ITV

Category: DTH Services

  • A tale of two giant mergers and their India fallout

    A tale of two giant mergers and their India fallout

    MUMBAI: Two deals shook the world of media and entertainment last week: Disney-21st Century Fox and Dish TV-Videocon d2h. One was all about content and affects the world of media and entertainment globally including India. The second was all about content distribution and platform and impacts the world of television in India.

    Of course, the ripple effect of the first is oceanic for comparison with the other. So deep will be the impact of Bob Iger and Rupert Murdoch’s decision that the future will look back at the history of media as the pre and post-Disney-Fox and New Fox era.

    Nevertheless, it has created a behemoth in India: the new Disney, which now will house Star India, will have relationships with Tata Sky and the video streaming service Hotstar. The union of Disney and Fox is expected to bring in synergistic savings of close to $2 billion; some of that will be contributed by the Indian division, however marginal that might be.

    In India, the Dish TV-Videocon d2h merger has created the world’s second largest pay satellite TV distribution platform with 29 million subscribers, just behind AT&T’s Direct TV.

    Dish TV Videocon merged is also predicted to bring in large savings through rationalisation of the two companies’ manpower, backend resources and better combined purchasing negotiating power, distribution and infrastructure like offices etc. An estimate is that costs cumulatively will come down by about 10-20 per cent.

    The main leverage it will get is in content costs. Even though the Disney-Fox combine will be unmatchable internationally, in India, Dish TV Videocon could more than prove a match for it. With the expensive IPL under its belt, it will most probably have to kowtow to CEO Anil Dua and chairman Jawahar Goel’s diktats on how much they will pay out for carrying the Star India network’s signals, which includes its premium programming and sports.

    Also read:

    MIB clears path for Dish TV Videocon

    21st CF spins-off into new live news & sports co Fox

    With Star India, Disney emerges as India’s largest M&E firm

  • STB import duty doubled to 20%

    STB import duty doubled to 20%

    NEW DELHI: In a fresh bid to boost domestic production under the Make in India project, the Indian government has increased the import duty on set-top boxes (STBs) to 20 per cent, including a host of other electronic items such as TVs sets and smartphones.

    The duty hike from 10 per cent could impact the ongoing digitisation of TV services in India. Experts and stakeholders in the country’s broadcast and cable industry are still assessing the directive, including the fact whether the move is aimed at arresting imports from China.

    A ministry of finance notification dated 14 December 2017 stated the federal government was “satisfied” that the import duty on certain goods, including electronics, should be increased as “circumstances exist” that render it “necessary to take immediate action”.

    Though officially over, India’s digitisation of TV services is still a work in progress with many big MSOs admitting in private that the last and fourth phase is still far from over.

    A cable industry source highlighted that India’s DTH operators annually import about 10 million STBs, while an additional 20 million boxes approximately would still be needed to fully cover areas falling under phase IV of digitisation.

    While many India companies, including big companies like the Hero group, are manufacturing and/or assembling STBs in India, the supply, according to industry sources, isn’t enough to meet the demand. It is also expected that whenever the next round of survey is undertaken, the total number of TV homes in India would increase much beyond the figure of 183 million (as indicated by BARC India).

    Will this increase in import duty also up the cost of STBs for consumers via a mixed business model of rentals and outright purchase of the product? It’s still not clear.

    An industry source, however, said whether this government move would give a fillip to domestic manufacturing is not yet known. Most Indian DTH operators have already started importing STBs from countries like Thailand and Vietnam to take advantage of an ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) trade pact, which is aimed at lowering trade barriers and help economic growth in general.

    STBs can be now imported by Indian companies from ASEAN countries at very low tax rate that is in the range of 2-3 per cent, the source elaborated.

    ALSO READ:

    Budget 2016: STBs exempt from basic customs duty

    DAS: Even official figures show digitization is incomplete

    DAS phase IV pace slack; MIB to make Indian STB makers

     

  • Tata Sky adds beauty-based interactive channel

    Tata Sky adds beauty-based interactive channel

    MUMBAI: Tata Sky has expanded its interactive channel list by adding Tata Sky Beauty, in partnership with FTheCouch (FTC) Beauty Studio, which is promoted by actor Suniel Shetty. It will feature your favourite actors sharing tips and tricks on makeup, skincare and the latest fashion trends in an easy to understand do-it-yourself (DIY) format.

    On the launch of Tata Sky Beauty, Tata Sky chief commercial officer Pallavi Puri said, “Tata Sky has always launched interactive services that inspire and encourage its subscribers to learn, grow and improve in areas that interest them. Tata Sky Beauty is designed to build DIY skills in grooming, styling and care and will inspire women to look good and feel confident at all times!”

