Reliance ADAG, is in talks with leading television manufacturers in the country for bulk LCD televisions to bundle along with its direct-to-home (DTH) service.According to the Business Standard, a senior LG executive said, "Reliance Communications had asked us to submit our quotation for the 26-inch LCD television sets, which we have already done. The order range could be as large as 30,000 to 40,000 LCD sets initially."
The market value of these televisions are around Rs.34,000 but since the company will be ordering it in large numbers it is expected to be made available to the customer for around 25% less that its market value. Big TV has also asked Samsung India and Sanyo for quotations.
This will be beneficial for the consumers as they will have a new set of bundled offers along with the television which will be cheaper than the market price. Although Big TV will be the first company to have this offer Dish TV has offered similar schemes where if the consumers bought a particular LG television set, a Dish TV connection came free.
Even Tata Sky has a similar tie-up with Korean electronic major Samsung for its LCD and plasma television sets. Last year, Tata Sky had an offer where, depending on the size of the television sets sold, the consumers got discounts on the set-top box. For example if a 21-inch television was sold the consumer got a 21 per cent off on their Tata Sky connection.
To make it even more competitive in this segment that is heating up, Reliance is also talking to TV manufacturers in Korea and Taiwan to obtain Big TV LCD's in the market by next year, this should be priced even cheaper than LG and Samsung models.