ITV

Category: DTH

  • Sun Direct revamps customer care web portal

    Sun Direct revamps customer care web portal

    BENGALURU: South India’s leading DTH player Sun Direct has revamped its customer care portal in a bid to provide ease of use to existing and new subscribers. Customers of Sun Direct can manage their account by logging on to www.my.sundirect.in or on the link from the www.sundirect.in site.

    Sun Direct MD Mahesh Kumar said: “With addition of new services, Sun Direct yet again demonstrates in delivering value to our esteemed customers. As innovators in DTH industry we will continue to customise our offerings to suit the needs of viewers.”

    The portal has been designed to be user friendly and dedicated to improve the customer care services says the company. It enables the subscribers to search for every TV programme featuring their favourite star/director in one click and ensures they don’t miss out on anything. Customers can also use the ‘My Favorite’ page to add the most watched channels. The portal has more intuitive user-focused design that presents the important information in one place.

    The revamped portal has an intelligent recommendation engine that learns the subscriber’s preference as they use and ensures they see more of what they like. It also helps to select the best packages for their taste. Other features like reminder services and social TV shows the customers what their friends are watching.
    The new customer care portal is powered by Whats On India – which is a TV guidance company and an EPG / Program guide specialist in the Indian and overseas markets. The look and feel of the new website remains similar to that of the main website, keeping the design and navigation simplistic says the company.

  • Big Magic strengthens distribution network, hops on board Videocon d2h

    Big Magic strengthens distribution network, hops on board Videocon d2h

    MUMBAI: Big Magic, the flagship GEC from the Reliance Broadcast Network stable amplifies its reach with the announcement of a distribution deal with Videocon d2h. After meeting with a great success in the heartland of India, it is Big Magic’s endeavor to extend its assorted entertainment offering across the Hindi Speaking markets and this alliance takes it to an additional 8mn subscriber base.

    The alliance allows Videocon d2h to offer its viewers an excellent television viewing experience, while the GEC reaches its content to a relevant audience base across relevant markets. Its programming mix which ranges from family dramas, crime shows, reality shows, cookery shows, game shows to weekend movies promise to offer a stimulating and refreshing entertainment experience. The Channel, which launched in April 2011, is in the process of strengthening its reach, offering audiences a programming offering that is backed by their very own predilections.

    Speaking on the occasion, Big Magic business head Sunil Kumaran said: “We are happy to announce our alliance with Videocon d2h, which allows Big Magic to immediately grow reach by an additional eight million subscriber base. We are confident of our product, which has been designed as per audience penchants and want to strengthen our reach. We look forward to reaching a matchless entertainment offering to maximum audiences of India.”

    Videocon d2h CEO Anil Khera added: “Big Magic has performed well since its launch. We are extremely happy to provide this channel on our platform as it promises content across various genres. We are certain that our audience will enjoy and appreciate the addition of this channel on our platform.”

    Big Magic is already available across key DTH players ranging Airtel, DD Direct, Dish TV, Reliance Digital TV along with Hathway, Incable, Digicable, DEN, 7 Star, ABS, Siticable, Star Broadband and GTPL amongst others.

  • DD commences e-auction of six slots for its DTH Platform

    DD commences e-auction of six slots for its DTH Platform

    NEW DELHI: In an effort to reach its target of 97 channels by the end of this year, Prasar Bharati is auctioning six slots on its free-to-air direct-to-home platform DD Direct Plus by e-auction.

    A Bangalore based private firm – Synise Technologies – has been chosen to conduct the e-auction which commenced yesterday.

    It is also learnt that Prasar Bharati is considering carrying out a change in its policy to try and get the best of channels on its DTH service.

    Currently, Doordarshan’s DTH platform offers 59 channels of which 30 are private, 21 of DD, Lok Sabha TV, Rajya Sabha TV and two channels run by the UGC.

    Four foreign channels – NHK, ABC, France 24 and Russia Sunday – complete the bouquet of channels on the DTH wing.

    “The capacity to carry channels on our DTH wing is set to increase significantly as Doordarshan is planning to buy equipment that will allow it to utilise an additional transponder on satellite INSAT 4B,” a DD official told indiantelevision.com.

    Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar has earlier said another aspect that the broadcaster is considering is how it can get better quality channels on its DTH wing. “We are considering framing a policy by next year which will allow the best of channels to be shown on our DTH platform,” Sircar said.

    There was a need to consider a new policy which would be transparent but also to ensure that the best of channels prefer to come to the Doordarshan platform so that they can be shown to viewers all across the country, he said.

