Dish TV to Provide MPEG 4 STBs, Not Service

Dish TV has announced that it will begin providing MPEG 4 Set Top Boxes soon after Reliance Big TV accused existing DTH operators Tata Sky and Dish TV of not complying with the latest set-top box technology and trying to block out from bringing the revised norms.

While Jawahar Goel, managing director, Dish TV, said, “MPEG 4 boxes are much more expensive and may put extra burden on the subscriber. Moreover, the MPEG 4 format is not in accordance with BIS (Bureau of Indian Standard) and the government’s regulations and, hence, is not interoperable with MPEG 2 boxes,”

Now the funny part of the story is that Dish TV does not plan on upgrading its transmission to MPEG 4 so although a customer may buy an MPEG 4 set top box the audio and video quality will stay at MPEG 2.

Dish TV claims that it does not make business sense for them to upgrade their transmission, keeping in mind they have invested in their own broadcast satellite recently. Dish TV says it is quite confident of meeting the competition from Big TV in the market as MPEG 4 and MPEG 2 offers virtually the same video and audio quality.

The company also claims that the only difference is in the cost of set-top boxes (STBs), which is much higher for MPEG 4. But as we know Big Entertainment has procured a huge quantity of set top boxes so the prices are comparable with the MPEG 2 STBs.

But since Big TV has still not spoken about a launch date the competitors are making hay while the sun shines, Dish TV is giving away free STB’s with their connection to expand their customer base and probably get rid of their MPEG 2 STB stock. Dish TV also recently lost its CEO Arun Kumar Kapoor, who has now been hired by Big TV.

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Big TV Appoints Dish TV CEO as COO

A week after the news of Dish TV's CEO Arun Kumar Kapoor quitting, its official that he will be the chief operating office of Big TV.

Kapoor joined Dish TV in November 2006 and before Dish TV he worked for Hutchison Essar South Limited as the CEO for the Punjab Circle. He has also worked for the UB Group, Gillette, Pepsi, Spice Cell, Airtel and IBM Daksh.

It seems that during Kapoor’s tenure, Dish TV consolidated its position of the country’s largest DTH platform, with 59% market share. As the chief operating officer of Big TV Kapoor will be responsible for overall business strategy and operations of Big Entertainment's DTH business.

The Reliance ADAG group hopes to become the number one Dish TV player in the market under Kapoor's leadership. Lets wait and watch if Arun can take Big TV to Big heights.

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Reliance Complains over DTH Set-top Boxes

In its attempt to gain an edge over its competitors, Reliance Big TV has accused existing DTH operators - Tata Sky and Dish TV - of not complying with the latest set-top box technology and trying to block out from bringing the revised norms.

For instance - if you have Tata Sky and want to switch to Dish TV or vice versa, you would have to throw away your old set-top box and get a new one. This is because the STBs provided by these operators aren't interoperable.

Reliance has complained to the I&B ministry that the current DTH operators are using an obsolete format, therefore jeopardising comusmers' interest. Tata Sky and Dish TV use MPEG-2 technology as compared to Big TV, which will use MPEG-4 format. This will offer better video quality and save over 30% transmission bandwidth allowing more channels to be telecast.

Reliance has also asked the government to revise the BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) norms and implement TRAI's guidelines, which says that the existing subscribers need not change their STBs.

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Big TV Appointments

Sanjay Behl, the New CEO of Big TV

Big TV has appointed Sanjay Behl as its new CEO to look after the company's DTH and IPTV operations.

Behl currently serves as Reliance Communications Group Head, Brand and Marketing Operations. He will continue to oversee the current responsibilities as well.

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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.

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.

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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.

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Big TV Appoints Dish TV CEO as COO

Former Dish TV CEO Arun Kumar Kapoor quit to join Big TV as the chief operating office. It seems that during Kapoor’s tenure, Dish TV consolidated its position of the country’s largest DTH platform, with 59% market share.

As the chief operating officer of Big TV Kapoor will be responsible for overall business strategy and operations of Big Entertainment's DTH business.

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Bachchans Brand Ambassadors for Big TV

Big TV and Big B - Amitabh Bachchan unite to form a massive joint venture for Rs 1500 crore to focus on creating original products in the field of movies, TV, Internet, mobile and live shows.

The Bachchan family - Amitabh, Abhishek, Aishwarya - is considered to be the most popular Bollywood family, and this deal would give Big Entertainment an edge over others.

Anil Ambani group Reliance Big Entertainment will look at the business aspect of the deal that would include providing managerial resources, marketing and the distribution of projects, while the Bachchans' AB Corp would come up with the creative inputs and would be handling the entertainment aspect of the project.

This move is in line with making Big Entertainment a global media and entertainment company. Reliance Big Entertainment has already made inroads into the US market with the launch of a chain of over 200 Indian movie theaters, and a slew of investments in Hollywood companies.

Now Anil Ambani is in talks with Dreamworks, the movie studio founded by mogul Steven Spielberg and David Geffen, to strike a deal worth $550 million. If the deal goes through it would help Reliance group's chairman, Anil Ambani realize his global ambitions. It sure will be a BIG venture.

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Big TV to be Launched in July

The wait is over, Big TV will finally be launched in July, according to sources in Reliance Communications. The impending launch will intensify the DTH market which is expected to dominate 40% of the pay TV universe by 2015.

To generate more interest prior to the launch, Big TV site says, "For as little as under Rs 100 a month, you can get over dozens of digital as well as pay-per-view channels and much more."

According to recent reports, customers will have to pay only Rs 1,000 upfront for a Big TV connection, making it the cheapest DTH player in the country. Reliance plans to offer over 250 TV channels, which is more than any other DTH operator, with 30 exclusive movie on-demand channels within a month of its launch.

The Anil Ambani group also signed a contract with India's famous Bollywood actors - the Bachchan family - in a bid to work together in the areas of movies, live shows, TV, internet and mobile entertainment. Its a possibility that Abhishek Bachchan would endorse Big TV. Reliance Comm is certainly making inroads into the DTH market with bang, but it remains to be seen whether they can sustain in this highly competitive market, and more imporatantly whether Big TV lives up to the expectations of millions of consumers.

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Big Broadcasting Ties up with AsiaSat

The day when Big TV launches is getting closer as now Reliance ADAG has finalized the deal with AsiaSat to transmit its TV channels via their satellites.

AsiaSat 3S is supposedly one of Asia's premium satellite broadcasting companies. Big TV DTH will be using the companies C-brand transponder to deliver its expanding range of channels to its subscribers.

Ashutosh, COO, reliance, Big broadcasting, said, "One of our key objectives is to bring to our audience a unique, world class and unprecedented TV viewing experience. Placing our satellite television services on AsiaSat 3S, Asias premium platform for satellite television enables us to establish in the shortest time possible a seamless broadcast network accessing all our targeted cable homes."

"By using AsiaSat 3S, the most popular satellite platform for the Indian media market, we gain immediate access to all cable head ends across India. We are proud to have AsiaSat as our partner as it has a powerful satellite fleet offering the most comprehensive coverage and largest audience access that fully support our aggressive broadcast plan in India," he added.

Peter Jackson, ceo, AsiaSat, said, "Big broadcasting is an impressive addition to AsiaSat's expanding list of blue-chip customers. We are thrilled to be selected as the satellite partner of one of India's most dynamic and biggest broadcast ventures. It is evident that AsiaSat offers real value to premium broadcasters who look for service quality and access to their target markets in the Asia-Pacific."

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