Reliance BIG TV (RBTV) the leading Direct- to- Home (DTH) service provider in the country has added DD Sports in High definition for the upcoming Commonwealth Games. Reliance BIG TV subscribers can now enjoy all the heart- throbbing action of the Commonwealth Games LIVE in High- Definition, on their Reliance BIG TV High Definition cum Digital Video Recorder box (HD- DVR).

And that’s not all…

You can also watch your favourite regional channels including Sakshi, Suvarna and DY 365 for 24 X 7 news, Aaseervatham TV for the discovery of the divine and Ruposhi Bangla and Subhavaartha TV for non- stop entertainment.

With this addition, over 260 channels are now being offered by Reliance BIG TV.

Adding joy to the celebratory atmosphere is Reliance BIG TV’s special festive pricing on its Set- Top- Box (STB).

Customers can now avail the Reliance BIG TV Set Top Box for just Rs. 1190 with 2 months Silver Pack for Non South and at Rs. 1390 with 4 months Value Pack and sports channels for the Southern region.

Umesh Rao, Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, Reliance BIG TV, said, “There is a lot of buzz around Commonwealth Games. Reliance BIG TV is proud to have all the exciting CWG sporting action LIVE in High- Definition on its platform and will continue to pursue its strategy of providing differentiated content to its customers at great value. We are also looking at an aggressive volume push this season across 10,000 towns and plan to forge cross category alliances to bring maximum value to our consumers.”

Source: India Infoline Limited

Despite fierce competition among direct to home (DTH) companies, consumers are unlikely to see any further reduction in prices of new connections. Reducing costs would mean incurring more costs for the DTH players, who are yet to achieve a break-even.

Tata Sky recently came out with new pricing of Rs 999, under which it offers only the equipment (set-top-box). The consumer is now free to choose the content package. “It is an unconditional offer, with no strings attached,” Mr Vikram Mehra, CMO, Tata Sky said.

Rivals Dish TV, Sun Direct, Airtel Digital and Reliance Big TV claimed they were already in the same price band of around Rs 900 if the cost of hardware is considered on a standalone basis. As they bundle content with new connection, the package costs range between Rs 1,399 and Rs 1,599 for various players. “We don’t have any plans to bring down our prices,” said Mr Sanjay Behl, CEO of Reliance Big TV. “In fact, we command a premium of around 20 per cent in the market place, which we want to maintain,” Mr Behl added.

Instead of focussing on costs, Reliance plans to invest in strengthening its product offering. “We plan to add 12 more channels in next two weeks,” Mr Behl said. Reliance currently offers 254 channels.

Dish TV, the market leader with over 8 million subscribers, has no plans to repackage its costs in response to Tata Sky’s move. “We have no confirmed plans as of now,” said Mr Salil Kapur, COO, Dish TV.

Acquisition cost

Aided by growing volumes and reducing hardware costs, Dish TV has seen a gradual decline in its subscriber acquisition costs (SAC) in the past few quarters. Dish TV’s SAC currently stands at Rs 2,147 in the latest quarter, against Rs 2,487 a year ago.

“Any festival offers that we plan would be worked out keeping in mind our subscriber acquisition costs. We don’t want to incur any extra costs,” Mr Kapur said.

Industry analysts said any further subsidisation of customer acquisition would delay the profitability of these companies. “It (subsidising) may spoil the consumer habit and may not be good for the industry in the long-term,” an analyst said.

“We will see how the market reacts and then decide,” said Mr Tony D’Silva, CEO of Sun Direct. However, the company does not have any plans to bring down the prices, he added.

Stating that there was no need for a price war, Mr Sugato Banerji, CMO, Airtel Digital, said the company might come out with offers for the forthcoming festive season to expand its market share.

Source: The Hindu Business Line

IPTV services in India were introduced some two years ago, but have so far failed to match the success of DTH or cable. Industry experts feel that this is due to the limited launch of the service and a lack of focused marketing efforts.

Bharti and Reliance Communications have launched services only in Delhi and Mumbai, respectively. And although government owned BSNL and MTNL have together launched services in 54 cities, their marketing efforts have only recently started showing results.

Akshoptifiber (iControl) and Smart Digivision (MyWay) together have garnered more than 70,000 customers so far. Smart Digivision plans to offer IPTV services to between 1.6 million and 1.7 million broadband subscribers of BSNL and MTNL in these selected 54 cities which comprise 80 per cent of the country’s broadband subscriber base. Bharti Airtel is also finalising plans to expand services in the top eight cities of the country.

Despite low levels of penetration right now, the future of IPTV is bright. This is clearly evident from the amount of interest shown by biggies such as Google, Cisco, UTStarcom, and CopperGate etc.

