New Delhi: Creating yet another benchmark in technological innovation in the DTH industry, Dish TV India, the country’s largest direct-to-home service provider, announced the launch of Dish truHD+ with an unlimited recording capacity, at an unmatched price of Rs. 2690 for the consumers. The unique feature of Dish truHD+ is its compatibility with any USB device enabling consumers to simply plug and play an existing USB stick/ HDD, and build an entire library of their favorite programmes.

Dish truHD+ will have dual advantage of all HD and DVR features, at the price of existing HD box only! The price of 2690 includes the new Dish truHD+ box along with one month Dish truHD Royale Pack. Further, as a promotional offer Dish TV is providing a 4 GB USB drive free to get the user accustomed to the concept of plugging an external device to use the recording features. The DVR features include Record, rewind, forward, pause live TV etc. What’s more, subscribers can also enable time based and event based recording on the box.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. R.C Venkateish, Chief Executive Officer, D ish TV India said “Carrying forward the spirit of innovation that is integral to the Dish TV DNA, Dish truHD+ is the answer to the consumer need for enjoying recording functionality at an affordable price. Whilst most DVR’s charge a premium, our idea is to expand the DVR market by making it accessible at the price of a normal HD box. Furthermore, this box lends a huge advantage over other DVR’s in the market by offering “unlimited recording capacity”. This is possible due to a breakthrough technology that enables any external storage device to be plugged into the USB port of the Dish truHD+ box.

Mr. Salil Kapoor, Chief Operating Officer, Dish TV India, said emphasizing on the products and services, “We are committed to provide the best of technology in the industry and Dish TV brings unique innovation introducing the concept of Unlimited Recording through Dish TV truHD+. The benefits of latest technology truHD+ provide the flexibility in terms of choice to decide on Recording Capacity. Dish truHD+ will enable our consumer to store, save and watch their favorite programmes whenever they want. Also this demonstrate customer centric approach by Dish TV as new as well as old HD customers will get this technological upgrade at no extra cost. Dish truHD+ also introduces the concept of build your own library (Genre based).”

Ms. Anjali Malhotra, Executive Vice President, Marketing, Dish TV India, said that, “Coming at an unmatched price of only Rs 2690, Dish truHD+ will be the only HD box in the market that will offer a Recording facility, at NO EXTRA COST, whilst HD features have become tablestakes. If one were to compare this box with other DVR’s in the market, the Dish truHD+ box would stand a huge price advantage at an unmatched price of Rs.2690/- against the usual cost 5k to 6k, whilst it matches them feature for feature”!

Dish truHD+’ offers dual advantage of HD and DVR where consumer can enjoy stunning picture quality of 1080i, 16:9 picture format with 5.1 surround sound that is far richer than standard definition viewing and comes equipped with the latest MPEG4 technology. In addition to this the same box is used as DVR as well by a simple “plug-n-play” through an external USB device. This enables all benefits of a traditional DVR like recording and playing back programs, Pausing or Rewinding live TV, different play-back positions, event based recording (EBR), time based recording (TBR) and so on.

About Dish TV India
Dish TV is India’s largest direct-to-home company and part of the biggest media conglomerate – Zee Group. Dish TV has on its platform 330+ channels and services including 21 audio channels with 12.5 million subscribers, which is growing. The company has a vast distribution network of about 1400 distributors and 55,000 dealers that spans around 6600 towns across the country. Dish TV has 24*7 call centres with 1600 seats in 11 different languages to take care of subscriber requirements at any point of time. For more information on Dish TV, visit www.dishtv.in

NEW DELHI: Direct to home (DTH) service provider Dish TV India Ltd is focusing on new customer acquisition, high definition technology and digitisation to strengthen its position in the highly competitive DTH market.

“In the next one year, our agenda for growth is to acquire new customers and take the benefit of digitisation,” Dish TV Managing Director Jawahar Goel told PTI.

On the product and services side, the focus will be on high definition, he added.

In 2010-2011, the company added 3.5 million new subscribers.

“In the current fiscal the number of new subscribers will be less as there were no major sports events and even the overall consumer sentiment is not too positive. However, once digitisation kicks off, the rate of growth will be really fast,” Goel said.

In December last year a bill has been passed that mandates complete digitisation of cable TV across the country by December 2014.

As a part of its product portfolio expansion, the company today launched a new high definition (HD) digital video recorder — The Dish truHD+ — that will be sold to consumers at Rs 2,690.

Dish TV is also offering a free upgrade to its consumers who already own an HD set-to-box.

