Dish TV India (DTH - Direct to Home)

Airtel Digital TV + Viacom 18-Colors launch Subscription Service Videos

2011-07-10T23:59:00.000-07:00

Airtel digital TV, the DTH service by Bharti Airtel announced that it has entered into a partnership with Viacom 18-Colors to launch its first subscription service offering 24|7 movie and video content.

Superhitz will show 10 odd movies in the first month of launch, with more titles to be added over the subsequent months. Whats more-Actor Festivals every Saturday would have back to back titles starring leading Bollywood stars. Available @ just INR 20/- per month- the starting price for any pay per view (PPV) movie, the movie titles currently part of the library include No One Killed Jessica, Dabangg, Mirch, Marigold, Tum Mile, Ajnabee, Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahi, Aashiqui, Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya and Hello Brother.

To avail this service all that customers need to do is SMS either ADD 159 or ADD superhitz to 54325 for Airtel digital TV customer care representative to facilitate provisioning the service on their set top boxes. Customers can also call Customer Care on 1800 102 8080 (Toll Free) OR 12150 (toll free from their Airtel Mobile).

Scaling the broadcast net

2010-09-14T22:13:00.000-07:00

We expect increases in TV penetration and rising income levels to drive growth for the DTH subscriber base in India, which should increase to 50MM by 2013 from 24MM currently. Dish TV is well positioned to capture a large part of this growth given its strong brand and deep distribution reach across c. 6,600 towns. We forecast Dish TV’s gross subscriber base to increase from 6.9MM in FY10 to 13.8MM by FY13E. In addition, competitive intensity is easing, which should aid ARPU expansion and lower costs.

Dish TV’s subscriber base has reached a critical scale and new subscriber additions as a percentage of mature subscribers is declining.

While Dish TV had an early mover advantage, being able to obtain a DTH license in 2004, competitive intensity picked up with entry of Tata-Sky in 2006 and subsequently intensified with entry of Sun, Big TV, Bharti-Airtel and Videocon between 2007 and 2009. As a result, ARPUs and market share for DISH came under pressure. Recent industry trends suggest that competitive intensity is now easing and players are incrementally becoming more rational. This is evidenced by the relative stability in Dish TV’s ARPUs and moderation in consumer acquisition costs over the last 4 quarters.

Reliance DTH Under Loss

2009-09-08T23:54:00.000-07:00

Reliance Communications which has been silent on giving out numbers on the performance of its subsidiaries [Reliance Big TV DTH] had to disclose its Accounts when we demanded through the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

Reliance big TV DTH business generated revenue and net loss of Rs1.1b and Rs0.8b respectively over an asset base of Rs3.4b.

RITL's revenue and net profit were Rs49.3b and Rs16.9b respect. over an asset base of Rs207.6b

Sun Direct TV inks deal with IBM

2009-07-22T00:17:00.001-07:00

Chennai-based Sun Direct TV, part of the Sun TV Group, has inked agreement with IBM to employ and manage Customer Relationship Management (CRM) related applications for Sun Direct TV.

Being the multi-year deal, it comprises end-to-end services ranging from strategy through implementation, and displaces Sun Microsystems, the incumbent provider.

Launched in December 2007, Sun Direct TV presently has a base of 3 million subscribers. The company expects to expand its customer base to 10 million by 2010 with implementation of this CRM platform.

The CRM platform will help Sun Direct TV to tackle key issues surrounding billing, customer relationship management and develop ways to get better insights on customer behaviour. IBM will develop and maintain a dynamic infrastructure for Sun Direct TV.

Dish TV rises despite hike in tariff rates

2009-07-21T02:40:00.001-07:00

Part of Essel Group, Dish TV India has announced to increase its tariff plans by Rs 100 across India. The move comes after Government's imposition of 5% custom duty on import of set top boxes proposed in current budget.

The hike in custom duty has led a rise in input cost of set top boxes. The business model of DTH is based on subsidy and the component cost has surged considerably due to the increase in dollar exchange rate in the last one year.

