adgully » DTH

What’s-On-India adds 15 Mn Homes in October!

Adgully Bureau — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 01:45:29 +0000

The What’s-On-India Channel – India’s Premier TV Guide & Preview Channel is continuing to steadily strengthen its audience reach nationwide. With a view to further expand its horizons; the channel now announces its launch on two of India’s most reputed DTH platfoms, DD Direct, Channel No 34 , Reliance DTH Channel No 101 along with other reputed analog operators across India. The current addition with its existing distribution on Airtel DTH, DISH TV, Hathway, Digicable, and 1200+ cable operators now totals close to 40 million homes across India.

Commenting on the development, Abrar Shaikh, General Manager, What’s-On-India, said: “We are happy to announce that our channel is now available on DD Direct , Reliance DTH and our distribution is now close to 40 million homes. We had stated 40 million as our target number in the beginning of the year and we are happy to be welcoming the promised new audiences into our fold.”

The six hundred plus channels strong Indian TV industry has more than one hundred news channels, over fifty movie channels, over fifty general entertainment channels, music channels, sports, infotainments, kids channels, not to mention ultra specialist channels in genres such as Food, Crime, and Education. In that respect, the Indian Television has come of age in terms of the content offering to consumers. However this explosion of choice poses a serious challenge for consumers and that is to get to the right content. What’s-On-India is one of the first models in the country that is committed to bringing viewers closer to the shows and programs they seek based on their tastes and interests.

DTH: Magical growth rate and sparkling opportunities

Adgully Bureau — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 03:00:00 +0000

In the recent past India hasn’t known any revolutions in its true sense; however that has changed with the introduction of DTH. It has transformed the face of television viewing beyond one’s initial expectations. The direct-to-home (DTH) industry in India, currently standing at about 33 million subscribers and seven players is expected to soar to 45 million in 2014 and 58 million by 2020. This increase is expected despite the fact that the industry faces several issues such as high cost of acquisition of content and subscribers, and various taxes like entertainment tax and service tax. Although this industry is in nascent stages, the sector is growing at a fast pace with enormous potential for growth. According to research report by Media Partners Asia titled ‘Asia Pacific Pay-TV and Broadband Markets 2010’, the Indian DTH market is said to be growing at a much faster pace as compared to other countries. India is poised to become world’s largest DTH market with 36.1 million subscribers, overtaking USA.

Initially considered as something that would merely replace cable TV, not many would have imagined that it would revitalize India’s journey to media digitization. Characterized by being wireless, DTH brought alive the dream of affordable home entertainment to rural households. The existence of dominant players like Dish TV, DD Direct, Tata Sky, Sun Direct, Big Digital TV, Videocon and Airtel have only enhanced the competition within the industry and this space is far from saturation. There is a complete untapped substantially potential market of 100 million household that have no access to cable or terrestrial TV.

Umesh Rao, Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, Reliance Digital TV said, “The DTH industry has come a long way since its inception. With cut throat competition and the ongoing price war, marketers are becoming increasingly innovative with their strategies to retain and attract more customers.”

According to a senior official from Airtel, the DTH platform has also provided the advertisement space tremendous opportunities. It is now the obvious choice for brands to advertise and take advantage of this medium with its growing number of subscribers.

He further said that with an increasing base of customers Airtel was becoming the choice of many brands to use the advertising assets on our platform namely in the PPV section, the home page and the loading screen. “Prominent brands like Pepsico, Coca Cola, HUL, Yahoo, Tag Huer and more have been advertising on Airtel digital TV. Airtel digital TV currently provides the clients with a number of unique properties for advertising namely, Loading Screen, EPG:iFrame Home Page, EPG:iFrame Inner Page, Pay Per View and Red Button Application,” he said.

Rao further agreed to the fact that one could be as innovative as one wished on a DTH platform in terms of advertising. There are lots of hard facts where DTH is concerned. It accounts for a third of the cable and satellite viewership in India. Further, research shows that DTH viewers spend more time on entertainment, sports and news channels than the average cable customer. “This has made advertising on DTH an exciting option for marketers. Home Screens- the default channel that appears immediately after a viewer switches on his Set Top Box provides a lucrative option for advertisers,” Rao added.

“Companies can use this space for long format advertisements or event snapshots, an option that cannot be explored in the middle of a popular show. Besides home screens, marketers are also creating ads which integrate brands to value added services on DTH platforms. For example, Travel destinations can be marketed on iHolidays- the travel service option available on Reliance Digital TV. Similarly, Retail stores or Consumer electronics could be advertised using the iShopping service,” Rao further explained.

This week we have seen how the DTH industry has evolved over the last seven odd years. Also we have elaborated on the kind of growth rate expected within this space. Apart from the immense opportunities this space provides, this article has also articulated the innovational freedom this platform offers to the advertisers.

Tune into this space next week for Part II of DTH to find out how VAS, technology and content make a distinct difference in establishing one player from the other. | By Janees Antoo [janees(at)adgully.com]

Sun Direct to telecast DLF IPL 2010 in ‘HD format’ on Set Max!