“Out of the total number of 12.5 million subscribers, around 2 per cent are on HD. We expect all of them to upgrade to the newly launched HD DVR,” Dish TV Chief Executive Officer R C Venkateish said.

The idea of this launch is to expand the (digital video recorder) DVR market by making it accessible at price of a normal HD box, he said.

“It will give us dominance in the HD domain,” he added. In an attempt to reach out to on-the-go customers Dish TV has also installed connection on Shatabdi Express Trains.

“We have already done one train on a trial basis. By June this year, Dish TV will be available on nine Shatabdi Express trains,” Goel added.

The company has recently launched a new advertising and marketing campaign featuring Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan, who is Dish TV’s brand ambassador.

“We are spending Rs 25 crore on the new ‘Dish Sawaar Hai’ campaign,” Dish TV COO Salil Kapoor said.

As per government estimates, the total number of DTH subscribers in India is around 45 million split between players like Dish TV, Tata Sky, Sun TV, airtel digital TV, Videocon DTH and Reliance Big TV.

Source: The Economic Times

SITI Cable organized business partners meets to set the pace of cable TV digitization, with the Government recently passing the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Bill requiring the four metros Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai to shift to digital cable by June 2012 and the rest of the country to be digitized in phased wise manner by December 2014.

With this bill, the onus shifts now on cable service providers to gear up for shifting to digital cable TV infrastructure from analogue.

To speed up this transition, SITI cable organized the series of meets for Delhi Cable Operator in groups of hundred. These meetings were aimed at orienting the local cable operators (LCO’s) towards digital addressable systems (DAS) and its benefits.

In a scenario where consumers have access to newer technologies such as DTH, IPTV which are bringing in superior quality and service & changing the rules of media distribution, the digital addressable systems can offer more TV channels to the consumers with better quality picture and sound, attractive channel package offerings, HD Channels and TV signals that remain uninterrupted even in bad weather.

DAS will also enable cable operators to tap additional business opportunities in the form of value-added and interactive services. It has the provision of broadband and triple-play services through the network which will help in boosting up the revenue of the Cable Operators.

The issues related to the up gradation of existing networks, technical support and training in implementing the system, commercials involved etc were discussed during the meeting.

Team SITI Cable has also explained the Subscriber management system which gives full independence to the business partners in managing their set of subscribers and allows them to addresses activation, deactivation, package change request, complaints etc of the subscribers. The most advanced IP based digital head end set up by SITI Cable will deliver 400 channels along with 30 HD channels in the initial phase. This head end is equipped to deliver up to 1000 channels apart from providing VAS like gaming, movie on demand etc too.

Addressing the gatherings Mr. Anil Malhotra, COO of WWIL said that, “The objective behind developing such Subscriber management system (SMS) is to empower the business partners, the most critical stakeholder in the value chain. The developed system is the replica of the present model of analog business with improved services on digital platform.”

He further added, “Digitization doesn’t mean just putting set top boxes in every cable television home. Lot of work needs to happen in terms of back-end, technology, systems, processes etc. He explained this is precisely what SITI cable have been doing for last few quarters building on infrastructure and backend system & processes. In our areas, we will ensure 360 degree process for migrating to digitization. We are in a very good shape to take off.”

During the meet Business partners of Delhi have also visited SITI cable most advanced IP based digital head end & other infrastructure.

In a nutshell digitization is the lifetime opportunity for cable service providers to increase revenue by offering more channels and VAS, to compete with alternate technologies and build the long term relationship with the end consumers.

SITI Cable will organize more such business partner’s meets in various other cities as well, to build the awareness about digitization.

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

MUMBAI: Airtel Digital TV, the DTH service from Bharti Airtel, has launched a new interactive educational service for kids, iKidsworld.

The service expands the interactive bouquet offering of Airtel Digital TV and engages kids at every step.

The user interface is designed to make learning enjoyable for the kids, the company said.

The video content of iKidsworld offers activities like stories, hobbies, songs, rhymes, math puzzles, science facts and quizzes.

Powered by Fundoodaa, the content of iKidsworld is designed to enhance a child’s knowledge, pique their curiosity, challenge their thinking and at the same time have an entertainment quotient.

Bharti Airtel CEO DTH/Media Shashi Arora said, “Our objective was to blend the best of television with interactivity and engagement that children seek from the internet. In line with this, we are delighted to launch –iKidsworld, an interactive educational service. We aim to enhance the learning experience of the kids by converting passive television viewing experience to a more active and participative viewing. The interactive user interface has been specifically designed to appeal to today’s kids – who are exposed to multiple cartoon channels content.”

