Watcho has seen a lot of interest from youth-focused brands: Sukhpreet Singh

The pandemic and stay-at-home over the last 3 months have brought about a significant shift in the way people are now keeping themselves engaged on the entertainment front. With growing number of subscribers, OTT players are revisiting their strategies and bringing in fresh ideas and content to retain their current viewers and also attract new subscribers.

With India entering the Unlock mode and shootings for films, TV serials and web series gradually commencing, the race to offer differentiated and meaningful content to engage with the audiences has gathered momentum. On the DTH front brands are trying to ensure that uninterrupted services are offered, backed by prompt customer support.

Dish TV, along with its OTT platform Watcho have been very active during the lockdown period, offering quite a few content innovations to its subscribers. To get a deeper understanding of how Dish TV and Watcho are navigating these challenging times, Adgully spoke to Sukhpreet Singh, Corporate Head - Marketing, Dish TV India & Watcho.

Also Read: Watcho sees 50% surge in content consumption

The pandemic situation and the lockdown have forced people to Work From Home (WFH) and their source of entertainment is either TV or Mobile. What has been your strategy to keep the momentum going with the current subscribers? Have you acquired new customers during the period?

The lockdown forced most of us inside our homes and TV was the primary family entertainment medium, supplemented by OTT on mobiles as individual viewing. We saw an increase in our subscriber base, not just for our mainline DTH brands – DishTV and D2H, but also for our OTT brand ‘Watcho’. Our strategy was to ensure that our services are uninterrupted, despite engineers not able to visit homes due to lockdown in many areas. In addition, we increased on TV and other modes of direct to subscriber communication on online recharge offers and ease of online recharge. Since fresh content has stopped on many channels, we increased focus on our unique content available on our VAS services.
Since many subscribers were unable to get out of their homes to recharge, plus retailers being shut in many areas due to lockdown, we increased our extended credit period offers for customers from 3 days to 5 days. We also launched a new facility for our subscribers to recharge for any other of our subscribers under the ‘Friends and Family Recharge’ in D2H and ‘Recharge for a Friend’ in DishTV. We also allowed our retailers to extend credit period offers to their customers. These initiatives enabled our customers to continue to enjoy our services without having to step outside the safety of their homes.

Have any concerted efforts been made to also educate people about COVID-19 through Dish TV? If so, can you please elaborate the same?

DishTV and D2H were the only platforms to launch exclusive COVID education channels (Dish POSITIVE and D2H POSITIVE). These channels focused on authentic and positive news and also ways to navigate the crisis without getting overwhelmed. We got a huge response to this initiative as people were bombarded with negative news, rumors, and fake news from various sources. Our channels were a destination for authenticity and positive news and practical help.

When it comes to the OTT platforms, there is stiff competition to gain a larger share of the pie. How is Watcho as an OTT platform different from the rest of the competition and what is the differentiation you are providing for customers to stay on your platform?

Watcho has a very sharply defined audience who is not a passive consumer of content, but also wants to showcase their skills and talent. Hence, we have short duration snackable exclusive shows, but also a very modern UGC platform to showcase skills and get gratified.
Unique features of Watcho:

• Strong intriguing concept driven shows
• Seamless Hybrid Experience: Original Content + Linear TV + Catchup
• Range of Genres - Comedy, Crime, Thriller, Reality, Drama, Horror, Lifestyle
• Topical Influencer Driven- Leveraging Digital Celebrities
• UGC (User Generated Content) platform with gratification

On your platform, you have rolled out 33 ‘Swayam Prabha’ educational channels, an initiative by the HRD Ministry. How have you leveraged this and what kind of response you are getting from the audience?

Yes, we had the 33 educational channels even before the pandemic. We believe satellite TV is not just a medium of entertainment, but also the most cost-effective medium to educate and bridge the digital divide. There are several students across the country who do not have access to smartphones/ laptops and expensive online classes, through Swayam Prabha channels, students can have access to free lessons available from teachers from the best of the institutes. We see it as our duty to bring these channels to the public and help the Government in its mission. 
In addition, we were the first DTH company in India to add the new educational channel, ‘Victors’, which is an initiative of the Government of Kerala, on both our platforms. The addition of this channel has helped our Kerala subscribers with young children to stay connected with us.

Have you witnessed any spike in brands leveraging your OTT platform? What kinds of brands are coming on board?

On Watcho, our focus right now is to accumulate quality audiences. We have integrated some brands in our shows basis the fitment with the creative plot. We have seen a lot of interest from youth-focused brands, especially those wanting to reach out to the youngsters and families in Tier 2 and 3 towns.

How are you managing to keep your content line-up live and fresh? How is the content pipeline looking for the next few months? You have announced partnerships with entertainment apps like MX Player, Hoi Choi, DocuBay. How is it helping you and what’s the advantage for you?

We have launched shows every month even in the lockdown period and have a strong pipeline, especially ‘intrigue’ based shows, drama, inspiration, and lifestyle genres. Our partnerships with all leading OTT players are aimed at bringing online content from the best of providers to our hybrid devices under the umbrella of Dish SMRT and D2H stream & Magic. We want to ensure that the best of content reaches our subscribers on any screen – be it TV, mobile, laptop, notebook, or desktop.