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.

Behl's appointment comes at a time when Reliance is looking at doubling its subscriber base within the next one year to three million.

According to the company, "It is also planning to double its channel bouquet from the current 200 to 400 channels and with Sanjay in the lead role, BIG TV will soon reach greater heights in terms of content and competition."

Prior to joining Reliance Communications in August 2005, Behl was Head of Marketing for Nokia's India operations. In November last year, Big TV's former CEO Arun Kapoor stepped down from his position and Mahesh Prasad was the acting president of Reliance Big TV for a short while.

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Big TV Opens Service Camps in Karnataka

Cashing in on its success in South India, Reliance Big TV has now introduced service camps in Karnataka to educate prospective subscribers about its features, pricing etc.

This day-long camp will also provide 'on the spot' demos to its present subscriber base, thereby testifying ease of use of the product and personal attention towards resolving any customer grievances.

These service camps will be conducted at Circle headquarters first and then in other locations progressively offering the interested customers to get instant connection with a hands-on demo of the DTH service.

Karnataka is an important market in the South as Big TV has nearly 150,000 subscribers there, out of the 5 lakh subscribers in that region. Through this campaign, BIG TV aims to reaffirm belief of its retailers about the company’s resolve to be a dependable and leading DTH player in the market.

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Latest Hindi Films on Big TV's Pay-Per-View Channels

Big TV has rolled out slew of latest Bollywood films on their pay per view (PPV) channels for the month of March. Reliance is in talks with several producers for DTH rights and are also exploring the option of exclusive rights for some films.

According to Mahesh Prasad, president - Reliance Communications, "The emerging DTH sector is opening new revenue opportunities for film-makers. Over the last few years, the satellite rights have emerged as a key revenue generator and DTH pay-per-view will be key streams for film makers to generate revenues."

Lined up for this month are latest flicks like Gauri – The Unborn and Love Story 2050, the films will be shown back-to-back throughout the day on dedicated channels and subscribers will have to pay a nominal fee of Rs 65 for Gauri-The Unborn and Rs 75 for Love Story 2050.

On subscription, they will get access to the channel from the time they pay, till mid-night of the same day. Subscribers can also enjoy blockbusters like Amitabh Bachchan starrer Aetbaar and Ek Din 24 Ghante and other films like China Gate and Jungle.

BIG TV offers its subscribers a monthly subscription of Rs 50 per month for viewing 10 Hindi and 10 regional films. The films on these channels are changed every fortnight, so a BIG TV subscriber gets to watch 20 Hindi films and 20 regional films every month at just Rs 50.

Other movies include -

Action – Jung and Mela;
Family – Khilona and Milan;
Drama – Ganga Jamuna & Bhawani Junction;
Romance – Rain and Must;
Suspense – Daraar and Sharmilee;
Comedy – Ramgadh Ke Sholay and Anubhav;
Art – Bhumika and Ankur; and
Classics – Anari and Anupama.

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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 Delays Launch of New Channels

Reliance Big TV has postponed its plans to foray into broadcasting, due to economic slowdown. The company had announced in May last year to launch and operate a bouquet of 20 channels under two new entities — Reliance Big TV Entertainment and Reliance Big TV News.

"There is no change in the business plan. Since it is tough time around, we will decide the timing of the launch later. Currently, the company is proceeding with studies and analysis," said a company executive.

Reliance will consider acquiring sick broadcasters as most of them are in deep financial trouble. The company also held back its plan to launch its Digital Video Recorders owing to the global situation.

Apart from this, Big TV has been in the news for pulling out of Indian Premier League, citing contractual violations with Sony. Big TV had signed the DTH deal with IPL last August for US$ 31.16 million over four years.

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Big TV Postpones DVR Launch

The economic crisis has taken its toll on the DTH industry, with several providers postponing the launch of Digital Video Recorders (DVR). Reliance Big TV, who was planning to launch its DVR by mid-October, might unveil the product only in the beginning of next fiscal.

The DVRs are upgraded DTH set-top boxes which allow the viewers to record multiple programmes from different TV channels, this feature also comes at a higher price, DVRs would cost between Rs 7000 to Rs 9000.

"The sale of DVR service comes with heavy cost implications to DTH service providers, which only adds to their existing financial burden of offering the basic DTH services. This may be among the reasons why some of the existing DTH players are holding back the launch of their DVR services," said an industry expert.

Reliance also intended to launch its IPTV service by end of 2008, but that has been deferred as well.

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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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