MUMBAI: Direct-to-home (DTH) services provider Tata Sky has added English comedy channel, Comedy Central, on its platform.

Comedy Central, the latest channel from the Viacom18 stable, will be available on channel no 218 on Tata Sky platform in its English Entertainment pack.

Priced at Rs 50 per month, the English Entertainment pack has nine more channels- AXN, BBC Entertainment, Discovery Turbo, Fox Crime, FX, NDTV Good Times, Star World, TLC and Zee Café.

Comedy Central, has a mix of various comedy genres such as sitcoms, stand-up and gags, British comedy, sketch comedy, etc.

The channel’s programming line-up includes shows such as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and South Park along with other global hits such as Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock, The Office, Seinfeld, The Wonder Years and That 70s Show.

Tata Sky claims a subscriber base of over 8 million connections.

Source: Indiantelevision.com

Tata Sky has managed to surprise subscribers with technology innovations ever since its launch; the latest being Tata Sky Video on Demand which includes Catch Up TV and VoD Movie Library. Sanjeev Sinha caught up with Mr. Vikram Mehra, Chief Marketing Officer, Tata Sky, for his views on how Tata Sky is ready to change the way we see DTH in India. Excerpts:

There have been many innovations in the DTH industry since its inception. Are there any more future technologies in the loop?

Tata Sky has always been in the forefront of introducing future technologies and innovations in the Indian DTH industry. First it was a unique range of interactive services, then the bi-lingual guide followed by the PVR (Personal Video Recorder), Gaming, High Definition and Mobile Access which provides consumers a unique social experience. The latest addition to the technology leadership is the launch of our latest Video on Demand (VoD) service that includes ‘Catch Up TV’ and VoD Movie Library. Catch Up TV is a service that allows its Tata Sky+ HD subscribers to watch their favourite TV show even after the original broadcast without the need to record. This unique service will give subscribers access to select TV shows that can be downloaded from the Tata Sky server and viewed at their convenience. The VoD Movie Library is an assortment of old and new movies that will be available to the subscriber for easy downloads. It will host over 500-1000 movie titles across multiple genres and languages in digital quality. Subscribers can choose from erstwhile Kishore Kumar, Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan movies to contemporary movies with Ranbir Kapoor, Hritihik Roshan & Aamir Khan etc

What is fuelling the growth of DTH services in India?

The DTH industry continues to expand rapidly and there are no signs of a slowdown in this industry. Given the superior quality in terms of viewing and interactivity, the number of DTH subscribers will continue to grow. One of the key reasons is the technology progression and overall value proposition that is simplifying and enhancing consumer’s television viewing experience that is driving the growth of DTH services in India. Another important catalyst for growth of DTH is customer service since it is a key differentiator between the DTH players and the unorganized service providers. Cheap pricing can no longer be an excuse for poor customer service and players who focus on customer needs will flourish. Hence, at Tata Sky we have several call centers manned by over 1,200 people and dealing in 11 languages 24×7 to ensure that all our users find it easy to interact with us and help us to serve them better.

There seems to be a huge amount of buzz in High Definition these days. But what about its market potential and consumer expectations?

Although the concept of HD is relatively new, it is fast becoming a game changer in the Indian DTH market. However, the growth of HD depends on two key factors — content and pricing. It is imperative that the content that is marketed as HD is genuinely shot using high definition cameras. The current trend of selling up-converted channels as HD will do a grave damage as the customer will feel cheated. Pricing is important for market penetration. Last year, Tata Sky launched its HD box at an affordable price point of just Rs 2599. Nowhere in the world has HD technology been offered at such great value by any DTH operator. Our aim was to make HD part of a colossal number of Indian households across the country. We followed that up with the launch of our HD PVR box that allows you to record live content in HD as well. All our HD content is available as part of our HD pack (Rs 75) which any subscriber irrespective of their base pack can take. Broadcasters today are providing Tru HD content in all formats of Movies, Sports, GECs, etc. This is inevitably going to lead to higher penetration of HD technology. We believe it to be the future of TV viewing and see a huge potential with DTH especially driving it growth.

Tata Sky currently offers around 8 HD channels while some of its competitors claim to offer as many as 40 HD channels. Why this big difference?