Company’s set top box which was priced at Rs 1490 will now cost Rs 1,590. Similarly under its combo offer of Rs 2090 plus 3 months platinum/south platinum, will now cost Rs 2,190, whereas its others 'Ultimate sports bonanza' of Rs 1,790 and Rs 2,300 each will be available at Rs 1,890 and Rs 2,490 respectively.

DTH industry wants duty free import of set top boxes

2009-06-12T00:16:00.001-07:00

The direct-to-home (DTH) industry is demanding a duty free regime for imported set top boxes as the industry feels that import duties on these are resulting in increase in cost being borne by the consumer and hence slowing the pace of expansion of the industry. A similar demand has also been made by the cable TV industry.

Economists argue that such a move will have a positive impact on government’s revenue on a net basis as reduction in cost of installation will increase business in both the DTH as well as the cable segment.

Even the information and broadcasting ministry (I&B) has argued that it is in the government’s own financial interest to eliminate all import duties for at least the next five years on digital set top boxes for both cable and direct-to-home segments. The ministry has raised the issue before the finance ministry in the pre-budget consultations which are currently going on for the Union budget for FY10.

At present, imported digital set top boxes attract a special additional duty at the rate of 4% as well as a countervailing duty at 8%. Together these two raises the cost of set top boxes by 12%. The I&B ministry feels that both the duties should be cut for the next five years which will help boost growth of the industry.

Videocon to launch DTH service on June 20, 2009

2009-06-08T00:07:00.001-07:00

Videocon, the domestic consumer electronics major, is planning to launch its direct-to-home (DTH) service in Kolkata at proposed date June 20, 2009. Bharat Business Channel (BBCL), a subsidiary of the Videocon Group will handle DTH service. The company will market its DTH services through around 30,000 dealers. The company will sell its DTH service under the brand name D2H+.

Videocon will roll out colour television will in built set-top box in a price range of Rs 8,000. The company will manufacture the set top boxes at its Aurangabad factory, which will be priced at Rs 4,000.

Under DTH services segment, company plans to create customer base of 2 million subscribers in the current fiscal. Later in FY 2010-11, it plans to reach 5 million customers. The company has set a target for itself of reaching 1 crore houses, within a period of five years.

On August 15, 2009, the company plans to launch its GSM mobile service in Chennai. Videocon will handle its mobile service segment through its subsidiary Datacom.

Registered base crosses 5.20 million

2009-05-11T00:18:00.000-07:00

Dish TV India Limited (dishtv), India's No. 1 direct-to-home company and part of India’s biggest media conglomerate - Zee group, added 136,330 new subscribers in the month of April 2009, taking its total registered base to over 5.20 million. The adoption of the DTH market category in the month of April was 0.72 million subscribers approximately.

The new proposition is substantiated through dishtv’s competitive advantage, as it offers within competition the maximum width and depth of content, with 240 channels and services. dishtv also offers the maximum channels across genres/languages to its subscribers along with maximum value at every price point. This gives dishtv a unique edge over cable and other DTH players, which show limited regional content.

Tata Sky + Sun Direct TV Channel Offerings

2009-04-11T00:20:00.000-07:00

We are presenting to you the number of channels offered by each of the DTH Service providers [DishTV, Tata Sky, Sun Direct, Reliance big TV and Airtel Digital TV] in India. Here is the breakup.
DTH Operator wise offering

Depreciating rupee a cause of concern for DTH players

2009-03-18T01:39:00.001-07:00

The depreciating rupee against the dollar impacted the direct-to-home (DTH) industry adversely owing to import of set-top boxes (STB) at nearly 10-15% increased prices and offering to the subscribers at a subsidized rate.

Since the appreciating dollar has caused a rise of almost 10-15% in prices of import-dependent set-top boxes, industry players are concerned over the fate of revenues and viability. Even after service duty reduction, the DTH industry has not been benefited much owing to the slipping rupee.

