS on service front.. they can do better for DSL why not for DTH segment....
4) Even Dec 2012 is only speculation different forums. Their CC don't even bother to answer any tentative data for adding channels or just say directly they don't have plans to add channels...

They haven't caught up with ts for quite a few years now. Whatever you do, take something else but not adtv.

If the competitor airtel offers channels which are indispensable but not available in ts, then where is the need to agonise over choice? move as soon as possible.

^^ There are other players as well.

x70, can you elaborate what the issues are with ADTV? Every service will have some customer service issue. I want to understand if it is widespread and limited to specific customer/region.For the cusrtomer service is important wrt: STB /dish misalignment/dish receiver issue issues. I have faced this in TS and they corrected/replaced STB in quick turnaround time. They didn't charge anything for these. I know Sun DTH can not be trusted for these. What about ADTV?

As long as the installation is fine and it doesn't keep going off every other day, I don't see the need to call customer care. That customer care is good in TS is absolutely an useless point as the only thing they are good at is speaking politely. That doesn't necessarily solve the problem. I have been complaining to them about the insufficient number of music channels for 5+ years now. Hasn't made them add new ones! Customer service is over-rated. What matters is the quality of the product. So if the quality of ADTV, and their installation is good, there shouldn't be any reason to repent.