The government on Thursday denied the charges that in view of non-control over pricing of DTH channels, the existing service providers are charging exorbitant prices for the service.

In reply to a Rajya Sabha question, minister of state for information and broadcasting Anand Sharma stated that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had informed that a comparison of entry level package prices of a few DTH operators with CAS offerings reveals that DTH pricing in the country are not exorbitant.

Citing an example of Dish TV, the Minister pointed out that their entry level package offering 110 channels and services, is priced at Rs 99 plus taxes. While the premium package of the same operator, offering 165 channels and services, is priced at Rs 275 plus taxes.

"Compared to these prices, a subscriber under the CAS regime pays a minimum of Rs 82 excluding taxes and Rs 5.35 for each Pay channel that the subscriber seeks to subscribe. In view of the above, the price offering in case of DTH services vis-a-vis CAS is not a wide variance," stated Sharma.