Sun TV - Analyst Call Takeaways

2009-03-18T01:33:00.000-07:00

We recently met the management of Sun TV. The key takeaways from the meeting are:

Ad revenues: Although the outlook on advertisement revenues is challenging, the company expects to increase ad revenues by increasing inventory utilization (current inventory utilization level is ~50-55%). However it believes that ad rate hikes are unlikely. Sun TV had increased rates by ~10% in Feb, 2008. Broadcast fee rates depend strongly on the ad-spends scenario. FMCG (55%) is the highest contributor of advertisement revenues for Sun TV. The ad mix in terms of Regional:National is ~30:70. This has protected Sun TV as both FMCG and regional advertisers continue to remain buoyant.

DTH subscribers: Sun TV had ~3.3 mn DTH subscribers as of Dec 08. This is expected to increase to 3.8 mn by end of March ‘09. Its ARPU from DTH subscribers is INR 26 per month currently. Company expects significant ramp up in DTH subscribers and revenues in FY10.

Analogue revenues: Sun TV expects to increase it analogue subscription revenues by 15-20% in FY10.

International revenues: The company is receiving overseas revenues from Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, Sri Lanka, and UK. In the US the company is present only in the DTH distribution network, and soon expects to be carried by other digital and analog carriers also. It expects 10-15% incremental revenues from this stream. Currently Sun TV’s forex exposure is only in USD and it has benefitted from the recent appreciation of the currency.

Competition: Kalaignar TV's market share is much below compared to Sun TV (Tamil GEC). However, according to our industry checks Kalaignar TV has been able to boost its presence strongly with programming of comparable quality, which could turn out to be a potential threat for Sun TV. In the presence of these two channels others players have been further marginalized in a market which was already dominated by Sun TV.

Movie production: In the movie production business Sun TV would be closing FY09 with 6 movies, all under INR 50 mn cost of production. Out of these 6 movies, it is currently carrying 5 movies on its balance sheet - under intangibles - which will be written off after 1st broadcast. In FY10 the company plans to invest INR 500 - 700 mn in the business, producing 8-10 movies with an average return expectation of 20-25%.

Radio: In the radio business, the company expects a topline of INR 300 mn and a loss of INR 600 mn in FY09. For FY10, the company expects to reduce net loss to INR 400 – 450 mn on a topline of INR 400 mn. It is also expecting to break-even in FY11. All the stations together will be fully operational for the first time in FY10. It has been constantly cutting down on redundant expenses in the business.

Capex: On broader financial aspects – Sun TV doesn’t expect any significant surprises on the operating costs front. Cap-ex planned for FY10 is ~INR 2.5 bn (INR 1 bn for enhancing its movie library, INR 400 mn for broadcasting business, INR 100 mn for the radio business and INR 1 bn for office premises).

Indian Pay-revenue Model

2008-11-16T06:37:00.000-08:00

Here is how Indian DTH Market is expected to perform in the next 2 years.

No of DTH Homes at end of FY2009 - 8.1 mn which is 10% of Cable Market with an ARPU of Rs 180. Overall size of the DTH market is Rs 13,100 cr.
The Number of DTH Homes by FY12 is expected to be 21 mn which is likely to be 21% of Cable market and have an ARPU of Rs 208

What will DTH Broadcasters Get ?
We estimate content costs are ~55% of subscription revenues and are expected to decline to ~45% of revenues as the “sliding scale” mechanism kicks in.

Ramp-up Plans of DTH Players

2008-11-11T11:45:00.000-08:00

In the next few posts we are going to cover about DTH market in India along with TV broadcasting and content market with some amazing statistics that will be unveiled for the first time.

Today we are going to tell you about the business plans of various DTH service providers.

Dish TV [Zee Group Company] Has a customerb ase of 4.4mn is the largest and oldest operator in the DTH business in India
DD Direct - DTH arm of Doordarshan has 3.5 mn subscribers. Most likely to end up with the same fate as BSNL in Mobile Subscribers [Initial Lead and will fall later]
Tata Sky - Looking at a minimum of 8m connections by FY12 from the current 2m subscribers in direct-to-home (DTH) space
Sun Direct - Sun Direct announced 1m DTH subscribers in 200 days - only from the four Southern states. The company is targeting 3m subs by year end
Reliance Big TV - Big TV announced on Oct 20 that it had reached 0.5m subscribers within 2 months of launch. It plans to add ~0.4m subscribers every month with an on ground infrastructure spanning 6,500 towns. The company is targeting 5m subscribers within the first year of operations
Bharti Airtel Digital TV - Recently launched. Digital TV will be initially available in 62 cities across the country through 21,000 retail points (including Airtel relationship centres). According to press articles, the company aims to capture 20% of the net additions of DTH subscribers this year

Videocon which has thrown its hat into the Mobile telephony business is also entering the DTH business.

