Reliance Digital TV Moves out of the House

No longer will Reliance Digital TV be only part of your house, soon you may find Big Tv embedded in your train seat or in your SUV.

According to Sanjay Behl, chief executive officer, Reliance DTH & IPTV, said, “Reliance Digital TV has capability to provide services in cars, buses and trains. We are keen to evaluate all tenders in this regard, including that of the Indian Railways.”

The best part is this service is actually free for the railways and the customers, as the service providers will cough up the sum for the cost of development, management and maintenance as well as the provision of audio and video content, Internet surfing and games.

How does the service provider make the money? Advertisements, yes the service provider is allowed to have adverts as 20% of the content. They can also provide value added services such as ticketing and reservations for hotel. Although passengers will have to pay for Value added services.

Although Dish TV has bagged the pilot project on the Kalka Shatabdi, let see what Reliance Digital Tv has up its sleeves.

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Big TV Launches DD Sports HD for CWG

After recently launching 13 channels during the festive season of Ganesha, Big TV has launched 7 new channels yet again.

This time with the Common Wealth Games on, the company has chosen to launch DD Sports HD ( an HD version of DD Sports), Saakshi TV channel (a Telugu News channel), Subhavartha TV ( a Telugu Religious channel), Aaseervatham TV ( a Malayalam Religious channel), Ruposhi Bangla (a Bangla Entertainment Channel) and DY 365 (a North East News channel). Pushing the total number of channels available to around 240 channels.

But unfortunately unlike other service providers big tv was charging a fee of Rs 28 for the DD Sports HD channel that is a free to air channel. Some complaints have been found on the India Broadband forum about the cost of DD Sports HD. It now seems that the company has decided to air the channel free of cost, further news is awaited.

But in a bid to broaden their subscriber base, Reliance Big TV has reduced its connection cost for a new customer to Rs 990 without a monthly subscription fee, with free installation and a Set Top Box (STB).

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Big CBS Networks to Hit India

Reliance Big Tv and Cbs Networks, have joined hands to provide an equally owned joint venture, christened, Big CBS Networks. Big CSB Network is all set to launch a series of English entertainment channels that are customized for the Indian Audience.

The newly formed venture will launch three new English channels, that will be branded BIG CBS Prime that falls under the premium English general entertainment, while the next BIG CBS Spark, will be the countries first English youth channel and last but not the least BIG CBS Love, India's first English entertainment channel dedicated to the fairer sex.



The channels will begin to premier in the fourth quarter of 2010 with most of the content from the CBS catalogue. The Indian audience can expect to see programs like, Hawaii Five-0, the NCIS franchises, America’s Next Top Model, Survivor, 90210, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Frasier and Entertainment Tonight.

Tarun Katial, chief executive officer, Reliance Broadcast Network, said, "This is truly a landmark moment not just for us but the entire Reliance ADA Group. We are confident that our deep understanding of the Indian consumer's entertainment requirement and advertiser needs, coupled with CBS' reputation for creating superior content, will offer unmatched and pioneering entertainment to audiences in India."

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Big TV Rolls Out Rs 30 Crore Ad Campaign

At a time when companies have tightened their advertising budget due to recession, Reliance Big TV has rolled out a Rs 30 crore advertising campaign to promote its to-be launched interactive services.

The campaign, 'Get the big world of entertainment’ will run in print and air for three weeks, and is targeted towards tier-II and tier-III cities. Big TV is slated to launch three interactive services, iNews (news), iCooking (cuisine) and iAstro (astrology).

Big TV already has a subscriber base of 1.3 million, even as incremental additions are coming in these cities. To further gain visibility in non-metro cities, Big TV has embarked on an ‘Entertaining and Educating Rural Andhra’ promotion.

Big TV branded float vans with dummy dish will go around various towns like Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, Kurnool, Srikakulam, Warangal and surrounding rural towns promoting its service. The campaign will also cover remote educational institutions and IT sector across Andhra Pradesh.

According to the company, "The on-ground team has already captured small towns like Kakinada by installing more than 3,000 connections during the promotion. And, more than 90 per cent of the town was connected with Big TV DTH with the nameplate of the house with Big TV branding.

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Big TV Crosses 5 Lakh Subscribers in South

South India has always been a major market for Big TV, as it crosses another milestone in the DTH segment. Big TV has touched 500,000 subscribers in the four Southern States within five months of its launch.