As a technology leader, we believe in providing the best to our consumers and in its original form. As a policy we don’t launch upconverted HD channels on our platforms. All our HD channels are Asli HD channels, shot using HD cameras. Our current lineup has Sports (ESPN, Star Cricket), Movies (Star Movies, Star Gold), GEC, Infotainment etc. Many more channels will be launched in future. Our endeavor is to offer the best HD content including last Cricket World Cup & IPL to our viewers. The upcoming India-Aus series will also be available on HD to our subscribers. It is crucial that the consumers are educated about the difference between the multiple forms of HD that is currently being offered. At Tata Sky our aim has always been to offer greater value and most importantly in its purest form and we would continue on this principle. We currently provide 8 true HD channels on our platform and would continue to add more channels to our bouquet as and when it is launched in its purest form.

What are your future growth strategies and plans? Are you also going to introduce some new features and technologies in near future?

Our overall strategy has always been to offer our consumers greater value by introducing a host of unique innovations and services. The latest being the launch of our VoD service and we except to double our current PVR subscriber base in the next couple of years. As for future features and technologies, we have always proved to be one of the best and will continue to do so by launching technologically advanced features as per our customers’ demands.

Source: The Economic Times

New Delhi: Sweden’s telecom and media equipment maker Ericsson today said it has supplied Tata Sky with an advanced TV system, which will help viewers watch on-demand and catch-up TV. The deployment is one of the first in the world to be based on Ericsson’s Media Delivery Network (MDN), a media-centric solution for the distribution, delivery and content management, Ericsson said in a statement.

Catch-up TV allows subscribers to watch programmes from previous days, while on-demand facilitates watching films from Tata Sky’s movie library. Ericsson already has a partnership with Tata Sky for providing head-end system for the launch of high definition (HD) services this year.

“We are pleased to provide the ability (to subscribers) to select their favourites from our exciting range of programmes on-demand, whenever they want to watch them,” Tata Sky Chief Technology Officer Yigs Riza said.

Ericsson will also provide managed services for the operation and maintenance of the project. “The pay-TV market in India has now reached over 100

million subscribers. Considering the market potential, operators are looking at offering differentiated services in this increasingly competitive environment,” Ericsson India President and Head of Region Fredrik Jejdling said.

Source: IBNLive.com

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, Monday, December 05, 2011 – After introducing a host of industry firsts, Tata Sky, the technology leader in the Indian DTH industry is all set to introduce yet another first with the launch of Video on Demand (VoD).

Tata Sky VoD service will include Catch Up TV and VoD library of movies & TV concerts for subscribers for easy download.

Tata Sky’s Video on Demand

• Offers Choice and Convenience to subscribers
• Catch Up TV – Last 5 days of your favourite TV shows is now available on Catch Up TV after the original broadcast
• VoD Movie Library – 500 -1000 movie titles across multiple genres
• TV shows, Movies, TV Concerts now available to subscribers at their convenience
• Title based search functionality

‘Catch Up TV’ – a service that allows its Tata Sky+ HD subscribers to watch their favourite TV show even after the original broadcast without the need to record. This unique service will give subscribers access to select TV shows that can be downloaded from the Tata Sky server and viewed at their convenience.

Currently, Catch Up TV will be providing the Top shows from channels like Star Plus, Colors, SAB TV, NDTV, SONY Entertainment, Channel V etc.

The VoD movie library is an assortment of old and new movies that will be available to the subscriber for easy downloads. It library will host over 500-1000 movie titles across multiple genres and languages in digital quality. Subscribers can choose from erstwhile Kishore Kumar, Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan movies to contemporary movies with Ranbir Kapoor, Hritihik Roshan & Aamir Khan.

The VoD service will be available on the Tata Sky+ HD box and subscribers will just need to connect the Set Top Box to their broadband connection through an Ethernet cable.

Mr. Vikram Mehra, Chief Marketing Officer, Tata Sky Ltd. said, “We strive to remain the pioneers of the DTH industry. The VoD experience on Tata Sky is set to change the way television is seen in India. After extensive consumer research we know that subscribers use the pay-per-view service; however are in the lookout for TV Shows and a larger library of movies. With our pioneering technology, we have ensured that the user-friendly interface of VoD will fulfill consumer demand. Tata Sky will stay committed to giving its viewers the best in television technology.”