Adgully Bureau — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 01:30:59 +0000

Sun Direct – the country’s second largest direct-to-home (DTH) player, recently, tied up with Set Max to telecast DLF Indian Premiere League (IPL) Season 3 matches in high definition (HD) format on Set Max.

Set Max – it is Sony’s Entertainment Television Network’s channel that provides its viewers a mix of Hindi Movies and cricket. It is the home of Indian Premier League (IPL) which is the history making cricket event in the world.

Sun Direct will provide the HD feed of the matches from March 12 2010. The telecast feed will not carry any advertisements, giving viewers uninterrupted match experience. Also, Sun Direct HD will for the first time telecast an Advertisement free service.

As of now, Sun Direct offers 5 channels in the HD format – National Geographic HD, Sun TV HD, Colors HD service, Discovery World HD and a Tamil or Telugu movie service.

SET Max & Organisers will keep an eye on ambush marketing, IPL 2010

Adgully Bureau — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:47:03 +0000

SET Max, an official broadcaster and the organisers have decided that nothing unofficial will happen in the Indian Premier League (IPL), this time. To do so, SET Max and the organisers plans to take a number of measures to check waylay marketing at the Tewnty20 match on the ground and television.

The measures taken by the orgnisers will involve – they plan to set up an ‘ambush protection team’ which will avoid the competing advertisers from using T-shirts, poster and tattoos to take benefit.
Other measures they plan to take up involves:

Product Exclusivity:

The 4 consumer durable sponsors – LG, Samsung, Godrej & Boyce and Videocon, are paying Rs 40-50 crore each. Each sponsors will advertise different categories of products like – LG will advertise LCD TV, Samsung will market corporate campaign, Godrej & Boyce will promote Home appliances and Videocon will advertise Mobile phones.

Vodafone has bought both on-ground and on-air rights for near Rs 55 crore, will be given protection.
Airtel will advertise only on DTH services. And, Nokia will run only corporate campaign.
On Firm Ground:

IMG – which also manages an ambush protection team will keep an eye on the on-ground violation. Around 5 eagle eyes will be placed inside the stadium to provide help.

There are 8 on-ground slots out of which 5 are sold to – Vodafone, Citigroup, Hero Honda, Kingfisher and DLF for a 5 year contract, in Rs 15 – 30 crore. The other 3 slots will be sold at premiere rates as the tournament comes near.

However, DLF logo will be seen on the most visible spots like – stumps, bowlers end, fences, and LED screens.
Team Play:

Eight IPL franchisee teams have protected their Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and Trademark rights in India. And, 8 other cricket playing nations for their merchandise and logos.

As reported by media, Sundar Raman, CEO, IPL said, “We will protect our sponsors right by having stringent ambush protection team in place on the ground that will monitor and control ambush by the competing advertisers who are non-entitled to any such activity.”

Dish TV narrows its net loss

Adgully Bureau — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:15:44 +0000

DTH company, Dish TV, has reduced its Q2 net loss as the subscriber’s list is increasing by every passing day.

The company has has posted a net loss of Rs 561.34 million, significantly lower than Rs 1.54 billion in the earlier-year period.

Dish TV expects the subscriber ramp up to continue in the third quarter. In the month of October, the DTH operator has mopped up 300000 subscribers.

I&B to regulate viewers

Adgully Bureau — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:04:04 +0000

Information & Broadcasting (I&B) ministry has decided to set a deadline for the television viewers to shift from cable network to digital television or conditional access system (CAS) voluntarily before making it a mandatory service.

CAS helps receive digital television signals that allow the consumer to gain access to better picture and sound quality. This also helps the consumer to pay only for the channels he or she wants to subscribe to as against paying for all channels beamed by local cable operators.

I&B ministry is also expected to finalise its strategy on headend-in-the sky (HITS). HITS is a satellite service that allows for a multi-system operator structure to receive television signals through the satellite from broadcasters. The digital signals are then transmitted to cable operators and eventually to the television viewer through cable.

No tan tana tan with DTH!

Adgully Bureau — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:10:48 +0000

The DTH industry, which has invested Rs 250 billion to build scale into their business model, is badly hurting their pockets. Dragged down by low ARPUs (average revenue per user), high customer acquisition costs and exorbitant taxation, DTH companies are bleeding profusely.

As quoted in media, The DTH sector has piled up a subscriber base of 17.5 million over the first five years. The total investment stands at Rs 250 billion and all of us are bleeding,” said Vikram Kaushik, managing director and chief executive officer, Tata Sky.

The under-reporting by the cable TV operators is keeping ARPUs artifically low and hurting everybody. “This is the crux of the problem and Trai has not understood this,” said Kaushik, who heads a DTH service that has the “best” and the “healthiest” ARPU among all the operators in the country.

Sun Direct, which has the fastest run in subscriber growth, has an ARPU of under Rs 100 as against Tata Sky’s Rs 200.