Tata Sky Video Recorder Unveiled

2008-10-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

India's largest DTH Platform - Tata Sky just a while ago unveiled a Personal Video Recorder - PVR Hardware to its customers. Using PVR, customers can record upto 45 hours of video which can be viewed any time they wish to. PVR functions exactly liek your VHS / DVD Player for the content stored on the 160GB hardDisk. PVR will cost you an additiona Rs 9,000.

The best feture of this is, you can watch one channel and record on the other channel. So no more fighting with your spouse as one of you can get into the recording mode and let the other watch in peace :-) Like many hardworking and knowledgable Indian familes who work extended hours, you can program your PVR to record 2 channels simaltenously if the TV is not ON.

Service will be made available in 12 Tier-I Indian cities first and then rolled out on PAN India basis. This leaves Reliance Big TV DTH and Airtel Digital TV behind in the race :-)

Dish TV - Tata Sky - Big TV- Bharti Telmedia

2008-09-10T22:03:00.000-07:00

The following chart shows comparison of the top 4 Diredt to Home [DTH] SErvice Providers in India on various parameters.

Technology: The MPEG-4 compression technology used by Sun Astro and RCOM and to be used by Bharti is more advanced than the MPEG-2 compression technology currently being used by incumbent players Dish TV India and Tata Sky. RCOM and Bharti would also benefit from the synergies with existing technology and billing platforms and service support systems in their telecom business.

Distribution network: Dish TV has a decent but fast-growing distribution network. For the quarter ending 30 June 2008, Dish had 38,000 dealers covering 4,500 towns. Bharti and RCom will leverage on existing wireless distribution network.

Content advantage/experience: Dish TV scores above the competition on this metric. We expect Dish TV to benefit from its parent company Zee's long and strong pedigree in content generation.

Brand strength: We note that Tata Sky has built a strong brand image due to its heavy promotional activity in the past year. Bharti and RCOM are established pan-India wireless players and their execution track records imply impressive DTH service roll-outs, in our view.

Dish TV 125 crore promotions

2008-08-18T01:35:00.000-07:00

Anticipating a huge rise in demand for direct-to-home (DTH) service in the future, Dish TV is planning to spend Rs 100-125 crore this year for marketing and promoting its brand in a move to woo more customers.

The DTH industry is currently dominated by Dish TV, having a subscriber base of 3.5 million, followed by Tata Sky and Sun TV. Major players like Bharti, Reliance and Videocon are also planning their entry in to this sector soon.

The rise in future demand is due to the availability of 2,000 channels in the digital domain compared to 60 channels in the analogue cable TV. The company has roped in celebrity star Shah Rukh Khan as its brand ambassador

Reliance Big Digital TV DTH

2008-08-10T22:23:00.000-07:00

The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group-led Reliance Communications' new arm "Big Digital TV DTH" is set to launch nationwide commercial direct-to-home (DTH) services from August 15, 2008. The company has placed order for 5 million set top boxes with Korean and Taiwanese vendors to meet its requirements in the first year

Reliance to Order 5 Million Set-top Boxes

2008-02-19T21:02:00.000-08:00

Reliance Big TV DTH has informed us that the company is looking for vendors in Taiwan and South Korea to supply 5 million set-top boxes for their Direct To Home venture. Each set-top box will cost the company between $56 to $68.The company has also booked 4 transponders with a Malaysian company.

You may recall that Tata's managed to add 1 Million subscribers in 12 months. Reliance is aiming big and plans to add at least 2 million within the first 12 months. Insiders are speculating that Reliance is likely to offer a LCD TV for 24 months subscriptions with Big DTH.