As part of the launch phase, Catch Up TV and Movie downloads would be offered to Tata Sky+ subscribers absolutely free for the first month. Thereafter, Catch Up TV will remain as a free service and the movie downloads will have a nominal fee.

So just connect, download and enjoy!

About Tata Sky Ltd.
Tata Sky Ltd., the JV between the TATA Group and STAR is committed to offering viewers the best of pay television through its nationwide satellite television service. Tata Sky offers subscribers a most comprehensive channel line-up ranging from movies, news, entertainment, sports channels and interactive services in DVD quality picture and CD quality sound. For more information on Tata Sky, visit www.tatasky.com.

Direct-to-Home service provider Tata Sky has announced the addition of three new channels to its line-up of channels for its subscriber base of over 8 million connections.

A strong advocate of offering a wide range in every genre, Tata Sky has added Movies Now to increase the Hollywood movie quotient on its platform. Continuing in its endeavour to offer channels that mirror the voice of the nation, Tata Sky has also added Suvarna News 24×7, Asianet’s Kannada news channel, and Zee 24 Ghante Chhattisgarh, the only 24-hour satellite news channel in Chhattisgarh.

English movie channel Movies Now has tied up with a slew of Hollywood studios to procure the best of Hollywood titles. Suvarna News 24×7 is Asianet’s second channel in the Kannada speaking market and functions with the motto of ‘Nera Ditta Nirantara’ (Straight Clear Always).

Zee 24 Ghante Chhattisgarh is based on the core principal of ‘Sawaal Aapka Hai’. Enriched with latest news, quality content, live feeds, Zee 24 Ghante Chhattisgarh is a pioneer channel in the state. The channel will be a part of Tata Sky’s Hindi Regional Pack and would be made available to all subscribers absolutely free.

Source: Exchange4media.com

Direct to Home service provider Tata Sky is testing a Video on Demand service that will enable its subscribers to watch previously telecasted or new content through a broadband connection. However, since the service would require a connection via a LAN cable, it would be restricted to subscribers who own a Tata Sky+ HD set top box, the only one that features an ethernet port.

According to forum postings by some users and a recent tweet by Abhimanyu Radhakrishnan of the Times Group, the company is calling up selected subscribers and offering a trial of the service. In a way, the service would be similar to IPTV services offered by telcos such as MTNL, BSNL and Airtel, which offer their subscribers access to content broadcasted previously upto seven days for selected TV channels, and movies & videos on demand.

A news report in the Hindustan Times had also indicated that Tata Sky was in the final stages of negotiations to launch a Netflix-like video on demand service in India.

- Content tie-ups: This implies that the DTH company would have entered into agreements with broadcasters and content aggregators for carriage through internet protocol, and would have set-up a server infrastructure to store and stream content. All of this needs new investments and expenditure, and the company would certainly look to monetize the stream.

- Only for Tata Sky+ HD: This makes Tata Sky HD+ the only device capable of recording content, and accessing more content in the cloud, in a way substituting its limited storage capacity.

- Bandwidth for VOD; FUP caps?: While two way satellite links are expensive, and would need additional equipment or a different set-up, going the IP way without dedicated tie-ups with ISPs would make the service unfeasible.

With the FUP (Fair Usage Policy) caps on bandwidths and network congestion, we wonder how Tata Sky plans to push the service. It might offer the service free of charge initially, but if it plans to offer subscription packages, it would need dedicated internet plans that offer unlimited data and bypass caps, since the service would involve transfer of a large amount of data. ISPs like Airtel, which also run a competing DTH and IPTV service, might not be interested.

Personally, having used an Airtel 2 Mbps wired connection for accessing video content on a Smart TV, I can say that the experience has been far from satisfactory, with high-quality videos buffering all the time.

I don’t know if Tata Sky might use some compression technique to encode videos to consume less data, and upscale them once they hit the box. But otherwise its unlikely that users will sign-up or pay for the service.

Would you sign-up for a subscription based VOD service?

Source: Medianama.com

Tata Sky has added Zee 24 Ghante Chattisgarh for the regional viewers of Chattisgarh and Suvarna News 24×7 a good channel for the regional viewers of Karnataka. Both the channels are available on Channel no.158 & Channel no.855 respectively.