Bangalore with Karnataka leads the way with 150,000 subscribers. According the company, this was possible because of offering viewers their favourite regional bouquet of channels along with popular channels all bundled with a competitive pricing.

Mahesh Prasad, president, Reliance Communications, said, "It's heartening to note that we're scoring impressively in the South which has diverse content needs. Reaching the magic figure of 5-lakh customer milestone in the four Southern States was a great New Year gift to us. It is indeed a testimony to the superior product and the best proposition offered by BIG TV and its success in accelerating the growth momentum of DTH sector in India."

The company had indicated a possibility of a price hike in the South market, due to global scenario and increase in cost of importing set-top boxes. The rise in price was expected to have little effect on the increasing demand.

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Big TV Reaches Mount Everest

Reliance has gone where no DTH service provider has dared to go, not out of space but the company recently started servicing the base camp of Mount Everest at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM), situated 15,317feet above sea level at Dropadi ka Danda.

According to the company a team of 24 members braved snowstorms and temperatures reaching 3 degrees to trek from Uttarkashi to the base camp from the 26th to the 30th of November.

Big TV has a 300 member installation team in North India that have been trained to access the mountainous region to set up their DTH service there.

Mahesh Prasad, president, Reliance Communication, said, "Big TV holds the biggest market share in both Uttarakhand (also known as Uttaranchal) and Himachal Preadesh. On an all-India basis, Big TV has achieved one million subscribers within 90 days of its launch, to become the fastest-growing DTH service in India."

Big TV acquired 44% of the market share in Himachal Pradesh in less than the 90 days since it entered the mountainous state. The company has also got hold of 60% of the market share in the remote areas of Rohru, Kotkhai, Karsog, Nadaun and Palampur.

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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 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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Sanjay Puthli Joins Big Broadcast

Sanjay Puthli, who was working for UTV's new media division the youth channel Bindass as the business head, has been recruited by Reliance ADAG’s TV venture Big Broadcasting as its network sales head.

Sanjay was in charge of the sales revenues for all Bindass channels while he worked under the CEO. Puthli's new boss is Tarun Katial, COO, Big FM, who also looks after Reliance's broadcasting venture.

Prior to working for Bindass, Puthli was the senior vice-president with MTV Networks India, bringing with him over 18 years of experience, out of which the last 15 were in media.

Big Broadcasting plans to roll out more movie channels in Indian languages as well as English with a special program for children and three-four music channels are their future road map.

Sanjay Puthli joins Big Broadcasting as network sales head

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Big TV Likely to be Launched on June 24th

The DTH market is abuzz with speculations that Reliance Big TV will be officially launched on June 24th. Currently, Big TV is being used by around 50,000 customers, who are Reliance employees and customers of associate companies. According to a news report, the teaser campaigns will be aired on televisions four days prior to the launch with actor Abhishek Bachchan used as a brand ambassador. Take a peek into the commercial of Big TV, tagged as the biggest project in India.

The company is believed to have finalised over 1.25 lakh retail outlets across 4500 towns in the country to give a push to its DTH venture. Catering at these retail outlets will be over 700 distributors and around 500 installation & service partners have been roped in to cater to 25-30 installations per partner, per day.

According to the 2008 Ficci-PwC report on Indian entertainment and media industry, DTH households are expected to grow from 4 million in 2007 to 25 million by 2012. That comes as no surprise with new players like Bharti and Sun TV to enter this space.

Tata Sky and Dish TV share about 4.5 million subscribers between themselves, and due to heated competition both the companies have been busy wooing consumers with offers at reduced prices and attractive packages.

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Big TV Entertainment and News

Reliance Entertainment from the ADAG group has split itself into two branches namely the Reliance Big TV Entertainment and Reliance Big TV News to foray into the broadcast business.

The reason for this is due to the governments restrictions on foreign direct investment in the news media sector. The group is proposing two general news and two business news channels in Hindi and English and wants to remain open to the idea of roping in an international player in the entertainment TV segment.

The Reliance ADAG plans on launching twenty TV channels altogether in the country to expand its reach in the fast-growing broadcast entertainment business, although what the other 16 channels will consist of are not yet known.

In a recent update Big TV claims to have already acquired a customer database of 40,000 customers. The company also announced the road map for launching competitively priced Direct-To-Home (DTH) services across 4,000 towns in the next few weeks.

Big TV DTH also claims to have completed trial runs across 2,400 towns and the service, under the same brand name.

Read more » Big TV Entertainment and News