Ever since the cable operators have troubled the Indian consumer with his whimsical ways and held the consumer to ransom during events such as the cricket world cup which are high in public interest, DTH providers have come up to do away with the ubiquitous cablewallah. Dish TV from Zee Entertainment & Enterprises Ltd. was the first DTH service provider in India. And it maintains its lead in the number of subscriptions.
Currently the industry is going through a price war with as many as 7 players in the fray. Dish TV, TataSky DTH, BIG TV, Airtel DTH, Sun TV and the latest to join the bandwagon Videocon DTH. 5 of them have used brand ambassadors. Shah Rukh Khan for Dish TV, Aamir Khan for TataSky, Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor for Airtel DTH and the junior Bachchan Abhishek for Videocon TV. But seriouisly, none of them have had any impact. All promotions done by these players in the TV space have been average. Only Tata Sky’s Aamirs ads have been a bit memorable. No one remembers SRKs Dish TV ads or Saifeena’s Airtel TV ads whereas BIG TV and Sun TV have not used any celebrities with below average ads.
The latest Videocon TVC starring Abhishek Bachchan is one of the most senseless ads ever seen. The ad, simply put, doesn’t have an objective. Are they trying to convey the fast service in installing the DTH after getting an enquiry? Is it a fast food service or something? Its understandable if the thought was to show quick after-sales service or repair service but what is the point in showing such boring people jumping. When the parameters to convey of clarity or convenience or cost is a requirement, this comes off as unrelated. Its earlier ad telecast during IPL 3 was also boringly talking of technology.
Abhishek Bachchan as a brand ambassador of Videocon doesn’t fit any attribute of Videocon. Not that the other celebrities are any better among its peers. It’s difficult to understand the rationale that the ad agency making this ad would have put before the client. And to top it, the client bought the idea. I would surely have loved to be a part of this presentation.
Apart from the advertising stuff, I feel DTH has immense potential to revolutionize Television, Computing and Gaming Markets. As you all know, with each and every passing day, the memory sticks are losing out on space and the integration of mobile and computers for Internet Browsing can provide newer avenues for Differentiation. Something similar to the telecom market which after fighting over price initially have now concentrated on service and VAS for differentiation. DTH has the potential with VAS market. Eg the E- Learning for Tata Sky.
ReplyDeleteAlso note the alarming increase in buying pattern for the LCD LEDs in towns will also have a boost to this Market as the Normal Cable can’t give you the High Definition Image and the desired effect of the LCD. Thus each LCD buyer is automatically a new consumer for the DTH Service.
Gaming is again picking up like anything in the Indian industry. With Godrej introducing a Gaming Console TV, soon others will also follow the suit. DTH can also use such things for differentiation.
Its going to be very interesting to watch how the players are going to vie their customers.
Needless to mention the Penetration of DTH. If the first decade of 2000 was a telecom revolution for India, DTH is surely going to be the next sector for this decade.
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ReplyDeleteJust to quote Mr. Nikesh Arora, President of Global Sales, Google "When things are going from nice-to-have to must-have, it is going to be big. We saw broadband is going Big" And for that they aren't starting a Broadband Service in India but a Platform which will work on TV and it will integrate the TV and the web.
ReplyDeleteGoogle TV is a piece of Software which they plan to launch on Set top boxes and which will allow you to use Cable and Broadband on the same Interface.
Now its going to be a real time for Customized TV Viewing. As you would agree, the usage of computers at home has been increasingly for web browsing and Content Viewing. TV can play a major shift in Browsing styles of People.
Its also important to note that there are 30 - 40 NRI's who are ready to pay big bucks to view Indian Content. Needles to mention the following for Hollywood Content in India. The increasing knowledge of Torrents will also play a big role. Thus new DTH can rather be a Global.
And now lets think a little ahead of Google. Can't they develop something to connect TV's in Networks. Like suppose i Invite my building friends for a Football Match and all start playing a Networked FIFA game on our TV sitting right our own home.
Think of the possibilities and it just doesn't stop. Video Conferencing is a big Market and that can also be tapped.
I am really amazed and want to see the war. Google has predicted it to be 5 years down the line, But going by the revolution i feel its near by somewhere.
I do agree but not in its entirety. DTH industry is increasing its subscribers day-on-day but it still is a far way off compared to Cable. According to a study by Media Partners Asia (MPA), the number of Indian DTH subscribers will reach 58 million by 2020 (40%), and 45 million by 2014 from a net installed base of 17 million in 2009 vis-a-vis 70 % market share for traditional cable. so for the record, Cable is not going anywhere for the next decade at least in India and all the reports of cable operators losing their clout and hold is quite far off.
ReplyDeleteTelecom revolution occurred due to the price wars, Yes, but more due to lack of alternative in communication i.e. the landline and giving the customer accessibility on the move. DTH does not have much of an advantage over cable at least as of now. Price wars are happening here too but the urge or a compelling reason to switch isnt there. So i am slightly averse to compare DTH to telecom. its sort of comparing apples to oranges. But to put in in perspective, DTH certainly has the potential to grow exponentially
About the proposed and much anticipated Google TV (though not as anticipated as any of the {i-} gadgets) is on the horizon, i think the 5 years if for the developed markets rather than India. Not because of unavailability of technology or customers but because of the infrastructural issues. India is at a nascent stage of the broadband expansion. For live or even canned content to play without any stoppages, the speed is critical. Unfortunately, it isnt the case in India. The unimpressive numbers of subscribers for broadband is a clear point.
ReplyDeleteGoogle with this offering wants to be in the entire value chain, right from content to distribution to exhibition. A very ambitious idea which google can engineer. The problem here though is similar or rather analogues to the private labels who have minimum distribution as compared to the big players. So the content developed by google will always be less in quantity than the traditional producers. It is one thing to have a complete control over the value chain online through orkut, gmail, google documents and other offerings and other when you compare it to the traditional media market
The biggest challenge is here to sustain in the market with cheap plans,quality signals and maximum number of channels.I believe Videocon is the best service provider and with the help of internet we can easily do videocon d2h online recharge.
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