Zee 24 Ghante Chattisgarh will be part of :

• Old Packaging: Super Hit, Super Value, Super Saver, South Jumbo & South Value
• TruChoice Packaging: Mega and Mega Lite Pack
Add on Pack- Hindi Regional Pack.
It will also be available as an ala carte at Rs. 5pm

Suvarna News 24×7 will be a part of:

• Old Packaging: South Starter, South Value, South Saver, Super Saver, South Jumbo and Super Value
• TruChoice Packaging: Mega Pack and Mega Lite Pack
Add on Pack - Kannada Regional Pack.
It is also available as an ala carte at Rs.5 pm.

Mumbai, October 11, 2011: After pioneering the launch of HD in India, Tata Sky today announced the launch of ESPN HD on its platform.

ESPN HD will showcase exciting sports action in High Definition from ESPN STAR Sports’ stellar line-up of premier international sporting events including soccer, tennis, golf and motor sports among others. Action starts right away on ESPN HD with the live broadcast of the first ever Formula One Indian Grand Prix on October 28th. The highly anticipated 2011-2012 season of the Barclays Premier League will also be showcased live on ESPN HD.

ESPN HD will be part of the HD Gold pack and will be made available just in time for India’s historic Formula One Grand Prix to be held this month. All subscribers who have currently subscribed to the HD Gold Pack will be able to enjoy the channel at no extra cost.

With the introduction of ESPN HD, Tata Sky has now expanded its bouquet of true HD channels to eight.

DTH service provider Tata Sky’s MD and CEO Harit Nagpal’s career started as an export manager in erstwhile Lakme, and later at Pepsi. He was group marketing director at Vodafone Essar before joining Tata Sky. In the past ten years, he has seen the exponential growth of mobile subscribers backed by a continuous drop in call charges, before he moved to the DTH space in Aug 2010. In over a year, he revamped the operator’s customer service infrastructure and repackaged its products to make them more customer-friendly. In an interview to FE’s Sohini Mitter, Nagpal sheds light on synergies between telecom and DTH, the need for outsourcing operations, challenges in penetrating semi-urban markets, shortage of bandwidth and high level of taxation that cripples the sector. Excerpts:

How was the transition from mobile telephony to DTH? Did synergies between the businesses come in handy?

DTH is now at a stage where the telecom industry was eight years ago. Both business are similar in terms of operations. We are not selling packaged goods which the customer buys from a retailer, without getting in touch with us. These are businesses where the customer’s hands have to be held at different stages of his life cycle. And you need to have a strong service infrastructure for that.

Infrastructure must be the biggest challenge to scale up. How did you manage to do this?

Scaling up is always a challenge in high growth phase. The back end and distribution networks have to be strengthened. To service 10 million customers, you need skilled people. Hence, it is important to outsource parts of operation, while keeping process and quality control to yourself. It also helps the operator to focus on his product and services.

What is your outsourcing strategy?

Anything that requires scale is outsourced. Distribution and logistics are outsourced. There are separate distribution partners in every geography. Customer service management, field repairs and installations are completely outsourced. This is an efficient way of customer retention and acquisition. But, design and quality control is handled internally. It helps us to keep tabs on customer demands and re-package our products accordingly.

When you entered the market, you positioned yourself as a premium DTH player. With your recent changes in pack prices, are you trying to become mass?

It isn’t re-pricing, but customising the product. We realised that customers were not at ease with packs called ‘Gold and Silver’. That was the starting point of our genre-based packages like English Movies or Hindi News etc. Customisation happens in every category. When you enter the market, you aim for the creamy layer. To increase penetration, you have to re-package. The challenge lies in catering to the top-end customer who you picked up five years ago and the new one in a non-metro market, who’s looking for affordable entertainment.

Is penetration in the semi-urban/rural market challenging?

The biggest challenge in these markets is the presence of DD Direct whose subscriber base is anything between 7-27 million. If somebody’s charging half my price, I can create a low-cost package with lesser content. But if somebody is selling for free, I can’t compete against that. If entertainment and news is such staple diet that the government is forced to provide it free of cost, then why is entertainment tax levied when DTH platforms provide it? How is addressing the addressable digitisation agenda? This is a dichotomy we haven’t understood. Despite this, there’s always a discerning customer who opts for a full bouquet of channels and pays for it.