Existing Airtel digital TV subscribers can subscribe for iKidsworld at Rs 30 per month + taxes.

With iKidsworld, Airtel Digital TV now has seven interactive applications as part of its interactive services portfolio- iRadio, iLearn, iDarshan, iGoodlife, iAstro and Parsifal.

Source: Indiantelevision.com

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: Five months before time runs out for homes across India’s top four metros to switch to digital transmission to continue watching cable television, operators are battling short supply of set-top boxes as well as ignorance among consumers.

More than 60,000 set-top boxes need to be installed every day to enable an estimated 10 million homes across Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata to meet the deadline mandated by the government.

But with India going digital at the same time as Brazil, Russia, China and South Korea, among other countries, set-top box makers are finding it difficult to meet delivery deadlines. This is the case even as most leading manufacturers, based in China, have ramped up production manifold.

“Most consumers don’t even know that they won’t be able to watch TV with the same cable after the June 30 deadline and that a digital set-top box is a must,” says Anthony Brian D’Souza, a Mumbai-based cable operator.

Direct-to-home or DTH operators, who use satellite and dish antennae, are therefore well placed to grab the business from cable operators. Nearly 80% of the 70,000 odd cable operators are believed to be independent players, who are also finding it difficult to absorb the rise in the cost of imported set-top boxes due to rupee depreciation.

“This is a great opportunity and we are well poised to make the most of cable digitalisation,” says Dish TV’s managing director Jawahar Goel, “The DTH industry will be able to grab 30%-70% of the analog cable homes across various phases depending on the locations.”

Tata Sky has also geared up to cash in on the opportunity. “Our billing and CRM systems handle millions of customers. These have been further scaled up to ensure error free service to many more millions of new subscribers who will join us in next few months,” says chief executive officer and managing director Harit Nagpal. The company can install fresh connections within a day of receiving the order, he says.

Big multi-system operators like Den Networks and Hathaway Cable & Datacom, which have too much on their plate upgrading their subscribers, might find it difficult to add too many new subscribers.

Den Networks has hired Ernst & Young to conduct seminars and train its partners and affiliate local cable operators. “Local cable operators will help us upgrade our existing consumer base on the ground and will play an important part in the process,” says Sameer Manchanda, CMD of Den Networks. He says the company will focus on upgrading its current subscribers in the four metros.

While the industry expects a majority of independent operators to align with the bigger players, many of them may find the switch hard to survive. “The large investments expected from cable operators for setting up the infrastructure in such a short span of time and competition from DTH players could create unemployment among smaller cable operators,” says Roop Sharma, president Cable Operators Federation of India, the largest association of independent cable operators in the country.

Sharma, however, says even the bigger players might find it hard to prove equal to the challenge. “Digitalisation is a mammoth task and there are concerns whether the deadline for the four metros will be achieved,” he says.

An independent cable operator says many affiliate partners of the bigger players are showing a huge resistance to digitisation at the moment. “If someone in the cable fraternity keeps holding out till the last moment in the hope that digitalisation will not happen, he will only be making it easier for DTH players to garner incremental market share at the cost of the cable industry,” says K Jayaraman, chief executive officer of Hathway Cable & Datacom.

Source: The Economic Times

Indicted over the controversial 2005 Antrix-Devas agreement signed during his tenure as ISRO chairman, G. Madhavan Nair told The Hindu in an interview at his residence on Sunday that several people within the government — not least from the Prime Minister’s Office — were well aware of the details of the deal at every stage.

Mid-2005, the Space Commission “cleared” the construction of two satellites for a private company, said Mr. Nair. A note prepared by the Department of Space for the Cabinet Committee on Security in February 2011 said the Space Commission and the Cabinet had not been informed of the Antrix-Devas agreement when their approval for building GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A were sought.

“In the case of GSAT 6 and 6A, there was a clear statement in the note to the Space Commission and the Cabinet to say that the major part of the transponder capacity was to be used by private operators. We do not name the private operator because it could have changed,” said Mr. Nair.

The Space Commission, which is chaired by the ISRO chief, comprised the Cabinet Secretary, the Principal Secretary to the PMO, the National Security Adviser, Member (Finance), and the Additional Secretary, Department of Space, he added.

Under the 2005 contract between Antrix Corporation (ISRO’s commercial wing) and the Bangalore-based Devas Multimedia, the latter was allowed exclusive use of 70 MHz of the scarce S-band spectrum over a 20-year period for its digital multimedia services; and ISRO was to build two satellites for the company. As the contract was signed without a competitive bidding process, questions were raised about the preferential spectrum allocation. CAG’s preliminary estimates placed the loss to the exchequer at over Rs. 2 lakh crore.

