Mumbai, Maharashtra, January 20, 2011: Videocon d2h, the fastest growing DTH service provider has launched A-la-carte services for its customers. These A-la-carte channel offerings will allow customers to choose and pay for the channels they want to watch in any category. Videocon d2h have launched services keeping the needs of the growing market in mind. Videocon d2h has maximum number of channels & Services with a Very strong regional content for their specific Audiences along with all the sports channels on board. Videocon d2h feels that the consumer has the right to choose the channels that they feel are suitable for them depending on their preferences of the channels; the channels would be priced economically and will help customers creating their own pack with only individual channel or do a mix-n-match of the existing packs with standalone channels.

Saurabh Dhoot Director Videocon Group: “We are offering A-La-Carte services to our customers, which will enable them to choose and enjoy viewing as per their choice. They can select from the slew of offerings. This will empower the customer to package his own channels that he prefers to watch. We are rolling out our A-La-Carte services within a week so that our subscribers can choose and enjoy as per their choice now”.

Stressing on this regional thrust, Mr. Saurabh Dhoot, Director Videocon Group said, “We have had excellent growth rates from the time of launch. Our objective is to catalyze our penetration, and we firmly believe that campaigns needs to be tailored for the local markets. A familiar face that endorses a trusted brand like Videocon d2h is impetus for the regions.”

Videocon d2h has also introduced Leading faces from various regions as their regional mascots such as Sachin Pilgaonkar for Marathi Devotional Channel, Manoj Tiwari for Hamaar Geet Bhojpuri music, Archita Sahu for Oriya devotional Channels, Sukhwinder Singh for Gurbaani and Punjabi Speaking audiences and Prasenjit Chatterjee for Bengali devotional channel shall endorse Videocon d2h in the respective regions. They have also introduced 5 exclusive regional content channels on Active Music space for their regional audience. Now the customers can choose & listen to their favorite songs on their DTH platform easily.

Mr. Dhoot further adds, “We are confident that with Our Active Music services we will be in a position to create, not only a differential in the market, but achieve better penetration, through the exclusivity of content and relevant local flavor. This will help us achieve better ARPU’s while adding subscribers”.

Videocon d2h has Active Bhakti music video channel and regional devotional audio channels under its Active Music Space platform. Customers can now enjoy a unique Music experience 24 hrs a day with music of all genres like Gurbani, Hindi Latest Hits, Bhakti, Hamaar Geet, DJ mix, Urdu Devotional and other attractive Genres. With Active Music Space Videocon d2h give its customers a unique experience 24 hrs where the audience can choose from 20 exclusive audio channels and 2 Video channels which will mesmerize its viewers with music of all the genres like Gurbaani, Devotional, Hindi Latest Hits, Bhojpuri, Dj mix, Meditation, Urdu and other attractive Genres.

Videocon d2h is the foremost service provider to introduce exclusive music channels by launching Active music space hitz channel and Active Music Space Bhakti Channel. Videocon d2h is available on Pan India level and India is known for its diversification, so keeping in mind the varied demands of each region, 20 exclusive audio channels and 2 Video channels have been designed to target customers’ needs for MUSIC no matter where they are in India.

Audio – 20 different genres
Latest hitz, Romantic Hitz, Sentimental hitz ,DJ mix, Punjabi lounge, Hamaar Geet, Bhakti, Spiritual lounge, Gurbani, Islamic devotional, Ganapati devotional, Shiv Bhakti, Mata ki Jai, Sai Amrit, Radhe Krishna, Bengali devotional, Marathi devotional, Oriya devotional, Gujarati devotional, instrumental.

Video – 2 Genres
Hitz and Bhakti: In addition to all popular television channels, the Videocon d2h platform will offer many new features and exciting interactive services, thus becoming a one-stop shop for all the television entertainment needs of customers.

Source: Indiaprwire.com

Customers seeking greater choice over what they watch and how much they pay for it may have to wait for some more time with mostdirect-to-home (DTH) and Internet protocol TV companies set to miss a 1 January deadline for offering an à la carte option.

A July 2010 order by the regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said that all digital platforms must offer consumers the choice of paying only for channels that they wish to watch. Currently, companies offer bouquets or bundled channels priced as a package.

