Big TV Reaches 5 lakh Subscribers, Targets 5 Million

Just days after slashing prices of Big TV service, the company announced that it has touched five lakh subscribers within two months of its launch. South India has proved to be a major market for Big TV, with nearly 50% subscribers accounting from that market.

Reliance ADAG expects to touch the five million mark in the first year of its operations, and is geared to to add over 400,000 subscribers every month with an on-ground infrastructure spanning 6500 towns.

But with exceeding amount of consumer complaints which we have received on this blog, about the installation, after-sales service etc. of Big TV, we really doubt if these figures are for real or just a marketing strategy to nail the competitors.

According to Arun Kapoor, president, Reliance BIG TV, Big TV’s half-million subscriber base is equivalent to 40% of the industry’s gross additions during the last two months.

Big TV sure has big plans in the offing. It already offers the most number of channels as compared to any other DTH player, and by next year it plans to double its channels bouquet to 400. Reliance has also tied up with LG to offer its DTH service at Rs 700, instead of Rs 1490, for those customers who buy 29-inch television sets. The offer is valid till end of this month.

Also in the pipeline is Big TV's digital video recorder (DVR) by end of this year, and interactive cricket and news service within two months in association with a leading sports broadcaster and two news channels.

Read more » Big TV Reaches 5 lakh Subscribers, Targets 5 Million

Big TV Diwali Offering at Rs 1490

Reliance Big TV has announced a special offer for the coming festive season, making it the cheapest DTH service at present.

The company has slashed the rates of Big TV by over 43%, from Rs 2490 to Rs 1490 from October 17th.

The package includes 3 months of free subscription, with 64 channels available, including Star, Sony, ESPN-Star Sports, free video-on-demand service for a month, and it includes installation charges.

The offer is valid for a limited period. With five DTH players already present in the market, Reliance is doing what it does best, catering to the masses and offering its service at a less cost than its competitors.

When Big TV was launched two months ago it was priced at Rs 2490 including installation cost, and now its been brought down to a price point of Rs 2190. That includes free subscription for 12 months and video on-demand for 3 months. The channel offerings will be similar to the Rs 1490 scheme.

Currently Dish TV is available for Rs 2190, followed by Tata Sky at Rs 2400, and the newly launched Airtel Digital TV at Rs 2499.

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Big TV Pulls a Spoof on Airtel Digital TV

Even before Bharti Airtel's Digital TV is launched in the market, slated on October 9th, Big TV has gone one up in this DTH rivalry. Airtel Digital TV has been running a teaser ad campaign prior to its launch for the past week.

The 12-second commercial shows animated characters dancing around and suddenly a sofa appears and the characters end with the punchline, "See you at home." It doesn't say anything else or indicate that its Airtel Digital TV ad. But Big TV guessed it right, and spoofed the ad.

Reliance ADAG used the same set up and punchline "See you at home," the only difference being that the ad showed Big TV logo and its features of 32 cinemas and 200+ channels. The viewers thought that this ad belonged to Big TV. You can watch the Airtel Digital TV teaser ad.

Big TV also noted that Airtel had no copyright claims since the teaser ads ran with no brand logo or name. Clearly the marketing war has begun. With Reliance aiming to capture 40% of the market share, don't be surprised to see few more spoofs.

India has an estimated seven million paying DTH customers and this is expected to grow to 25 million by 2012, as per estimates by FICCI.

Read more » Big TV Pulls a Spoof on Airtel Digital TV