  • Over 29,500 DTH sets provided free by the government in 16 states

    Over 29,500 DTH sets provided free by the government in 16 states

    NEW DELHI: A total of 29,782 direct-to-home boxes are set to receive Doordarshan’s free-to-air DD Direct Plus, including 20,397 in hilly areas of Himachal Pradesh, which have been provided by the government to 16 states where terrestrial signals are not easily available.

    These include 2,277 in Rajasthan and 1,942 in Madhya Pradesh, according to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

    Doordarshan provides free-to-air with a bouquet of 59 TV channels (19 Doordarshan channels and 40 other TV channels). DTH signals can be received by using a set top box and small sized dish receiver units.

    As these signals can be received anywhere in the country except Andaman and Nicobar Islands, DTH service in C-band with bouquet of 10 channels is in operation in the Islands.

    The DTH sets have been provided in various states for uncovered areas as part of DTH Scheme and Special NE package (Phase-I).

    Prasar Bharati has informed that 21 channels of All India Radio are available through the platform throughout the country.

    S.No.
    Name of the State
    No. of DTH sets provided
    1.
    Arunachal Pradesh
    108
    2
    Assam
    332
    3
    Chhattisgarh
    528
    4
    Gujarat
    1253
    5
    Himachal Pradesh
    20397
    6
    Jammu & Kashmir
    500
    7
    Karnataka
    1500
    8
    Madhya Pradesh
    1942
    9
    Manipur
    108
    10
    Meghalaya
    107
    11
    Mizoram
    106
    12
    Nagaland
    108
    13
    Rajasthan
    2277
    14
    Sikkim
    108
    15
    Tripura
    108
    16
    Uttarakhand
    300

  • Dish Network and Raycom Media resolve retransmission dispute

    Dish Network and Raycom Media resolve retransmission dispute

    MUMBAI: The companies say that Raycom stations will be back on Dish Network “overnight,” and didn’t provide any details about the agreement.

    The broadcaster owns or controls 53 stations in 36 markets including ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, CW, and MyNetworkTV affiliates in cities including Cleveland, Toledo, Honolulu, Tucson, Baton Rouge, West Palm Beach, Louisville, and Memphis.

    The stations went dark on Dish on 1 August when the previous carriage contract expired. Dish accounts for about 15 per cent of Raycom’s viewers, according to data from SNL Kagan.

  • Fox files for New Dish Network hearing in Hopper ad-zapping case

    Fox files for New Dish Network hearing in Hopper ad-zapping case

    MUMBAI: Despite another rejection last month of its last attempt to pull the plug on Dish Network’s Hopper, 21st Century Fox is stepping back into the legal fray in its battle against the ad-jumping DVR service. The broadcaster filed a brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this week requesting a brand new review of the 24 July ruling to be heard by all the court’s judges. The previous ruling shut down Fox’s aim for an injunction against the Hopper.

    For Fox, that was an error and raised the stakes even higher. “The panel announced two unprecedented rules of law that threaten the creation and licensing of television shows, movies, books, software, or other copyrighted content,” said the August 7 filing.

    With this latest request, Fox may have reached the point where they are now truly grinding away in this satcaster case. Last month’s ruling in Dish’s favor rebuffed Fox’s notion that letting viewers essentially erase the ads in TV shows was a fatal blow to the broadcast industry’s business model.

    The late July ruling came out an appeal by the broadcaster after a previous District Court ruling in November of 2012 ended up in the satellite service provider’s favor. Then US District Court Judge Judge Dolly Gee refused to block sales of the Hopper, even though she agreed with Fox that Dish has likely committed copyright infringement. Introduced in May of last year by Dish, the service lets subscribers to leap past commercials in programs that have been recorded off network TV the day before. CBS, NBC and Fox all filed copyright infringement suits almost immediately against Dish to get the service stopped.

  • Tata Sky to relay Pankaj Udhas live in concert on Actve Music

    Tata Sky to relay Pankaj Udhas live in concert on Actve Music

    NEW DELHI: The eminent ghazal singer Pankaj Udhas will now feature in the musical concert ‘Khazana – a festival of Ghazals’ live on Tata Sky’s interactive platform, Actve Music. While the event takes place in Mumbai, Tata Sky subscribers across the country will enjoy the Ghazal maestros live from the comfort of their homes.

    Celebrating eleven glorious years of soulful melodies, “Khazana – a festival of Ghazals”, will raise funds for Cancer and Thalassemic patients and children through an annual event that provides a rare opportunity for Ghazal aficionados to experience the rich and vibrant performances of India’s top performers on 26 and 27 July.