    Celebrity make-up experts & stylists such as Bharat & Dorris, Ambika Pillai, Subhash Singh, Shan Mu, Aalim Hakeem, Anju Modi, Tarun Tahiliani, Kavita Bhartiya, Payal Jain and skin care experts such as Dr Swati Maheshwari will recreate Bollywood’s glamour from the comfort of your living room. The service also boasts of a pool of social media talents such as Shruti Anand, Noorin Sha, Hesha Cheema, etc.

    Shetty had previously teamed up with Tata Sky for its Fitness & Acting Adda service. Tata Sky Beauty will also have a Kids Special segment to give tips and updates on hairstyles and fashion trends. On Sunday, a special vignette Zindagi Khoobsurat Hai and show Saas, Bahu Aur Beauty will give subscribers a glimpse into the day-to-day lives of TV celebrities.

    FTC Talent Media & Entertainment co-founder and CEO Akshay Vatsa said, “Our vision at FTC has always been to create innovative content and provide our users with a convenient access to our offerings. Extending this thought, we are happy to launch FTC Beauty Studio with Tata Sky Beauty to help the audience learn and empower themselves to create their own beauty recipe, with the best in class experts.”

    Tata Sky subscribers can avail the service at Rs. 59/- per month on Ch #119 and it will also be available on the mobile app.

  • DishTV introduces Cooking Active with celebrity chefs

    DishTV introduces Cooking Active with celebrity chefs

    NEW DELHI: Asia’s largest DTH platform DishTV , in association with One Take Media Co, has launched a new active service — Cooking active.

    Cooking Active will have classic and innovative recipes catering to meals and snacks. It will have both, vegetarian and non-vegetarian cuisines.

    The Chef Special section is powered by the celebrity chef Ranveer Brar. The other sections would have recipes handpicked by the chefs. Under Smart Cooking, India’s known and most enjoyed culinary dishes, desserts and the signature spicy curries etc. will be on display.

    The launch of Cooking Active seeks to position DishTV as a service which not only provides entertainment but also opportunities to learn. Valued subscribers of DishTV can subscribe to Smart Cooking by sending a missed call to 18002700283 from their registered calling number.

    With features like Smart Cooking, DishTV Cooking Active Service will put up classic recipes ranging from full course meals to snacks. Under this service, India’s most celebrated preparations, desserts and spicy curries will be showcased.

    The Chef Special section is powered by celebrity chef Aditya Bal, Vicky Ratnani, Ajay Chopra, Bhairav Singh, NileshLimaye and many more further other sections would see handpicked recipes across the regions that are sure to tingle one’s taste buds.

    Dish TV Group CEO Anil Dua said: “With the launch of Cooking Active, we are strengthening our proposition of being more than a provider of regular TV channels. It is our constant endeavour to offer the widest range of content and services to our subscribers. We are pleased to join hands with One Take Media for launching cooking active on the DishTV platform and we are sure that this service will surely add to their element of delight.”

  • Tata Sky deploys DataMiner to improve customer experience

    Tata Sky deploys DataMiner to improve customer experience

    MUMBAI: Tata Sky has an impeccable reputation as being best in class in the area of customer services, tech and offerings. It has constantly been investing in tech and customer service to stay ahead of the curve as compared to rivals – Freedish, DishTV-Videocond2h, SunDirect, Airtel Digital and Reliance Big TV.

    Now the company, led by Harit Nagpal, has taken another step in that direction by deploying the DataMiner NMS/OSS (network management system & operations support system) to manage its direct-to-home (DTH) operations for both its pay TV and OTT services.

    DataMiner is a global leader in end-to-end multi-vendor network management and OSS software solutions for the broadcast, satellite, cable, telco and mobile industry. Its NMS/OSS is deployed with a majority of DTH, satellite and service providers worldwide. Its customers include: Gazprom, MTS, France Television, Megacable, Mulitchoice, KPN, Immarsat, Singtel, ABC and many more.  The company is a part of the Skyline Communications group.

    The core of the DataMiner system is a cutting-edge multivendor protocol engine, enabling integration of any device or system from any vendor, regardless of its interface or protocol. In fact, it is already integrated with over 5000 devices and systems from more than 600 key industry suppliers, which represents by far the largest third-party integration deployment available in the industry.

    The objective of Tata Sky, one of the first companies in India to launch multiple products and services, is to connect to the best content in the world on any budget, any screen, anytime and anywhere. And the Dataminer solution offered that.

    Says Tata Sky chief technology officer Yigit Riza: “Tata Sky has invested in the best-of-breed technology infrastructure to ensure maximum uptime, reliability and scalability. Software applications such as CRM, billing and ERP are deployed in a clustered environment, which not only ensures high availability, but also enriches the experience of our subscribers.”

    “The DataMiner Platform at Tata Sky offers one-screen access of the entire operation, including content acquisition and compression platforms across different vendors and technologies. The unified view enables users to easily access and configure services. DataMiner is also scalable, so we can add other equipment and systems in the near future, related to the RF platform and OTT platform,”  adds Skyline Communications regional account manager- south Asia & middle east Pramod Gupta.

