Big TV Expected to Hike DTH Price

The global economic crisis is expected to hit DTH segment, with all DTH operators, including Reliance Big TV, planning to hike their prices.

The South market will be the first to witness the price rise, since the change in price is expected to have little impact on the spiralling demand.

South is a major market for Big TV, as nearly 50% of the subscribers are based there, and overall South accounts for 35% of the DTH market. The weakening rupee is increasing the cost of importing set-top boxes.

But as newer players entered the market, lot of operators slashed the set-top box prices and subscription rates, but that will change soon.

Recently, Big TV also announced series of new movie releases for its 32 pay-per-view (PPV) channels in English, Hindi and regional languages. In English movies, Big TV is offering subscribers movies like Black Hawk Down, Peggie Sue Got Married, The Rundown, The Way We Were, SWAT, Anger Management, Midnight Express, Bite The Bullet, Short Circuit 2 and Frankenstein.

While the Hindi line-up includes 20 films like Aap Ka Saroor, Mast, Chalte Chalte, Aetbaar, Keemat, Goal, China Gate, Sultanat, Anubhav and Shaadi Ke Baad. In regional category, Kannada films like ‘Amruthavarshini’ and ‘A’ can be viewed on the pay-per-view channels.

Under pay-per-view services, Big TV offers 10 Hindi and 10 regional flicks monthly to its subscribers. English movies are priced for Rs 50 per month while regional is priced at Rs 60 per film. The movie library is updated every fortnight.

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Big TV Races Ahead, Crosses 1 Million Users

Reliance Big TV claims to have surpassed 1 million subscriber mark within 3 months of its launch, with this Big TV holds 15 percent of the market share. This announcement comes a month after Big TV touched five lakh subscribers.

Recently Dish TV reached 4.5 million customers, thereby capturing 53 percent of the market share. So this segment, which is expected to grow upto 10-12 million customers by November 2009, is certainly gathering momentum.

Mahesh Prasad, President, Reliance Communications, said that Big TV is expected to breakeven within the first five years and is on target to achieve the 40% market share to become a leading player by 2011.

"Our customer-centric approach coupled with advanced technology, superior product and service with a wide distribution and installation service network spanning the country has helped BIG TV cross the million milestone in such a short span of time," stated Prasad.

However, the global economic situation and the depreciating rupee is putting pressure on margins for import of set top boxes so the company is looking at all options, including price rise and packaging to tackle the situation.

Big TV recently announced massive retail expansion to push its service among the masses. Its recharge vouchers (RCVs) will be available in around 75,000 outlets across 10,000 towns inlcuding grocery and utility stores.

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Big TV Expands Retail Network to Sell Vouchers

Catering to the masses, Reliance Big TV has expanded its retail network to around 75,000 outlets across 10,000 towns which will provide recharge vouchers (RCVs) for its DTH service.

The network includes local grocery stores, gift stores and utility stores, that's a good marketing strategy, making it easily accessible for its subscribers.

Reliance is also exploring online and mobile mode payment options.

Currently Big TV services in available through 100,000 outlets across 6,500 towns in the country, including over 2,000 exclusive Reliance branded stores, which includes 250 Reliance Web Worlds, 219 Reliance Mobile Stores, and 40,000-odd telecom outlets.

The company is adopting the same retail network practiced in mobile prepaid connection, which worked for them. Big TV claimed to have touched five lakh subscriber base within two months of its launch, which makes it the fastest growing DTH player in the Indian market.

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Big TV CEO Resigns in 4 Months

Reliance ADAG is already undergoing a major change at the helm, just a month after crossing five million subscribers in short span of time.

Arun Kapoor, has quit from his position as CEO and President after being appointed in July 2008.

The reason for Kapoor's decision is not known. It comes as a surprise, considering that Kapoor had announced long-term plans for the company.

At present, Mahesh Prasad is the acting president of Reliance Big TV. Prasad, who had been with Big TV since its inception, was the President, applications, solutions and content group, Reliance Communications.

Prior to Big TV, Kapoor was the CEO with its rival Dish TV since 2006. Then he joined Reliance as COO after which he was made the CEO, and in four months he resigned to join Dish TV again. As competition is rapidly expanding in the DTH market, how will this move affect Big TV?

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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.

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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.

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