    This year, “Khazana” will feature a multitude of talents including Bhupinder and Mitali Singh, Anup Jalota, Talat Aziz, Ahmed Hussain and Mohd. Hussain, Kavita Seth, Sudeep Banerji, Runa and Neha Rizvi, Anita Singhvi, Sumeet Tapoo, Pooja Gaitonde and Pankaj Udhas.

    Tata Sky has associated with Hungama.com (which powers the Actve Music service), to bring to its customers, a first of its kind event where Pankaj Udhas will officially launch his Album ‘Sentimental’ exclusively on Tata Sky Actve Music. A sneak peak of the album was made available exclusively to the Tata Sky.

  • Cable TV carriage fees head south

    Cable TV carriage fees head south

    Carriage fees have been a bane of the Indian television industry. Most broadcasters have been groaning and moaning how they have been choking up their capital, preventing them from investing in content, especially news channels.

    Now throwing some light on the trend in carriage fees is five year old television media and distribution audit company Chrome Data Analytics & Media which has just released its Chrome Dii R3 (Distribution Investments Index – Round 3).

    Chrome Dii,says the company, has been worked out while tracking deals done by broadcasters over the past year, with information gathered from across various sources including broadcasters as well as distribution platforms. After eliminating high variance deals, an average of six solo deals per cable network were studied for their investments for S band and UHF.

    Jeffrey Crasto…

    “For the digital scenario, Chrome Dii indicates a benchmark carriage to be available on the basic tier that is channels under BST (mandated FTA channels) along with the first tier of pay channels,” says Chrome Data executive director Jeffrey Crasto. “The study is inclusive of both new launches/new deals done in the last one year and existing deals expiring in April/May 2013.”

    Adds Chrome Data founder & CEO Pankaj Krishna: “Digitisation was expected to be a harbinger of correction leading to nullification of carriage fees. As per TRAI, they had anticipated the Chrome Dii to come down to Rs 1, however though there has been a significant drop; it has not come down to Rs 1.As compared to R2, Dii has come down from Rs 20 to Rs 11.6. “

    .. & Pankaj Krishna have attempted to demystify the burden broadcasters have to bear

    In its third round, the Dii has revealed that north India has emerged as the costliest region with a whopping 16.7 crore in carriage fees for 100 per cent availability across Basic + S band for new channel launches and 13.3 crorefor renewals of existing deals whereas central India is the lowest with 3.11 crore and 2.73 crore for Basic + S band for new launches and renewing existing deals respectively.

    While a different image is revealed if the Dii (cost per contact for the television channels) is studied, Chrome Dii R3 data shows the cost (renewals, S-band) per contact (household) is the highest in west India with an average of 17.6 followed by Central at 14.4. The national average for renewals stands at 11.6.

    Out of a total universe of 47 million households in Class I India, 42 million are C&S Homes. Chrome Dii study tracks 31 million homes, 2 million remain uncovered and balance 9 million are DTH!


    Source: Chrome Data Analytics & Media

    C&S Households
    89%
    DTH
    74%
    Non TV Households
    11%
    Chrome Dii
    21%
     
     
    Balance
    5%

    Chrome Data says that its Dii R3 was pre-subscribed by eight leading TV networks. And it is an addition to the other services that it offers (covering1800+ cities and towns) Chrome Track 2.0, Chrome DPi, Chrome Dii & Chrome SES, Chrome AV, Chrome LC1, Chrome NE and Chrome Language Feed.Some 132 channels subscribe to its various services.

    Some interesting facts according to Chrome Dii R3 –

    Carriage Fee Cost
     
    Existing
    New Launch
    REGION Basic + S BAND Basic + UHF Basic + S BAND Basic + UHF
    CENTRAL 273,75,000 194,70,000 311,95,000 235,30,000
    EAST 376,65,000 281,25,000 404,65,000 340,00,000
    NORTH 1330,33,300 1118,71,800 1673,03,300 1343,67,800
    SOUTH 549,50,000 466,67,000 625,65,500 527,32,500
    WEST 1099,80,000 1014,80,000 1320,00,000 1195,00,000
    Grand Total 3630,03,300 3076,13,800 4335,28,800 3641,30,300

    * To cite an example as per the above data, comparing how much a Hindi News channel would spend for 75 per cent HSM availability as per Dii R3 as compared to Dii R2 – it would pay 75% of (Rs 36.30 croe minus Rs 5.49 crore for the south) = Rs. 23.1 crore as per Dii R3, whereas it would have paid Rs 38.2 crore as per Dii R2 – a saving of over 39 per cent! But has the overall pie reduced, not really! As there has been an increase in network bandwidth, hence the number of takers has increased.