Consumer Behaviour

Ericsson’s ConsumerLab recently conducted a study called Multi Screen Media Consumption 2010. Data was collected in China, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, the UK and USA. The sample in the study is representative of more than 300 million consumers.

The study says, “At least once a week, 93 per cent are still watching scheduled ‘linear’ broadcast TV, but the role of broadcast TV is changing owing to the introduction of new distribution channels. More than 70 per cent of consumers surveyed are streaming, downloading or watching recorded broadcast TV on a weekly basis, and 50 per cent are using internet based on demand TV or video, every week”.

While this study has been conducted in other countries, it does give a glimpse of what consumer behaviour will be like. This clearly shows a preference for time shift capability, in which IPTV has the unique capability that enables continuous recording of channels without the user’s intervention.

In India as well, consumers are showing interest in IPTV services. According to a survey by KPMG, 18 per cent people want to retain their landline connection in anticipation of future services such as IPTV. This is a very big number given the fact that IPTV awareness level is very low in the country.

IPTV can not only help check negative growth of the landline business, it can also push up the broadband penetration in the country manifold. Himanshu Sahu, director of sales and engineering, UTStarcom, says, “Availability of TV sets in the country is much higher than that of PC or laptop, and IPTV’s ability to offer internet access can be leveraged to get more broadband customers.”

He added, “IPTV can also be used to provide a whole host of other services like tele education, tele medicine etc. because it enables interactivity.”

Internet over TV, as a concept, is so lucrative that Google has jumped in to provide this technology by introducing Google TV, for which it has collaborated with DISH in the USA, and will offer online TV and a web platform.

Cisco has also recently purchased a Canada-based company ExtendMedia, a provider of software based content management systems (CMS) that manage the entire lifecycle of video content through monetisation for pay media and ad supported business models, which will help Cisco offer solutions to service providers for delivering multi screen offerings.

Lack of Broadband

Limited availability of fixed line broadband in the country is a limiting factor for the launch of mass market IPTV services. But this limitation will be addressed by set top boxes, which use wireless broadband access to deliver IPTV.

Himanshu Sahu of UTStarcom says, “If we can have 2Mbps or more through wireless access, we can provide IPTV service. And both WiMax and LTE standards provide speeds much greater than 2Mbps.”

Akshoptifiber has already showcased a wireless set top box in India, and though the cost is currently three times that of the normal set top box, it will come down drastically once service providers start rolling out services.

Internet through IPTV

UTStarcom is already testing the integration of Google’s Android platform with its set top boxes, which will enable users to enjoy experiences similar to a PC, on the TV. The company has already added services such as online ticket booking through TV.

There are currently 22 million digital TV homes in India which, according to a report by equity research firm IDFC Securities, are set to grow to 86 million by 2015.

These numbers reflect a large user base specially because unlike a laptop or a mobile phone which is more of a personal gadget, a TV set is a shared resource in a home and is used by the entire family. And as Sahu puts it, it is not as complex to use as a PC or a laptop and can therefore be used by elderly as well as technologically naive users.

There are other benefits such as video chats which will provide much better user experience on TV sets thanks to the bigger screen size compared to a conventional PC or laptop.

For a price sensitive market such as India, integrating PC into a TV will mean investment protection for families. TV sets are comparatively cheaper, with conventional cathode ray tube TV prices coming down to below Rs 10,000 for a 29 inch TV.

While IPTV cannot replace a full fledged computer, it can provide capabilities that a cloud based thin client computer can provide which, for most first time users, is more than sufficient.

Applications though IPTV

IPTV not only has the capability of providing net access, it can also be used to push value added services and applications. Gaming is already included in the currently available services. This can be improved by introducing more interactive gaming, for which service providers can charge a fee.

Video conferencing is another area which can be of interest not only for consumers but also for enterprises.

Similarly, TVs can also be used to provide applications similar to what we see on smartphones today.

Source: afaqs! Telecom Yatra

Reliance Communications (RCom), India’s second-largest telecommunications company, plans to hive off its direct-to-home (DTH) and internet protocol TV (IPTV) businesses into a separate company Reliance Digital Works. People familiar with the matter said the company, plans to bring in multi-system operators (MSOs) as stakeholders in the company.

A company spokesperson did not want to comment on the development.

Reliance Digital Works may offer a 25 per cent stake to overseas investors and 10 per cent to multi-system operators for digital cable subscription. The DTH business of Reliance Communications, which offers a direct-to-home satellite TV service under the brand name Big TV, has 2.3 million subscribers.

The development comes just days after Reliance Communications decided to sell a part of its telecom tower business under its subsidiary Reliance Infratel. Earlier this month, the company had taken permission from its board of directors to sell as much as 26 per cent to investors at a premium to its stock price.