We just hope that the service will not be a dampener as Reliance Wi-max Broadband.

Bharti Airtel to Launch DTH Service in India

2007-08-07T07:01:00.000-07:00

Bharti Airtel has announced that Bharti Telemedia, a subsidiary of the company has plans to launch the DTH services by the last quarter of financial year 2007-08. The company has received the letter of intent for commencing its DTH services from the union ministry of information & broadcasting.

The DTH services will be launched nationally by the company. Towards this, the company is setting up state-of-art infrastructure near Gurgaon (Haryana) for the purpose of uplinking and broadcast.

Reliance BlueMagic to start operations in 2007

2007-03-03T09:55:00.000-08:00

ADAG controlled, Reliance BlueMagic, a wanna be DTH player in India is likely to get INSAT Transponder space by June-2007. Due to lack of transponders their plans are on hold. This is the case in every Indian industry because the government had no plan about developing infrastructure and blindly opened the gates of liberalization.

If Reliance wants to rent satellites directly from France or Germany, it was not allowed to do so because the government invoked "national Security" clause. However, if ISRO failed to provide the necessary infrastructure, then ISRO will lease space from international providers and sub-lease it to Reliance. Bharti Airtel has also applied for space and being the last entrant, it will have to wait for 12 months.

Cricket World Cup boom for DTH Providers

2007-02-24T00:11:00.000-08:00

With the cricket fever gripping more than 300 million Indians, DTH majors - Tata Sky and Dish TV India are all set to woo them and cash in on the boom.

Tata Sky Exclusive Offer:
Tata Sky is offering FREE 3 Month subscription to its DTH TV if subscribed within April-15th.

DTH Players expect to sell 300,000 connection in March alone and thus take their subscriber base to 2.5 Million. Cable operators in Delhi NCR and parts of Mumbai are still struggling to comply with CAS regime, DTH operatos will lure the customer away from third rate cable system that existed for over 2 decades in India without any innovation.

Tata Sky CEO, Mr Vikram Kaushik said,
Tata Sky is not worried about Sun Network, Reliance Bluemagic or Bharti's DTH plans. Tata Sky will be the number one brand in terms of subscriber numbers and Quality of Service by August-2007.

Tata Sky has committed Rs 3000 crore investment for the DTH venture and has already spent Rs 1,000 crore on the same.

DTH, IPTV, STB in India

2007-02-03T07:20:00.000-08:00

The TRAI ruling made it mandatory to use Settop boxes for cable TV network providers. Tata sky DTH and DishTV India are other choices for the consumers available today. IPTV is a Hype and a Mess until the situation of broadband improves in India. But why this CAS or Set top box system essential ? Most Cable networks are run by local Dons/Bhai and Netas who are known to create untaxed wealth and evade royalties to Channels/MSOs by manipulating subscription figures.

Our news bureau has reports that lots of consumers are switching in the Delhi NCR from routine cable connections to Dish TVs. At the end of 2010, you can expect Dish TVs to have a penetration of 12% and revenues in excess of Rs 5000 crore. Also it does make sense to switch to Tata Sky Dish TV because of the fantastic customer service and better quality of picture and video.

The Indian consumer is probably the most happening consumer in the world today. All of a sudden he has become a king :-)

DishTV Bonanza fro Jaipur Viewers

2006-10-20T01:01:00.000-07:00

Residents of the Pink City, Jaipur in Rajasthan are all set to get a Diwali Bonanza from DishTV India. Dish TV India has offered 125 channels for a price of just Rs80. This is for existign as well as new subscribers.

Dial in your customer care and get the discount if not already applied on your billing cycle.

Hollywood Movies on Demand on Dish TV India

2006-10-16T06:17:00.000-07:00

DishTV India has launched Hollywood Movies on demand in India, in association with Bune Vista Company, the distribution arm of Walt Disney.