DTH broadcasters cry hoarse over high taxes. How does it hurt you?

It is too high a tax for a nascent industry which is yet to break-even. It is going through the investment phase and a 30% tax is crippling operators. In certain states, it is close to 40%. Despite DTH, occupying only 20-25% of the total pay TV market, we contribute by way of taxes and revenue share, equal to what cable TV does. That speaks for itself.

Has Trai made any recommendations regarding the tax structure?

We are in touch with the government. Trai has recommended a brief tax holiday for DTH operators. We don’t want taxes to be abolished, but seek respite. It will allow us to plough the money back into the system and deliver addressable digitisation much faster. We are hoping that the issue of taxation will be addressed in the 11th Five-Year Plan and entertainment tax will get subsumed in GST too.

The government has given the nod for 700 new channels. Is there enough bandwidth to support it?

Bandwidth is a challenge in every tech-based sector. The need is stronger for the government and the broadcasters to move from analogue to digital, than it is for the customer. Isro is working with operators to help resolve the shortage. Tata Sky has exhausted its satellite capacity. As soon as we get more bandwidth, we will carry more channels that the customer wants.

Does the presence of a global partner like Sky help you in operations?

Technology and content management are the two key areas, where Sky’s expertise and experience comes into play. They understand the operation in and out, while we understand the geography and demands of the local customer. It is a heady mix of both.

How will 74% FDI change the DTH landscape?

The market is still growing. With every new entrant the activity increases for the entire category and benefits everybody. But the high level of taxation will act as a deterrent for foreign players. In such a competitive space, where there’s very little scope for increasing prices, making money is difficult. Foreign investors will put money in businesses that give more returns in quick time.

Source: The Financial Express

Tata Sky is attempting to calibrate its offerings based on feedback, while telling the audience it is ‘premium’ only on offering, not price.

Creating a certain perception about a category or brand is, arguably, easier than changing entrenched perceptions. The latter challenge for the DTH category, and itself in particular, is what Tata Sky has taken up — starting with the perception that it is ‘expensive’ and ‘inflexible’. And, like any services category, DTH is replete with challenges of customer dissatisfaction — proof of which is available in abundance on the Internet.

The dissonance between consumer perception on parameters such as pricing and service quality, and what is actually on offer, was accentuated by lack of consumer awareness, thanks in large part to lack of communication, argues Vikram Mehra, Tata Sky’s Chief Marketing Officer, in conversation with BrandLine.

The brand says it has brought down pricing, introduced new packages, tightened the back-end on service, and introduced value-additions born of consumer feedback. A series of TV commercials are on air, and Mehra reveals that channel partner education is in focus too.

He says, “We’re still not flawless. We still have issues. But we try to not make commitments in the market till the time we are reasonably comfortable that our team knows what it is talking about.” More excerpts:

What are the perceptions you are addressing, and how are you correcting them (besides through the ad campaign)?

DTH as a category and Tata Sky in particular were perceived by some segments as expensive and inflexible. There was also a perception that no package on Tata Sky would cost less than Rs 400 or so a month, which is far from the truth. We have packages that start at Rs 150 and customised packages at 185, Rs 250 and so on.

We’ve also brought down prices. We’ve slashed our service charges drastically. Today, I think we’re the only service provider to offer a one-year warranty not just on the set-top box (STB) but on the entire wiring and set-up. After that, you can go in for an AMC, or you can call us with a service request, for which we’ve brought down the charge to a flat rate of Rs 125.

And, any benefit we offer subscribers is not limited to new subscribers. When there is a price hike, we protect our old subscribers for at least six months. When there is a price drop, it goes to them immediately.

In multiple television households, people didn’t realise that we only charge Rs 160 per month for the second, third and fourth connections. Then there was the belief that you get the goodies only when you join. We’ve introduced a bonus for any customer who tops up for Rs 301.

When people go on vacation, they don’t pay for electricity, the home phone, or newspapers, and the like. So why should they pay for their TV connection, whether it’s DTH or cable? We’ve launched an annual subscription holiday.

The entire focus is on how we can make their lives as simple as possible, from the choice of packages to relocation assistance. Many of the initiatives have been kicking in over the last 10 months or so. Now that we know our house is in complete order, we’re going out and talking about it.

