Technology Blog

Four-way DTH war makes subscriber the king

MUMBAI: What happens when four biggies of the Indian business world decide that each wants to rule the same segment? One, their pockets burn real deep. Two, customers rule.

In the Direct to Home (DTH) market, installation charges as low as Rs 1,400 and a dirt cheap monthly subscription cost — less than Rs 100 — are fast becoming a reality. The number of channels is slated to go from 150 to 400 in a few months. Plus, digital video recorders and high definition (HD) are on their way.

This has doubled the industry growth. Officials from the market players told DNA Money that while three months ago, the industry was acquiring 2.5 lakh customers every month, the number has now doubled to 5 lakh, and could go up to 7-8 lakh in a few months once the new players settle down.

In lieu of this customer base, the industry will be shelling out around Rs 800 crore this year for advertisements and promotions, according to Salil Kapoor, chief operating officer of Dish TV, from the Zee stable.

And yes, with a minimum five-year gestation period, it is too early for anyone to be making money.

Arun Kapoor, president, Big TV, part of Reliance ADAG, said, “We will acquire, expand as soon as possible. This industry is not for the weak-hearted and certainly not for those without deep pockets.”

True. Maybe that’s why the Tata Sky DTH service invested Rs 2,000 crore to acquire 20 lakh customers, while another Rs 2,000 crore investment is on its way.

So what tools are the players using to woo customers now that pricing is hardly a differentiator anymore?

“The biggest differentiator is transparency and simplicity in pricing. The consumer shouldn’t have to research on whether he is being made to pay more than what is being showed,” said Salil Kapoor.

While Dish TV can probably take it easy, being the market leader, others are being ‘entertainingly’ aggressive.

Big TV claims it has acquired 5 lakh subscribers in its first two months. It plans to acquire four lakh subscribers per month with DVRs (digital video recorders), high definition channels and exclusive content.

With the customer base of Reliance Telecom and Reliance Energy ready to be tapped, maybe this number is achievable.

Similar strategies exist for others. Also big on their list is interactive services. Airtel, the fourth player in the market, has a tie-up with Infosys for interactive technology. Airtel is offering a common remote for both the set-top box and television, while Dish TV has begun to provide a banking platform on television with ICICI Bank.

Tata Sky has religious and educational programmes to lure customers.

Through that, the industry expects the current 70 lakh subscriber base to swell to 6 crore by 2015, 40% of the total television viewing households.

While players lock horns for market share, firing allegations at each other and blowing louder-than-reality trumpets, subscribers can sit back and have fun.

There will soon be even more channels to surf. Now, if only there was something good to watch! Read more…

EW DELHI : DTH service providers are in talks with media planners and brands to sell space on their platform for advertising, reports Meenakshi Verma Ambwani.

To generate additional revenue through advertising, DTH players plan to sell space on the electronic programme guide and on interactive services like pay-per-view.

Several broadcasters are also toying with the idea of a separate feed for DTH platform with different set of advertisers paying a premium.

As per TAM’s analysis, DTH subscribers spend more time watching TV than analogue cable subscribers and also spend a significant time using the programme guide.

TAM attributed the trend to DTH offering larger number of channels and better picture quality over analogue cable. Says Tata Sky marketing head Vikram Mehra:

“We recently did a survey which found that our subscriber households spend about 34 minutes a day on the electronic guide and interactive services. We are in talks with advertisers for advertising on these services.”

Below is the list of Packages which one can choose while taking BigTV. It does not contain the Launch Offer Packages:

Starter Pack 100

Starter Pack 150

Starter Pack 175

Top-Up Package

English Movie – 25 Per month

Hindi Movie – 25 Per month

Kids Pack – 25 Per month

Elite Pack – 25 – Per month

News Pack – 25 Per month

Sports 1 Pack – 40 Rs. Per month

Sports 2 Pack – 40 Rs. per month

Reliance ADAG has launched its own DTH service called BIG TV DTH Service on 19 August in Mumbai. This is the 5th DTH Service to be launched in India besides Dishtv, DD Direct+, Tatasky, and Sun Direct TV. Of the Five DTH that are existing right now, including the recently launched BIG TV, Four of them are pay and one of the DTH called DD Direct+ is Free services provided by Public Broadcaster Doordarshan.