DishTV India already has very few selected bollywood movies on demand at Rs40 per movie which can be viewed within a period of 24 hours. Hollywood movies will be available at a price of Rs50 per movie and have a viewing time of 24 hours. If you get a DVR, you can probably backup the movie for few days until your gal friend or kids watch the same. If you find this service expensive, then check out SeventyMM and CatchFlix.

Tata Sky sends Notice to Sun TV

2006-10-06T02:07:00.000-07:00

Tata Sky Dish TV which was launched in Mid-August are hugely optimistic about their service. They will invest Rs3,000 crores in the next 4 years.

Sun TV, owned by IT Minister, Dayanidhi Maran's younger brother, has refused to share their content with Tata Sky. Tata Sky TV has sent a notice to Sun as Sun is sharing their content with DD owned DTH and not with Tata Sky. Bold and beautiful move from the house of Tatas :-)

DishTV India - A Bad experience

2006-09-09T19:36:00.000-07:00

In response to "Dish TV or Triple Play", here is a bad consumer experience and review of Zee's DishTV quality of service and customer satisfaction.

It took 15 days and numerous phone calls to the shopkeeper, service center, Zee head office, n number of sales people, technicians to get them to come over to my home and install the DISH TV antennae. DISH TV phone helpdesk standard response was that they don’t handle setups and I should talk to the dealer. Dealer said talk to service center. Service center said they’re sending the guy and never sent him.

This was not the end of it..now another week passed before the maxi service got activated. This too after tons of phone calls where I was always told it would be taken care of, but never happened.

Now the BIG shock….I expected good quality Video, somewhere near DVD quality since this being digital n all….No such luck…this is a majorly compressed MPEG2 video feed !! It is worse than VCD quality. Sound is near MONO unless you use headphones. I thought that signal strength maybe causing this, but I had 75-76% signal, which DISH TV tech said was the max he had seen himself. people usually get 60-65%.

Damn !! My cable looked and sounded so much better with full bandwidth, and this DTH looked like small video clip made full screen on my 29 inch TV. I guess it’s passable on smaller 21′’ screens but looks bad and patchy on a 29′’.

My advice…don’t go for this DTH hype till they improve their service.
P.S. another thing…they recently did a software upgrade and dumbed down the set top box. now you cannot make any system changes and can’t even see the signal strength. The channel surfing has also become a pain..instead of quickly shifting between screenful of channel menu, now I have to scroll through each and every channel to reach the desired channel. Their telephone support says there is no way to go back to the old firmware. They claim this new one is very user friendly. How is it user friendly when the users don’t like it?? their active channels are just marketting hype to attract new customers comparing their service with TATA SKY. No one watches their silly active patchwork.

I don’t know about TATA SKY but DISH TV will give you that cheap “quantity and no quality” feeling that reliance CDMA phones gave. I don’t think TATA SKY would be any different.

Dish TV now wants a discount on Star Bouqet - LOL

2006-07-21T07:43:00.000-07:00

Earlier, TDSAT had favourably ordered Star TV to share its content & channels with Zee's Dish TV. Star TV agreed to the same but now Dish TV wants it at a 50% discount to the rates Star is quoting. Star has offered the same rates as it is currently offering its cable operators.

Zee's argumnet is, some years ago Star had voluntarily offrered a discount for Direct to Home operators. Zee is known for such issues, do I need to say more ?

TDSAT orders Start TV to Provide content to Dish TV

2006-07-14T08:03:00.000-07:00

In a landmark judgement by TDSAT, Star TV was ordered to provide and share all the content to Dish TV without any bias of DTH or Cable. Insiders speculate that Star was unwilling to share the content with Dish TV owned by Zee Tele group. It is well known fact that Tata & Star are ina joint venture for DTH in India under the brand Tata-Sky. I will leave it upto the readers to guess who had an upper hand in this shady decision not to shae the content, Tata's or Star ;-)

Welcome to DishTV India

2006-06-06T23:58:00.000-07:00

DishTv India is a subsidiary of Zee TV. Dish TV crossed 900,000 subscribers in March 2006, according to Media Partners. It claims to add 3,000 subscribers a day currently and expects to close with 1.5 million new customers over the next year.