The contract was cleared “collectively” by the Board of Antrix which had approved “hundreds” of similar contracts, including those with major players in DTH, said Mr. Nair. The Antrix Board included Member (Finance), who is accountable directly to the Finance Department and also the Joint Secretary of the Department of Space, he said.

“Discussed four times”

Moreover, a Technical Coordination Group appointed by the INSAT Coordination Committee (ICC) to look into the technical aspects of the project, discussed the Devas deal at least four times, he said. This working group — that assessed the frequency used and the judiciousness of spectrum utilisation — comprised representatives from the Department of Telecommunication and the Department of Science and Technology, he said. The ICC, an interdepartmental government agency, was constituted in the 1980s to facilitate the allocation of transponders to users.

The contract with Devas Multimedia was consistent with the satellite communication policy that encouraged private operators to use space-based services, he said. The contract was to work on a ‘first come, first served’ basis, he said, when asked about the lack of a bidding process and the apparent privileging of one company.

Mr. Nair said he would appeal to the government to revoke the order barring him from holding government posts over the Antrix-Devas deal. Mr. Nair, who recently stepped down as the chairman of the Board of Governors of IIT-Patna, said: “I am not looking for a government job. But I see [the order] as having tarnished my image.”

He was waiting for a response to his application under the Right to Information Act for the two reports of the two committees set up under the PMO to look into alleged irregularities in the contract. Mr. Nair said he had not yet received the order of January 13 from the Department of Space that banned him and three senior ISRO scientists from holding government posts.
‘Witch-hunt’

“This is a violation of due process. [When there is an alleged irregularity] the first thing you do is inform the party and give them an opportunity to explain. Without any such process, sending the decision summarily is unheard of,” said Mr. Nair, describing the order as “nothing short of a witch-hunt.”

Source: The Hindu

24th January’ 2012, Tuesday, New Delhi: After conducting a research on why there’s a low turn out on the polling day, despite India being the largest democracy of the world, Radio Mantra identified 5 major reasons for the same. On ‘National Voter’s Day’, Radio Mantra launched another interesting social awareness campaign “Poll India Poll” which will focus on and address 5 main reasons responsible for a low turn out. Bollywood celebrities John Abraham and Abhishek Bachchan joined Mantra’s crusade to encourage everybody to exercise their fundamental right to vote.

“We’ll soon have the legislative assembly elections in five of our stations namely Jalandhar, Ranchi, Gorakhpur, Varanasi and Agra. And all we want to emphasize upon and communicate is that each vote counts and one must come forward to exercise his or her right to vote for the largest democracy of the world. The campaign will try and motivate all those who do not vote and have their own arbid excuses for doing so. I’m delightful that John and Abshishek agreed to play the protagonists for this campaign as they’re surely the star youth icons”, explains Kanwar Sameer, National Programming Head, Radio Mantra.

Abhishek Bachchan who won the National Film Award for ‘Paa’ and Filmfare award for his critically acclaimed ‘Yuva’, has raised his voice for several social causes in the past including Citizens Education Campaign. Expressing his thoughts on associating with ‘Poll India Poll’ Abhishek Bachchan said, “As a responsible citizen we need to come forward and take the onus, this is our country so are the issues related to it. I believe that if we feel for our country, it should evoke this much interest that we can take the pledge to vote!”

Apart from painting the station with ‘Poll India Poll’ by changing the stationalities, interstitials and jingle, Radio Mantra will invite its listeners to utilize their right to bring a change by pledging that they will definitely caste their vote. To reach a larger audience, listeners can pledge via IVR, SMS, Radio Mantra website and Facebook page. Mantra will also go On-Ground and talk to people having issues with the system. In order to resolve such cases, Mantra will escalate those to the right authorities or concerned departments.

John Abraham associates himself deeply with the social causes and has been urging youngsters to join hands to bring about a change in the society. For ‘Poll India Poll’, he says: “Right to vote is our fundamental right and one of the ways to show our patriotism and commitment towards our country. I feel privileged to be a part of Radio Mantra’s campaign and I genuinely believe that if we don’t care to vote, we have no right to complain about things.”

“We all know that to beat the system you have to be in the the system and as a mass medium we take it as our responsibility to take our nation to greater heights. With ‘Poll India Poll’, we hope to involve people in huge numbers and urge them to fully utilize their “vote da haq”, concluded Kanwar Sameer, National Programming Head, Radio Mantra.