    Gupta points out that DataMiner will help the DTH operator’s engineering room restore services as quickly as possible, either through automatic service redundancy switching or through operator-initiated switchover.

    “Moreover, any embedded switchover functions in the network infrastructure can be integrated in DataMiner. DataMiner automation is versatile and adapts optimally to the operational environment. The tailored failover automation engines decrease the mean-time-to-repair to the absolute minimum for every failure scenario,” Gupta says.

    For a customer like Tata Sky, this means it only need to invest in one NMS platform, instead of multiple proprietary and closed systems. End-to-end service orchestration and monitoring is at the heart of the platform.

    With the number of channels as well as its in house VAS services  increasing regularly,  the company believes  DataMiner will help it maintain or improve the QoS service it is reputed to deliver.

    ALSO READ :

    TRAI QoS implementation stayed by Delhi HC awaiting Madras HC verdict

    Tata Sky introduces Blogbuster

    DTH subscriber addition disappointing in calendar 2016

  • Govt DTH channels may beam into Tier-II theatres & other areas

    Govt DTH channels may beam into Tier-II theatres & other areas

    MUMBAI: The human resources development ministry, through Swayam Prabha DTH, may plan to screen educational content in cinema halls if approved. The government is scrutinising a proposal for showing the content in theatres in small towns across India, ministry officials said.

    The HRD ministry had launched 32 channels on Swayam Prabha in August 2016 for providing higher education, including three for students to prepare for IIT entrance examination.

    The ministry is exploring ideas to relay courses through the DTH channel to cinema halls in urban areas having a population of less than a lakh and in Tier-II towns. Educational content could be shown between 7 am and 11 am or at a convenient time keeping in mind school timings of a particular area, an official told Hindustan Times.

    There are several single-screen halls that remain unutilised. Mass viewing of this content on big screens by high school and higher secondary school students could have a positive impact. However, matters related to the project cost et cetera are still to be worked out.

    The screening, idea of which was first mooted by NASSCOM, may also be done on Sundays and other school holidays, sources said.

    ALSO READ :

    32 free DTH educational channels on Dish TV & FreeDish start functioning

    Only Dish TV carrying HRD ministry’s educational TV channels

    Educational DTH channels to remain free-to-air, says minister

     

  • Television viewership stable despite VoDs, says DISH TV exec

    MUMBAI: People’s interest in television was intact although use of cell phones in India has increased considerably in India. After increase in internet speed, people in India had started watching videos on mobile phones. However, despite VoD services proliferating in the country, viewers preferred to watch films on television.

    DTH services leader DISH TV’s senior executive told PTI that it was a wrong perception that people lately did not watch television because of the growing popularity of video on cell phone facility. Despite the increasing tendency of seeing videos on handsets, the executive said, different studies revealed that people’s interest in watching television in all age brackets had not declined.

    DISH TV’s senior vice president (marketing) Sukhpreet Singh, who was in Indore to launch DISH TV’s “Mera Apna Pack” and “Swagat Pack” in the Madhya Pradesh market, said, in fact, the television viewership was increasing. Singh said that people watching videos on cell phones was a healthy sign for the entertainment industry.

    Answering a question, Singh said even now many cable operators in India had not come under the purview of regulation, and they were the ones who became a nuisance for both, the government and the public. It would be better if they were regulated soon, he added.

  • Rs 200 mn allocated for free DTH in border areas

    NEW DELHI: An allocation of Rs 200 million has been made for setting up direct-to-home receiver sets of Doordarshan’s FreeDish in tribal, remote and border areas, the Parliament has been told.

    Minister of state for information and broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathre said 30,000 DTH receiver sets would be distributed in consultation with state governments. He said that DTH receiver sets had been distributed in the past by Doordarshan in selected areas.

    The question in the Parliament related to distributing free DTH connections in Naxal-hit areas.

    An earlier separate report stated that Prasar Bharati may be distributing for free around a million direct- to-home (DTH) set-top boxes in Naxal-hit areas of India.

    Besides a dedicated DD channel for Chhattisgarh, then union minister of information and broadcasting M Venkaiah Naidu had stated that a high-power transmitter would be commissioned in Jagdalpur (Bastar district headquarter) which would beam signal of AIR Jagdalpur to a radius of 200 km.

    ALSO READ :

    Prasar to distribute 1 mn free STBs, Chhattisgarh channel plan reiterated

    32 free DTH educational channels on Dish TV & FreeDish start functioning

     

     

  • 32 free DTH educational channels on Dish TV & FreeDish start functioning

    NEW DELHI: Thirty-two direct-to-home educational channels under the name Swayam Prabha were formally launched during the weekend to telecast high-quality educational content free of charge.

