Manual of Practice

1. Name and address of the distributors of television channel:

Dish TV India Limited,
Registered Office: Office No. 3/B, 3rd Floor, Goldline Business Centre, Link Road, Malad West, Mumbai 400064, Maharashtra
Corporate Office: FC-19, Film City, Sector 16 A, Noida, 201301

2. Terms and conditions of service offered by the distributor of television channel: Click here

3. Name, designation and e-mail, contact telephone number, facsimile number and address of the Nodal Officer: for details click here

4. Details of provisions for consumer protection as specified in these regulations:-
 

a. Disruption of broadcasting services related to television.— In case signals of television channels to a subscriber are continuously disrupted for a period exceeding seventy two hours, the distributor of television channels shall reduce the subscription charges of the subscriber by an amount equivalent to the proportionate distributor retail price and network capacity fee in respect of such channels for the entire period of such disruption:

Provided that the period of such disruption shall be calculated from the time the complaint is registered by the subscriber:

Provided further that nothing contained in this sub-regulation shall apply in case the disruption is caused due to natural calamities.

b. Price protection to subscribers.— In case, the broadcasting services related to television have been availed by a subscriber with a lock-in period or the charges for subscription of broadcasting services related to television are paid in advance for a specific period by a subscriber in pursuance of any scheme offered by the distributor of television channels, the distributor shall continue to provide such services for such period to the subscriber without any increase in the price of subscription and without altering the other terms of subscription to the disadvantage of the subscriber.

d. Disconnection of broadcasting services related to television.—

(1) Every distributor of television channels shall, upon request from the subscriber, disconnect the connection of broadcasting services related to television to such subscriber from the date indicated by the subscriber in his request and refund the deposits due to the subscriber, subject to fulfilment of the terms and conditions for providing services as agreed by the distributor and the subscriber, within seven days thereafter: Provided that the subscriber shall make such request for disconnection at least fifteen days prior to the requested date of disconnection.

(2) No distributor of television channels shall disconnect the broadcasting services related to television to a subscriber without giving a prior notice of at least fifteen days to such subscriber indicating the reasons for such disconnection and the period of fifteen days shall be reckoned from the date of issue of such notice of disconnection to the subscriber.

(3) The notice for disconnection of broadcasting services related to television referred in sub regulation (2) shall be communicated by the distributor of television channels by running scrolls on television screen and sending Short Message Service (SMS) to the registered mobile number of the subscriber:

Provided that it shall be permissible for the distributor, in addition to sending the notice in the above-referred manner, to employ other means of communicating the notice to the subscriber such as e-mail, b-mail and other methods as may be deemed appropriate.
 

e. Pre-paid billing and payment.—
(1) Every distributor of television channels shall, in case of pre-paid payments, acknowledge such payments to the subscriber and ensure that the subscriber management system is updated accordingly.
(2) The billing cycle for pre-paid payment option shall be thirty days from the date of activation of services.
(3) Every distributor of television channels shall, on its website, maintain the records of billing and payment of subscribers, for at least preceding six months and provide log-in access to the subscribers to their accounts:
Provided that such records of subscriber shall contain itemised usage details of, —
(a) network capacity fee,
(b) rental charges for customer premises equipment, if any,
(c) charges for pay channels and bouquets of pay channels subscribed by subscriber during the period of billing cycle,
(d) any other charges which has been levied in compliance with the provisions of these regulations and,
(e) taxes in conformity with applicable laws.
(4) It shall be permissible for a distributor of television channels to temporarily suspend the services of a prepaid subscriber in case of non-availability of balance amount in his prepaid account:
Provided that in case the services of the subscriber remain suspended continuously for a period of three months, such subscriber shall not be counted as an active subscriber of the distributor and it shall be permissible for the distributor to deactivate such subscriber from subscriber management system:
Provided further that the distributor shall upon the recharge of balance amount in subscriber’s account, restore services and such distributor may charge an amount not exceeding rupees hundred as re-activation fee from the subscriber for restoration of services if such services have remained suspended continuously for a period exceeding three months

5. Procedure and benchmark for complaint redressal:
Complaints handling by customer care centre.— (1) Every distributor of television channels shall ensure that the customer care centre, immediately upon receipt of a complaint from a subscriber, registers such complaint each time and allots a unique number to be called the docket number:
Provided that the Authority may, if deemed necessary, specify a format for such docket number.
(2) Every distributor of television channels shall ensure that the customer care centre-
(a) at the time of registering of the complaint, communicates to the subscriber the docket number, date and time of registration of the complaint and the time within which the complaint is likely to be resolved; and
(b) on resolution of the complaint, communicates to the subscriber, the details of the action taken on the complaint and also the name and contact number of the nodal officer for further redressal of complaint, if the subscriber is not satisfied.
Time limit for redressal of complaints.— Every distributor of television channels shall adhere to the following time limits for redressal of complaints of the subscribers-
(a) all complaints shall be responded to within eight hours of receipt of the complaint:
provided that complaints received after the office working hours shall be responded by the next working day;
(b) at least ninety percent of all ‘no signal’ complaints received shall be redressed and signal restored within twenty four hours of receipt of such complaint;
(c) all complaints relating to billing shall be redressed within seven days of receipt of the complaint from the subscriber and refunds, if any, shall be made to such subscriber within thirty days of receipt of the complaint;
(d) at least ninety percent of all other complaints not covered under clause (b) and clause (c) shall be redressed within forty eight hours of receipt of such complaints;
(e) no complaint, except billing related complaints referred to in clause (c), shall