India’s DTH Market Is Expanding

Submitted by TheIndiaStreet on June 22, 2008 - 7:53am.

Aditya Rao

It’s a concept that many will know arrived late in India. The Direct To Home service has been prevalent in Europe and America for quite some time. In India people still depend on the cable man to provide them with access to entertainment channels. But over the past year this has changed and continues to do so drastically.

India’s first fully operational DTH country wide service is a partnership between the Tata group and the Star network. In the past year Tata Sky has become the market leader in this field simply by being able to commence operations well ahead of others. It also helped them to have a massive advertising campaign aimed at the middle class consumer which was successful in getting him to switch from the cable service to the satellite service.

While the initial going for Tata Sky has been easy, the past few months have seen them lose valuable ground. A sudden change in their strategy, to charge for certain channels and at the same time use a package system whose rules are still not clear has attracted the ire of the government as well as customers leading to lawsuits.

Tata sky’s biggest competitor being Zee’s Dish TV has also run into rough weather. Dish TV is a publicly listed company and saw losses of up to 115 Crore the past year. This in spite of them using Shah Rukh Khan as their brand ambassador in a massive ad campaign similar to Tata Sky however damage control although late has been partly effective with them cutting service and installation charges while offering their set top box free.

The coming months will see the nationwide launch of more key players. As mentioned earlier the Anil Dhirubai Ambani Group is gearing up for a blockbuster launch. Their aim is very clear: simply to take over the market as quickly as possible and emerge the leader. The promise of digital quality MPEG picture and attractive pricing could see them lead the way.

Down south the Sun Network is poised to expand. Pilot operations in the states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka with their Sun Direct service has met with mixed results. Negotiations are still on with private TV channels for rights. The company should expand once these details are ironed out.

Perhaps the biggest spoiler for all the above players will be the DTH service to be launched by the Bharti group. An estimated 150 Crore rupees has gone into implementing just the first stage of the project which should begin operations early next year. Along with their already impressive broadband infrastructure Bharti has the option of providing internet, television and phone content all from one place with crystal clear quality.

But to start counting out the cable companies is too soon. Realizing the threat from the bigger companies the cable companies have started to offer IPTV services; something similar to Airtel’s model.

All this competition guarantees competitive pricing and more options for the viewer. With the amount of channels slated to commence in the coming years and the DTH providers increasing. The viewer it seems will gain, if the price is right.