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

Dish TV's Free STB Might Trigger Price War

Dish TV has broken their silence, after reliance launched its underground marketing ploys to multiply its customer base Dish TV decided to stop waiting for the official launch of Big TV to begin their aggressive marketing techniques.

Anjali Malhotra Nanda, vice president, marketing, Dish TV, said, “We have designed a high decibel campaign, starring brand ambassador Shahrukh Khan, to support the company’s new marketing initiative. Under the offer, a 12-month maxi package, for example, will now cost Dish’s consumers Rs 3,990 which is inclusive of subscription and 67 movies.”

Although we currently believe that Big TV's advertisment campaign will be much bigger than Dish TV's boring stunt with Shahrukh Khan, it just speaks about the lack of innovation on Dish TV's marketing theme, get a celebrity to market a product.

Dish TV announced it will offer set-top boxes free of cost to its subscribers. The set-top box plan will be bundled with movies-on-demand worth Rs.2,490 to Rs.3,990 depending on the package that a subscriber opts for.

Jawahar Goel, managing director, Dish TV, said, “By waiving the set-top box cost, the company has been able to remove the entry barrier to DTH. The company hopes to double its monthly addition of subscribers to 180,000.” Its current subscriber base is 3.1 million.

Until now a Dish TV subscriber paid a one-time cost of Rs 2,500 for the set-top box and its installation along with a monthly subscription fee between Rs 100 and Rs 300 depending on the channels opted for, there was an additional cost of Rs 55 to Rs 75 per film for the movies on demand.

There are two plans now available,

• The Maxi Plan

With this new plan a subscriber pays Rs.3,990 for 12 months with 151 channels and 67 movies on demand free which costs the same as the amount paid.


• The Freedom Plus Plan

With this new plan a subscriber pays Rs.3,990 for 18 months with 98 channels and 67 movies on demand free which costs the same as the amount paid.

With Dish TV breaking the cost barrier to go DTH bill Big TV be able to ignore this offer by Dish TV? We do not know as yet but this move by Dish TV is most likely to start off a price war among the existing players and force Reliance ADAG to reconsider its pricing strategies.

Read more » Dish TV's Free STB Might Trigger Price War

Reliance Big TV Multiplying Customer Base

Reliance ADAG has been doing aggressive marketing across various segments for Big Tv. Recently we spoke about how Big TV placed advertisements in Reliance Energy bills. In their latest attempt they have offered Reliance PCO operators the "Big TV Tohfa Offer"

The Big TV Tohfa Offer woos their PCO operators with a special recharge voucher of Rs.2,500 which he will need to purchase. He will get Rs.1,500 added to his PCO connection and will get a Big TV installation free of cost. With this he will also get a 3 months subscription to Big TV as well as Rs.2,000 worth of pay per view movies valid for two months.

Big TV is suppose to have been launched in August, has now entered the month of May. Sources claim that Big TV will definitely launch this month and plan on setting a subscriber base of 5,000,000 customers. Reliance plans on cashing in on its subscriber base with the offers made to Reliance Energy's customer base of around 3,500,000 and 2,000,000 million PCOs controlled by Reliance Communications.

As compared to the TATA and Dish TV's DTH offerings the Reliance plans are significantly lower, but both the companies are waiting for Big TV's official launch before working on their pricing strategy. Vikram Kaushik, MD and CEO, Tata Sky, said, "We will have to evaluate not just the price, but also their offering in terms of marketing mix." While a Dish TV spoke person stated they could only comment after the launch.

Dish TV and Tata Sky together have over 4,800,000 customers that is lesser than Reliance's Big TV launch target.

Read more » Reliance Big TV Multiplying Customer Base

What is DTH?

DTH stands for Direct-To-Home, its a system that allows you to have a personal dish antenna how cable operators do, except its much smaller in size, the antenna can be seen on the top left corner of the blog.

This antenna can be fixed on your terrace and receives transmissions directly from a satellite, hence it is called as a direct to home service.

How does DTH Work?

In simple terms the service provider broadcasts the signal that is sent to the satellite that then transmits the signal back to earth which is picked up by your dish antenna and fed to your television set.

How is DTH different from Cable TV?

Direct to home is different in the way of size of the antenna require is much smaller, the city will have less wires from one building to another you have the flexibility of moving without changing ot searching for new cable operators. You do not have to deal with the local cable operator!

What is the history of DTH in India?

DTH services were first proposed in India in 1996, but did not pass approval because there were concerns over national security and a cultural invasion. In 1997, the government even imposed a ban when the Rupert Murdoch-owned Indian Sky Broadcasting (ISkyB) was about to launch its DTH services in India.

Finally in 2000, DTH was allowed. The new policy requires all operators to set up earth stations in India within 12 months of getting a license. DTH licenses in India will cost $2.14 million and will be valid for 10 years.

The companies offering DTH service will have to have an Indian chief and foreign equity has been capped at 49 per cent. There is no limit on the number of companies that can apply for the DTH license.

Resources:

Satellite Earth Picture Source

How DTH Works Picture Source

What is DTH?

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Reliance Big TV Likely to be Launched in August

The weather will play an important role in the launch of Reliance Big TV. It seems that the site located in Bangalore is ready for launch but the product can't be tested till the monsoons arrive.

According to a daily newspaper, rains can't be simulated, so there is a possibility that Big Tv will be launched only in August 2008.

In all probability, Reliance might offer DTH services free to some of the Dish TV and Tata Sky subscribers in order to develop its subscription base. If given free, the service charges would be Rs 200 per month. The company would be targeting 5 million subscribers in three years.

The company is buying set-top boxes from multiple manufacturers in Korea, Taiwan and China, and has already placed orders for over 2 million set-top boxes to cater to the initial launch.

Apart from Reliance, there are three more players who will be entering this market - Videocon, Airtel and Sun. This segment is going to witness tremendous growth. According to Ficci PwC report, DTH homes are projected to increase from 4 million in 2007 to 25 million by 2012.

We shall keep you posted with further developments.

Read more » Reliance Big TV Likely to be Launched in August

Reliance Big TV

Big TV is the new DTH (direct-to-home) service launched by Anil Ambani’s, Reliance-ADAG. With DTH services slowly catching up in India, it was but obvious that Anil would not remain far behind and jumped on to the bandwagon to compete with Doordarshan, Dish TV and Tata Sky.

Originally named 'Blue Magic,' and now called and marketed as Big TV, it is currently available only for employees and their families; it will be out in the market soon. Not only is Big TV suppose to have a high quality video and audio output, but it will also be bundled with a range of rich features like the ability to record a program so that you can watch it later.

You can also program your television with a reminder to record or switch on your favorite shows. Check your DTH bills on the screen itself via an interactive interface, play games and much more. The basic features are the ability to have up to 250 TV channels, 32 pay-per-view channels, a multiple picture-in-picture mode that is called mosaic. The Set Top Boxes will cost between Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 and monthly package cost would be fixed at Rs 325. To check the complete range of features take a look at the Big TV Feature List.

Read more » Reliance Big TV