Archive for April, 2009
Dish TV changes tagline, product mix, as DTH competition grows
Source: Business Standard Remember the commercial where Shah Rukh Khan sits on a terrace in a couch, asking the world why aren’t they replacing their cable connection with Dish TV? It’s gone now. Dish has dumped its wish karo tagline and will instead get Khan to plug it as a sabse zyaada provider. Explains Salil Kapoor, COO, Dish TV: “Two years back, when we launched the wish karo campaign, we were competing with cable operators and the poor quality of delivered content. Now, with rising competition among DTH players, there was a need to re-establish our brand as the largest content provider.” Dish »»»
DTH additions dip 35%, lower subscriber spend another worry
Source: Business Standard With a drop of over 35 per cent in subscriber additions, the fourth quarter of the 2009 fiscal delivered the lowest growth in new direct-to-home (DTH) customers in the five-player private market. As opposed to an average gross addition of around two million in the first three quarters of the last fiscal, only around 1.3 million subscribers were added in the fourth quarter (January to March), said industry sources. And average revenue per user (ARPU) has seen a decline of up to 50 per cent among the new users added in the fourth quarter. 2008-09 saw over 7.5 million new »»»
Aksh Optifibre’s icontrol IPTV introduces Time Shift feature
Source: Businessofcinema.com MUMBAI: Aksh Optifibre’s icontrol IPTV has launched the Time Shift feature on pay channels including Sony, Sab, and Discovery along with free to air channels. icontrol is the first IPTV provider in India to introduce the Time Shift functionality. This feature empowers viewers to better plan their viewing experience by giving the freedom to rewind, pause or forward already televised programmes. The future of television, icontrol allows viewers to rewind programmes of last three days. Unlike other DTH providers a subscriber need not record manually to view it again, »»»
Aksh Optifibre adds time shifting capability to IPTV service
Source: ipTVnews Indian IPTV operator Aksh Optifibre, which delivers its service ‘icontrol’ over the fixed-line networks of telcos including MTNL and BSNL, has introduced time shifting features for a number of popular pay channels, including Sony, SAB and Discovery. The new feature enables subscribers to pause, rewind and fast-forward programmes from the past three days, with the time shifting controlled from a backend server. Aksh Optifibre’s icontrol service offers over 125 linear channels, as well as a shopping platform called ‘icontrol mall’, a video-on-demand »»»
Trai to issue DTH tariff recommendations within 2 months
Source: Indiantelevision.com NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will release its recommendations on DTH tariff regulations and other issues within two months. “The consultation paper was issued with the motive of bringing a level playing field for the DTH operators. We will be coming out with our recommendations on DTH tariff within two months,” Trai acting chairman AK Sawhney told Indiantelevision.com. The broadcast sector regulator, which had issued a consultation paper on issues relating to tariff regulation on 6 March, is seeking views from all the stakeholders »»»
Lower DTH losses help Bharti beat expectations
Source: Livemint.com Telecom company Bharti Airtel Ltd’s reported profit for the quarter ended March was slightly ahead of street expectations, but analysts weren’t enthused about the results. To start with, revenue growth was unexciting in each of the company’s business segments. Total revenues grew by just 2% and the key wireless business reported a mere 3.6% growth in revenues, compared with an average of over 7.4% in the preceding three quarters. The wireline and broadband business grew by just 1.5%, and corporate services and long distance fell by about 1%. Wireless revenues were affected »»»
BIG TV launches Express Service to address customer queries within 2 hours
Source: PR-inside.com • Establishes service infrastructure across 500 towns in India• Decentralizes CRM function to enhance market response time• Extends customer service timings until midnight BIG TV, the DTH arm of Reliance ADA Group, is launching Premium Express Service across India. This is an unique after-sales service initiative from BIG TV with the primary objective to cut down market response time. BIG TV’s Premium Express Service is launched with a promise of addressing customer queries and resolve customer problems within 2 hours. The company has launched this service in select »»»