BIG TV will be using MPEG 4 technology, thereby becoming the second DTH player to use it besides Kalanidhi Maran’s Sun Direct TV India Ltd. Even though Sun Direct has just launched in South India, it has become the fastest growing DTH network in India with over 1 millions subscribers in just 200 days.

BIG TV will be available with 100000 outlets across 6500 towns.

BIG TV will be using Measat 3 satellite and will be providing up to 200 TV Channels including 32 PPV channels and 10 audio channels in the beginning and will increase to 250 channels in coming months. BIG TV with the use of MPEG 4 technology will be able to accommodate more channels per transponder with digital quality than its rivals Dishtv and Tatasky who are using Mpeg 2 technology which can accommodate only 12 channels per Transponder. The new technology will be seen as a revolution against the growing number of channels and the demand from subscribers to add them.

Effects on other DTH:

With the Launch of BIG TV DTH services the other 2 leading DTH operators like Dishtv and Tatasky are surely going to revamp their pricing and packaging strategy in order to meet the competition with BIG TV. Dishtv already is providing STB Free and Tatasky is providing Free installation in South. Dishtv has presently fixed a monthly charges ranging from 100Rs  to 300Rs, apart from ADD On packages, whereas Tatasky is having packages ranging from 175Rs to 310Rs plus Add On packages. BIG TV has also fixed its monthly packages from 100Rs to 175/- Rs plus Add-on packages, so by this look definitely BIG TV is going to have lot of boom in market and Tatasky will have to surely cut down its monthly subscription rates hugely.

The Quality of Channels viewable on BIG TV is completely different and wonderful than to other DTH like Tatasky or Dishtv as BIG TV is using Mpeg 4 technology. Reliance is already knows for Quality service and affordable rates.

Also Reliance BIG TV has planned to launch more than 250 TV Channels in next few days and some of Channels are only available on BIG TV like Firangi, IBN Lokmat.

Price War and Offers:

BIG TV has started with different offers for North as well as South users. They have launched two offers for South with an offer at 1990/- Rs and 2190/- Rs, both these includes 12 months FREE subscription. In these offers we can get most of the regional channels along with few English Movie channels, Hindi channels, Sports channels, Kids channels. Apart from this Reliance is giving one regional pack FREE and 3 months of PPV Movies FREE.

The difference between 1990/- and 2190/- offer is that in 2190/- we can get ESPN, Star sports and Star Cricket free for 12 months, which is good deal considering that ESPN and Star Sports pack is being put at 40Rs per month and Star Cricket at 25Rs per month. The South Offer is available only in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Pondichery and Kerala.

For North Users there are different packs ranging from 2490/- to 4990/- depending on the channels choice from the subscribers in which they get 3 months free complimentary subscription. If a subscribers likes to watch maximum number of channels then he could enjoy it for 12 months Free by subscribing to Max pack of 4990/-. Max Pack comes with all 158 channels excluding south Indian pay channels. It also included all channels like Neo Sports, Neo Cricket and other Add-on pack.

Why BIG TV is best?

It is quite simple. It has the Latest technology, lot of package choosing option and what else it is costing very less compared to Other DTH. In BIG TV you have wide range of packages to choose and you can save at least 50Rs per month if you choose what you like to watch. And to add, it is going to launch its own 20 channels in future, so these channels will be first available on BIG TV DTH service. BIG TV presently has lot of channels which are missing on other DTH. Also BIG TV has the capacity to add more channels per transponder as it uses MPEG 4 technology and still give Digital Quality picture and Stereo quality Sound, and also it belongs to Ambani’s who are going to see that the DTH reaches almost all homes in India like they did with Reliance Mobile.