DTH companies, which together serve around 29 million households, cite technical and operational reasons for their inability to meet the deadline, but an analyst said their inertia could also be explained by the prospect of seeing up to a 20% fall in revenue.

An official from Trai, which set the deadline, said that this would be “considered non-compliance of Trai’s order”.

“It’s too early to comment on the implications,” added this person, who did not want to be identified.

The sheer complexity of providing options to customers has the operators stumped, admitted an executive at a DTH firm. “We have 9 million subscribers. À la carte means offering all sorts of permutations and combinations to customers and just as many complications in servicing them. We need time to do this and are evaluating how to go ahead,” said Salil Kapoor, chief operating officer, Dish TV, India’s largest DTH company by subscriber base. Kapoor added that his company was trying its best to meet the deadline.

The companies have had enough time to do so. Trai’s order came in July. And it came into effect from 1 September, although DTH companies were offered an extension up to 1 January if they needed it. Cable companies that use a digital delivery platform have already started offering customers the choice of picking the channels they want to watch.

Another executive working for a DTH company said that companies do not have the required infrastructure to offer à la carte services. “If a consumer wants just Star Plus and MAX, we’d have to provide it at a moment’s notice. However, the consumer can change his or her mind in the next few days. So, operationally, it’s a lot tougher to keep track and the service has to be very quick,” added this person, who did not want to be identified as he is not authorized to speak to media.

Sanjay Behl, chief executive of Reliance BIG TV Ltd, echoed that sentiment and said that with 400 channels on air, there are bound to be operational issues such as those to do with billing. “We are evaluating just how soon we can give channels à la carte,” he said.

Saurabh Dhoot, director, Videocon group, which offers DTH services under the Videocon d2h brand, added that his company too was trying to meet the deadline.

Roop Sharma, president of the Cable Operators Federation of India, an industry body, said DTH companies were using “delay tactics”. “They have the technology but don’t want to sell individual channels since packages get them more revenue,” she alleged.

Digital cable operators, meanwhile, have already started offering prices of individual channels to customers.

Digicable Network (India) Pvt. Ltd, a large cable TV operator acquired by Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications Ltd, offers à la carte services in parts of Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai besides all of Chennai, with each channel being priced at Rs.5 and customers being required to opt for at least five channels. In addition to these, the customers get around a 100 free-to-air channels.

In most cases, individual channels are priced even lesser than that at, say, Rs.3-4 each, said K. Jayaraman, managing director and chief executive of Hathway Cable and Datacom Ltd, another digital cable company.

The analyst cited in the first instance said the reluctance of DTH firms to go this route may have to do with the way customers are likely to behave, choosing to pay for a few general entertainment and news channels but not for the rest, bringing down their bill and the operators’ revenue.

Interestingly, not all DTH companies are dragging their feet over implementing an à la carte option. Tony D’Silva, chief executive of DTH service provider Sun Direct, confirmed that the company is offering channels on à la carte basis.

And Harit Nagpal, managing director and chief executive, Tata Sky Ltd, said his company was working towards the same, although it poses “serious technological challenges”. “We are addressing the concerns but our endeavour will be to abide by the government guidelines at the earliest.”

A spokesperson for Bharti Airtel Ltd DTH declined to comment for this story.

The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal, in a judgement issued on 16 December, had asked the regulator to review the issues related to à la carte tariff rates, but the July order stands.

Source: Livemint.com

Come September and subscribers of DTH services would be able to pick and choose the channels they want to watch but have to pay a minimum of Rs 150 per month for a bouquet of channels of their choice.

In its tariff order for 2010, broadcast regulator TRAI also included provisions to protect the consumers from rise in rates, like no increase in subscription charges in the first six months of enrolling.

The rates can, however, be decreased in those six months and the consumer can opt for any other service provided by the DTH operators.

The composition of the bouquet of channels should also be the same as those for the normal cable subscribers.

“Every service provider providing broadcasting services or cable services to its subscribers using an addressable system shall offer…to its subscribers on a-la-carte basis,” the order, which will come into effect from September one, said.

As of now, pay channels on DTH are not available on a-la-carte or individual basis.

