Big TV Reaches for the Sky with Jet

The DTH segment is really heating up. Following the footsteps of Dish TV, who became the first operator to install their DTH services in Kingfisher Airlines, Reliance Big TV is now in talks with Jet Airways to offer live feed of channels to its passengers.

According to industry sources, Reliance ADAG would be partnering with an Israel-based technology company for the same. That will replace Jet's current in-flight entertainment system JetScreen, which offers video on demand on its domestic and international flights.

The company has already placed an order of about 5 million set-top boxes and is expected to be launched officially end of June. Reliance is also in talks with BBC Entertainment to add more channels to its existing list of 150 channels. Industry sources believe that the Big TV is expecting to grab a market share of about 5 million consumers in the next 18-19 months.

How easy would that be for Reliance Big TV, as its competitor Dish TV recently announced the launch of its DTH services on-board luxury train 'Palace on Wheels', a Goan cruise liner and on Ashok Leyland buses. Before that it will have conduct a test run on some on some bogies of Northern Railway. This will definitely give Dish TV a much wider reach.

As per Ernst & Young, 28% of the 100-million pay-television households will migrate to DTH. Currently, DTH subscriber base is pegged at 3.5-million subscribers and is expected to increase to 19 million by 2010.

Read more » Big TV Reaches for the Sky with Jet

Big TV in Talks with BBC Entertainment

While the other DTH providers are squabbling, Big TV is making silent but steady moves in the background to gain not only channel strength but to provide a massive amount of varied content to its users.

The essence of a successful DTH launch for Big TV will be to boast a huge amount of channels that will draw a line, dividing itself from the other DTH players in the market. To boost this effort Big TV chose a higher level of compression that's the Mpeg-4, what this means is, in the same amount of Bandwidth Big TV will be able to provide more channels as compared to the existing DTH players in the market.

Tata Sky, recently filed a petition with the fair trade regulator, Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC), alleging Dish TV’s free set-top box offer as being an "anti-competitive" and "deceptive" act. The counsel appearing for Tata Sky alleged that Zee group-promoted Dish TV claimed in its advertisement campaign in print and electronic media that its STB were being given for free, which was not the case.

While Tata Sky and Dish TV, wage the battle in court Reliance ADAG who had recently implemented BBC World in the month of May has been negotiating with the British Broadcasting Corporation for the BBC Entertainment channels to add to their list of channels.

When the negotiation will be completed is not know, but according to the administrator of the Indian BBC Entertainment forum, they are keen on distributing their packages on the Reliance DTH Platform as well.

If this deal works out, this will push the numbers up of channels on Big TV to up to 160 channels.

Read more » Big TV in Talks with BBC Entertainment