One hears that DTH subscribers going in for a second connection in the house — often go in for a cable connection — because of the transmission issues during rain. Is that true?

No KU band-based DTH service (on which all providers in India operate) can claim that rain fade (transmission break during rains) will never happen.

The satellite transmits signals on to the surface of the dish, which reflects them on to a centre arm, which then sends it through the cable to your STB. The moment rain droplets start becoming big, the signal starts getting refracted. So unless you have 1.5-metre dish antennas (where even if signals get refracted they are collected by the larger surface of the dish), rain fade will happen. The bigger dish antennas cannot be put up at every home.

You can reduce the possibility of that happening by increasing the power of the signal, you can do a little bit about the size of the dish — we are doing all that. But the fact is that you cannot protect it 100 per cent.

In the case of multiple television households where all the TVs are used — as against a back-up TV — why would anyone compromise with analogue quality, when they are used to digital quality on through DTH? Customers will find it difficult to compromise on quality.

In a year of really heavy monsoons, we are talking of 20 to 22 minutes of cumulative rain fade. If the monsoon is not so heavy, it’d be 10 to 15 minutes. For that, is it worth suffering analogue picture quality through the year?

Every utility service has a vulnerable point. And this is not just an issue with DTH here. It holds in Japan, the US, Australia, Malaysia and parts of Europe.

High-definition channels consume greater bandwidth, which is said to be an issue …

A HD channel consumes four to five times the bandwidth of a normal channel. But that has not stopped us from getting any real HD channel. There are very few native HD channels in the market today. Yes, I accept that there are a couple that are not on our platform — if they are popular, we will look at those channels too.

Bandwidth is a crunch. Given the constraints, we try to achieve the best balance between high definition, value-added services and regional channels. Channels do keep getting added on at all times. UTV Stars has just been launched. We are the first ones to get it on the platform — and we are supposed to have bandwidth issues!

We went in for an audience measurement system from the word go — we were working with aMap at that time. We have customer panels in place and we get data on a weekly basis. On a random basis, we try and get feedback on what content people want on the 80,000 calls that land at the call centre each day.

There are over 450 channels — we cannot accommodate that many. Based on a comprehensive understanding of which channels are in demand, they come on to the platform. If customers are asking for it, they get it.

There is a view that DTH packages are going the cellular tariffs way. It gets so confusing that you end up choosing the flat fee mega pack, with all the channels …

The rates have actually come down, drastically. I don’t think anyone has made a clear, genre-based packaging like we have. What’s the use of packages if the consumer always feels deprived of something?

Since last October, our packages have become genre-based. All 200 channels are available on an a la carte basis, and all 200 are classified into genres. And then there are combination packages.

We have a humongous number of people who pick the Rs 250 pack, and on top of that, they want an HBO or a Star Movies. We’re not saying, “I’ll give you Cartoon Network but not Pogo”. Take what you want — none, one or both, or all the channels in that genre.

Now, we also call every new customer within three days of their joining, and lead them through anything that’s missing on their platform, or a package that can get them more value for money.

Are physical recharges at retail points still the majority channel? Are they equipped to understand packages and guide customers?

Credit card-based recharge through the call centres and Web recharges are proving increasingly popular, but the majority of recharges would still be at retail outlets.

It is a challenge. And we are not running away from it. Which is why, for seven to eight months now, every customer gets a call on the third day of their joining. You may say, ‘So what’s the big deal with placing a call?’

Please also see the cost to us with each additional call. We’re making the call to ensure that the customer ends up making the right choice.

At times, customers end up with a package that’s much more expensive than what they actually want. We downgrade people to more optimal packages.

How big is the base on your annual mega pack, on which you get all channels?

Large … very large.

Is that because the other choices are so confusing?

It’s not because the other packages are confusing; it’s about convenience. Also, mega pack customers get all service charges free; all relocations free. If you’re out of warranty and something goes wrong, we’ll repair it free of cost. And with the mega pack, you will automatically get to watch every new channel added on the platform. The mega pack is positioned to give the ultimate in convenience.

This is evident from the popularity of even the Rs 9,900 mega pack — for two years, everything that’s available on Tata Sky is available to you. And people are buying it, because it’s convenient.

Source: Business Line