In case DTH operators or cable service providers in CAS areas are not able to offer all its pay channels to its subscribers on a-la-carte basis from September one due to technical reasons, then they will have time till January next year to upgrade their services.

With a view to provide some relief to the operators, the order has fixed Rs 150 as the minimum monthly subscription that a consumer will need to shell out for any number of channels. The channels of Doordarshan should be a compulsory part of each bouquet, it said.

TRAI, however, refrained from fixing the retail tariff for the pay channels. “As the market forces appear to be operating effectively, the authority is of the view that there is no need for regulatory intervention in the matter of retail tariff fixation at present”.

However, the order said the fees that a operator has to pay to broadcasters for a channel should not be more than 35 per cent of that being paid by a normal cable operator.

The broadcaster, the regulating body said, should specify a minimum subscription period not exceeding three months for a subscriber.

TRAI further said that replacement of the consumer’s faulty equipment like set-top boxes and dish antennas and their repair should be done without any payment.

The recommendations said that the broadcaster has to report the rate of individual channel and bouquets of channels on its website. It should also publish such rates on its website.

Any change in prices shall be reported to the authority 30 days in advance and any new pay channel has to be notified 30 days in advance on the broadcaster’s website as well as to the authorities.

Any broadcaster of a free to air channel intending to convert the channel into a pay channel or vice-versa shall, at least one month before the scheduled date of conversion, inform the authority about the intended conversion and give a public notice about the intended conversion.

The information about the intended conversion should also be published in at least two newspapers of which one should be a national newspaper and one in the same language as the channel.

The notification comes a day after TRAI had submitted an affidavit before the Supreme Court informing about its plans to cap the monthly cable charges at Rs 250 across the country, except for pockets where conditional access system (CAS) has been implemented.

Source: Indianexpress.com

MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has capped the a la carte pricing of channels for addressable systems at 35 per cent the cost in non-Cas areas, a step that will bring down the content cost for DTH, digital cable and IPTV operators.

The earlier rate for DTH operators was fixed at 50 per cent of pricing in non-Cas areas.

In its new tariff order today, applicable to all broadcasting and cable services provided to subscribers through addressable systems, Trai said that every broadcaster shall offer all its pay channels on a la carte basis to distributors of TV channels, and specify the a la carte rate for each pay channel.

The broadcast sector regulator said that the charges payable by a cable operator to a multi system operator (MSO) or to a HITS (Headend-In-The-Sky) service provider, as the case may be, shall be as determined by mutual agreement.

Trai said that every service provider providing broadcasting services or cable services to its subscribers using an addressable system shall, from the date of coming into force of the order, offer all pay channels offered by it to its subscribers on a la carte basis and shall specify the maximum retail price for each pay channel.

DTH players, who might be unable to offer all pay channels to subscribers on a la carte basis due to any technical reason, will have to do so by 1 January 2011.

To protect the subscribers, Trai has also said that no service provider, who provides broadcasting services or cable services using an addressable system, can increase the charges for a subscription package for a minimum period of six months from the date of enrollment of the subscriber.

Source: Indiantelevision.com

Prominent Direct-To-Home operators on Monday opposed any suggestion to offer television channels on their platform at a-la-carte rates.

Responding to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s supplementary consultation paper on tariff related issues, DTH operators have opposed the suggestion of offering TV channels on their platform at a-la-carte rates as against the current system of offering them in various packages or bouquets.

TRAI had floated the consultation paper in December last year, seeking comments of DTH operators and broadcasters on it (issue of a-la-carte rates is one of the issues listed in the paper) by January 18 this year.

Broadcasters like Star India and ESPN, though have called for rationalisation of the basic bouquets offered by DTH operators.

In their response to TRAI’s supplementary consultation paper on tariff related issues for DTH services, Dish TV said it is technically impossible to offer a-la-carte (individual rates of each channel on the DTH platform) channels to all DTH subscribers due to limited spectrum bandwidth.

“In cable networks the bandwidth is not a constraint unlike DTH, where there is a shortage of transponder space and the endeavour of the DTH operators is to optimally utilise the available transponder capacity,” Dish TV said in its response.

Source: The Hindu