About Radio Mantra:
Radio Mantra 91.9 FM is a Radio Initiative by the Dainik Jagran group with a pan India presence spanning across 8 cities namely Agra, Bareilly, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Hisar, Karnal, Jalandhar and Ranchi.With a listenership base of 5.37 million, Radio Mantra is one of the top 5 radio stations in India. Radio Mantra aims to offer a differentiated listening experience to its listeners across age groups and all SEC.

Mumbai: Dhoots, promoters of world’s largest picture tube maker Videocon group with interests in energy, have decided to sell a minority stake in Bharat Broadcasting Corporation which provides Direct to Home (DTH) television service under the Videocon D2H brand, two people familiar with the development said. Videocon owns 100% stake in the DTH business now.

“We are deliberating a stake sale,” a person with direct knowledge of the negotiations said. The company is talking to private equity (PE) funds to sell stake, a second person familiar with the development said. One of the PEs Dhoots have begun negotiations with is Apollo Global Management, the sixth-largest private equity fund by assets under management. The PE fund had invested $100 million in Videocon’s rival Dish TV in 2009.

Videocon launched the DTH business as part of its synergy with the television-making business which the group transformed into a component supplier as it faced threats from multinational consumer goods giants like Samsung and LG. Though it was late in its 2009 DTH entry, the company is now one of the leaders in this six-horse race, driven by its consumer sales points through its TV sales counters and its consumer goods retail chain “next”.

India’s DTH market is divided between by Dish TV owned by ZEE Group, Tata Sky, a joint venture between the Tata Group and Rupert Mudoch’s Sky, Airtel Digital owned by India’s largest mobile telephony company Airtel, BIG TV of Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, Sun Direct owned by Southern media group Sun TV and Videocon D2H.

The DTH market is driven by the growing middle class and its rising disposable income, increasing television penetration and sale of LCD televisions, price wars and diverse package options and advantage over traditional cable operators.

The number of DTH subscribers will reach 45 million in 2014 from 17 million in 2009 and 58 million by 2020 overtaking the US, a study by Media Partners Asia (MPA) said. “Most DTH satellite pay TV operators will start making money after 2013,” it said.

But, there are many challenges too. Transponder capacity, high churn, subscriber acquisition costs and limited pricing power remain challenges, but can overcome by scale and cost control.

Some companies say the biggest challenge is the presence of DD Direct, owned by the Government. “If somebody is 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,” Tata Sky chief executive Harit Nagpal said in an earlier interaction with FE. “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?” he wondered.

Source: The Financial Express

Chennai, 17th January, 2012: Sun Direct the leading DTH player in India today announced its new ‘CINEMA PLUS ADD-ON’ promotional pack offer for all its existing subscribers; this three month renewal offer priced at just Rs.96/- gets subscribers an extra one month free viewing of their favourite channels.

This offer is packed with the 24 hours ad-free Cinema Plus services which offers round the clock blockbuster movies in all the four south Indian languages; customized to cater to a market where movies drives a large portion of television entertainment the ‘CINEMA PLUS ADD-ON’ Pack delivers non-stop entertainment value at a very affordable price point.

Offer Highlights – 120 days value pack will contain:

• South Value Pack –100+ channels(Tamil/Malayalam/Kannada/Telugu pack)
• 4 in house movie services (Tamil + Telugu + Kannada + Malayalam)
• 11 additional channels – including kids and movie channels.
• All of the above at Rs.96 for 3 months + 1 month free subscription

This add-on pack also offers its subscribers 11 other entertainment and infotainment channels including, Disney HD, UTV Movie, UTV Action, Hungama, Isaiaruvi, Jaya Max, Suvarna New, 9 XM, Jeevan , and Reporter.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Mahesh Kumar, CEO of Sun Direct, said: “The Cinema Plus Add-on pack gives movie lovers an extra 30 days access to their favorite channels. Launch of this new pack once again proves sun direct’s uniqueness in the DTH industry”.

About Sun Direct
Sun Direct is the second largest and the fastest growing DTH player in the country with a current subscriber base of over 7.4 million. An industry innovator and pioneer, Sun Direct has many first’s to its credit – the first to bring the MPEG technology, the first to introduce HDTV, the first to launch 24/7 AD-Free movie service, the first to offer all its channels under ‘a la carte’ basis and many such pioneering innovations Sun Direct set the benchmark for the industry and the category which have redefined the way people buy and consume entertainment. Its ‘Think National – Go Regional’ strategy packed with the superior & innovative technology, value for money pricing, attractive bundling of products and services that appeal to every segment of the customer chain makes it a category leader in the DTH industry.