The company is also looking at selling another 26 per cent stake and talks are on with a slew of companies, including Etisalat. The company’s stock went up by 2.3 per cent to Rs 191 a share by close of Thursday’s trade on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Source: Business Standard

New Delhi: After placing its film exhibition and processing business Reliance Media Works and FM radio and outdoor advertising business Reliance Media World under separate listed entities, Anil Ambani’s Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) may soon hive off its DTH and IPTV under a new entity—Reliance Digital Works (RDW).

Currently, the group operates its DTH business under the brand name Reliance Big TV, which is a subsidiary of Reliance Communications. RDW, that has existed for some time now, is expected to initiate the process of demerger from RComm soon. RDW may also become the group’s launch vehicle in the cable distribution business, industry sources said.

However, it is not clear whether the group’s foray into cable distribution will be a part of RDW or its subsidiary. Reliance ADAG has been looking for a substantial chunk of cable subscribers to foray into the business of cable distribution which is currently pegged at over Rs 3,500 crore.

While both Reliance Media Works and Reliance Media World are listed entities on the Bombay Stock Exchange, the group has been looking for capital infusion in its growing DTH business–Reliance Big TV. “In near future, the company may look at listing RDW as well,” a source said.

According to investment banking executives, RDW may help the ADA Group unlock the right value for its existing direct-to-home (DTH) and IPTV business. “If any entity gets hold of DTH, cable and IPTV business under one roof, the signals points to the direction of attracting investments,” an investment banker said. “Moreover, the DTH business requires big cash even more now as there are six players competing for the business. Unless the companies are clearly demarcated, foreign investors are not interested,” a senior executive a leading brokerage firm said.

Reliance ADA group could not be reached for comments. Even an e-mail query sent to the company remained unanswered.

While the foreign investment limits for the IPTV sector are kept at 74%, the government is expected to announce an increase in the foreign investment limits for the DTH sector as well–from current 49% to 74%. A similar move may be recommended by the sector regulator for the cable business, Trai insiders said.

“If the norms on foreign investments are at par in DTH, IPTV and the cable business, it will give a big levy to any firm that houses all these services under one company,” a senior executive of an existing cable company said.

Big TV is said to have over 2.3 million DTH subscribers or over 10% market share in a six-player market. For its cable distribution foray, the company is in talks with several large and small cable firms including Digicable. However, when contacted, JS Kohli, CEO, Digicable, said, “I am not selling any stake in Digicable. I am not in talks with anyone.”

Source: The Financial Express

Couch surfing has become more than passive television viewing over the past decade. Indian TV sets now have DVD-like picture quality with loads of value add-ons thanks to new technologies like DTH, CAS and IPTV.

Idiot box goes digital

The country has about 130 million television households, including 96 million Cable & Satellite (C&S) homes. As per TAM, average time spent watching television per day was 153 minutes in 2008

Direct-to-home (DTH): DTH consumers receive digital TV channels’ signals through satellite on their dish antennae which are then transmitted to TV through a set top box (STB)

There are seven players and an estimated 20 million subscribers. Dish TV is the market leader; the others are Tata Sky, Sun TV, DD, Big TV, Airtel digital television and the latest entrant, Videocon’s D2H.

The industry expects at least 40% C&S homes to turn DTH subscribers by 2015

DTH offers pay per view where consumers get access to the latest movies for just Rs 75-100

Conditional Access System (CAS)& digital cable: Cable operators use CAS to compete with DTH, where content is beamed to consumers through STBs. But it is limited to parts of New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. The government is yet to come out with a policy to extend it to other cities

The cable industry remains fragmented. Large multi system operators include WWIL, Hathway and Incablenet besides new generation firms, DEN and Digicable

The government recently announced a headend-in-the-sky policy, allowing MSOs to send signals to local operators through satellite. While it will expedite digitalisation, there are still some loose ends

IPTV: Internet Protocol Television allows subscribers to get television content through broadband internet. MTNL, BSNL and Bharti Airtel are offering this service. IPTV is also a digital service offering more channels and interactive services. It is yet to catch up in India

ET Comment

Connect the dots

Several countries have switched to digital television signals, which is where India still has a long way to go. The government needs to encourage faster digitalisation with clear policies on technologies like CAS. The television viewer will eventually benefit as he will get access to better picture quality, a larger number of channels and more control over what he wants to watch. But the big question is, how long will DTH and cable companies survive on the relatively lower levels of ‘average revenue per user’? Indians’ average monthly spend on pay television services is $3.5 compared to $15 spent by Americans.

Source: The Economic Times