    Launching the channels which will be beamed via the GSAT-15 satellite transponders and will shortly be available both on Dish TV as well as Doordarshan’s FreeDish, President Pranab Mukherjee said the use of satellite technology to reach the unreached is time-tested. He was happy to note that the scale and reach of this technology has been raised manifold through the 32 Swayam Prabha DTH channels. These channels will help students in the rural areas and in the remote areas where IT infrastructure have not penetrated so well.

    These channels transmit four hours of fresh content every day, and contain lectures from the best teachers in the country. There is no monthly charge for viewing these channels. These channels include the IIT-PAL channels which were intended to help students taking the prestigious JEE examination, taught by the IIT faculty.

    In a function organised on the eve of the Guru Poornima, a day for salutation to teachers, the President also launched the Swayam portal that has become fully functional.

    The portal enables one to take courses offered by the best teachers, remaining where they are. Swayam should be a call to the pioneers amongst teachers to put new courses in the upcoming areas on this platform in the MOOCs format. It is also a call to the other teachers to use this material and improve their own teaching capacity. Ultimately, it should lead to better attainment levels in the students.

    With the launch of Swayam, India has become one of the few countries in the world which has its own online interactive learning platform that provides not only video lectures and reading material, but also assignments/quizzes that could end up in securing credits after completing the assessment system. More than 400 Courses are available on Swayam covering all the engineering and non-engineering subjects at undergraduate and post-graduate levels. The University Grants Commission has already issued Regulation that allows transfer of credits earned through the courses done through Swayam into the academic record of the students. It is now possible for the students and others to take courses of the prestigious IITs or IIMs without formally studying there. The platform has been constructed by Microsoft with totally indigenous efforts.

    Mukherjee also launched the National Academic Depository at the National Convention on Digital Initiatives organized by Ministry of Human Resource Development in New Delhi.

    Speaking on the occasion, the president said the spread of technology, telecom penetration and internet has offered an opportunity to quell the divide in terms of access and quality. Digital technology enables good teachers to directly teach large number of students who are not physically present in classes. ICT solutions offer an interactive learning experience through which students in remote parts of the country can benefit from lectures of the top teachers. The digital modes are cheaper, more easily accessible, interactive, and offer flexibility for people to learn at their own pace. We need to work together to ensure that they are widely adopted for teaching.

    The president said that the National Academic Depository would help in easy authentication of the credentials issued by the institutions. This would also help in increasing transparency and ease of operation. The several other digital initiatives taken up under the National Mission on Education through ICT (NMEICT) being showcased today should help all in going the digital way in order to improve the quality of teaching.

    He said during the last five years, he had been emphasizing on improving the quality of education whenever he met Vice Chancellors of central universities, Directors of IITs, NITs and IISc/ IISERs. The conferences at Rashtrapati Bhavan have also acted as platforms for nurturing ideas. Many initiatives and ideas like the GIAN, IMPRINT and GRIN have taken root here. He called upon participants present there to ensure that these initiatives are taken to their logical conclusion for the benefit of the nation.

    Human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar and MoS Mahendra Nath Pandey were also present on the occasion.

    The president has expressed hope that these digital initiatives would help in producing the highly qualified youth required for the Make in India campaign. He exhorted all the higher educational institution to march on the path of educational excellence consisting of creation of new knowledge and dissemination of the same for the benefit of the nation. It was an emotional moment for the president since many of these initiatives have taken shape under his guidance as visitor of these institutions.

  • Videocon d2h adds JK 24×7 & Gulistan News

    MUMBAI: Videocon d2h, a DTH service, now offers two new News Channels – JK 24×7 News and Gulistan News for its subscribers in Jammu & Kashmir. These channels will be available on promotional Hindi Top-up for flexi pack on channel No 335 and 790, respectively. The 24-hour news channels will deliver the day’s top stories both national and international at any point of time. JK 24×7 is a Hindi news channel while Gulistan News is an Urdu channel.

    Videocon d2h executive chairman Saurabh Dhoot said, “We at Videocon d2h have always kept ahead of what our consumers require. Whether it is innovating in our set top boxes or by continuously adding the best channels or in service, we have always led from the front. Content has been a key driver of our leadership, this calendar year we have already added 71 new channels in regional languages. With JK 24X7 News and Gulistan, our subscribers will have even more choice to stay informed with the latest news.’’

    Videocon d2h CEO Anil Khera added: “As DAS-4 nears an end, we are seeing a significant appeal of state specific and regional language channels. Adding two channels specifically for J & K underlines our commitment to provide holistic family entertainment to the state.”

    Videocon d2h offers a wide range of active services like smart services including Smart English, Smart Games. The other active services include d2h Hollywood HD, d2h music, d2h spice, d2h cinema in both Standard Definition and HD, etc.