    North emerged as the costliest region with Rs 16.7 crore for 100 per cent availability across Basic + S Band and Rs 13.4 crore for 100 per cent availability across Basic + UHF for New Launches. Renewals of existing deals for Rs 13.3 crore for Basic + S Band and Rs 11.2 crore for Basic + UHF.

    The study also provides a benchmark for carriage fee efficiency with respect to the investment indices that is Chrome Dii that is cost per contact (see tables below). Chrome reveals that the Dii (renewals, S-band, household) is the highest in West India with an average of Rs 17.6 followed by the Central at Rs 14.4. The national average for renewals stands at Rs 11.6.

    Carriage Fee Cost per contact for existing channels in Rs

     

    Existing-Basic+S Band
    West
    17.6
    Central
    14.4
    North
    14.1
    East
    7.1
    South
    6.6

    Source: Chrome Data Analytics & Media

    * In terms of highest Chrome Dii, West was followed by North, Central, East and South.

    * The gap between Dii for Existing and New Launches has reduced over the years owing to digitization and increase in bandwidth of the networks.

    Carriage Fee Cost per contact for new channels being launched in Rs

     

    New Launches –
    Basic+S Band
    West
    21.1
    Central
    17.7
    North
    16.4
    East
    7.6
    South
    7.5

    Source: Chrome Data Analytics & Media

    * Further, the gap between Dii for S Band and UHF has also reduced due to digitization

    * Chrome Dii for a New Launch in Central and East India has halved.

  • Why Tata Sky’s Harit Nagpal is pained about the MPEG-4 STB rollout

    Why Tata Sky’s Harit Nagpal is pained about the MPEG-4 STB rollout

    MUMBAI: A press release hit indiantelevision.com yesterday disclosing how US chip company Broadcom had got a massive order to supply standard definition MPEG-4 set top boxes (STBs) to Tata Sky. A simple release right. But it surely got the goose of Tata Sky managing director Harit Nagpal.

    Tata Sky MD Harit Nagpal is still awaiting a response from ISRO officials
    “This entire exercise is costing Tata Sky about Rs 1000 crore,” was Nagpal’s admission, when indiantelevision.com called him up. “We are replacing close to 5-6 million MPEG-2 SD STBs at no cost to consumers over the next year. All of this is coming in from internal accruals.” Nagpal says the DTH operator normally supplies about three million STBs a year for new acquisitions and churn. “This year we will be doing about 9-10 million STBs,” says he.

     

    The volumes have forced him to bring in emergency teams to make sure they install 500,000 STBs a month (made by Huawei and Humax apart from other international STB makers). This is apart from the regular service teams, which handle regular installation and problems.

    “For us even at Tata Sky it is a massive exercise and we have been working on it for the past three months and have just started the rollout,” he reveals.

    But isn’t that good? “Upgrading the boxes will give me more capacity for 12-14 channels,” he admits. “But I am being forced to do this because Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) has yet to give me my transponders. I could have put this money elsewhere on expanding my digitisation plans.”

    Tata Sky’s signals are being beamed off Insat 4A; but it had signed a contract to lease 12 transponders on ISRO’s GSAT-10 satellite around five years ago which have not been delivered to Tata Sky yet, even after the satellite launched in to space in September 2012.

    “It is sad that after national publications and a medium such as yours have carried my complaint against ISRO, I have not got a single revert from it about our transponders. We intend to take legal action since all our attempts to reach ISRO have failed. The courts are on vacation now, when they open again, we will move them,” added Nagpal.

    The transponders would have allowed Tata Sky to increase its channel offerings to consumers. However, now the new STBs will allow Tata Sky to add more channels to its bouquet. “We have been adding channels in a phased manner; the process will now be accelerated with the MPEG-4 STB. By June-July next year we should be able to revise our channel offerings to consumers,” said Nagpal.

  • Airtel DTH and ESPN Star Sports smoke peace pipe

    Airtel DTH and ESPN Star Sports smoke peace pipe

    MUMBAI: It was a spat, which was in the works for almost six months. But now it has been resolved – amicably, at least if one goes by a press release issued by ESPN Star Sports (ESS).

    Though details are not available on what the terms are ESS has signed a multi-year agreement with Airtel Digital TV to enable distribution of its channels Star Cricket, Star Sports, Star Sports 2, ESPN, Star Cricket HD and ESPN HD on the latter’s DTH platform.

    In late 2012, Airtel had yanked ESPN and Star Cricket HD channels from its platform citing prohibitive pricing of the two channels. Then on 22 March, the sports network deactivated the channels on its DTH and IPTV platforms due to Bharti Telemedia and Bharti Airtel’s “non-signing of agreements and breach of statutory obligations.”