Mumbai: Dish TV’s OTT platform Watcho kicked off the New Year with an original web series Avaidh based on illicit relationships inspired by true-life incidents. Avaidh is an anthology of eight stories about illicit relationships, each with unexpected endings that will keep viewers glued to their seats. Indian Television.com caught up with Sukhpreet Singh at the launch.
Singh has been associated with Dish TV since 2016 and is presently the corporate head – marketing (DishTV) with the company. In his current role, he is responsible for planning and implementing a brand strategy for Dish TV, package construction and pricing, managing interactive channels of Dish TV, corporate communication, media buying and building brand equity.
Edited Excerpts:
On OTT platforms under one umbrella
We have been in the content distribution business. So it is a logical extension in the sense that if we were distributing television channels, why would we not distribute other forms of content? If the technology and the curve move to streaming content, it’s a logical extension for us. That is why I think we and similarly our other competitors in the space, are also moving in the same direction.
Secondly, Dish TV was one of the first ones to start something called dish online, six to seven years ago I remember we were the first ones to make people see live television, on their mobile phones through OTT streaming and we were very early on in this curve. And so, logically, we kept refining our offering, and as OTT content grew, more and more content came especially after the pandemic and lockdown. The OTT content and consumption also grew, and we launched Watcho, just before that, and now we are aggregating it under one platform, and the difference is that we are not purely an aggregation platform, we have a lot of exclusive content, UGC content and a live channel. So, the idea is to make it a complete platform, which is why we also decided to coin the line – “One Hai Toh Done Hai.”
On Zee being the parent company, did it help in getting better deals
Dish TV has always operated as an independent entity; it helps to be part of a big group, which is in the entertainment business. There are linkages which help and access the parent organisation. But, all dealings because both entities involved are separate commercial entities and in the entertainment business so the individual interest is important and there is no benefit from that point of view, it’s all independent evaluation of each platform and each partner, but being part of the same network does help in some ways.
On the USP and challenges
As I said, one, it is a single platform and everything that you can think of in terms of streaming is available, whether it is live TV, exclusives, short format shows, UGC, or OTT aggregation, all under one platform, which is not there in any other platform.
While you say that everyone has subscribed to OTT platforms, there is a lot of scope for expanding OTT because we’re talking about a paid subscription. YouTube is an OTT, however, the paid subscription of paid OTT apps or platforms are there and there is a lot of room to grow. Presently it is a more urban kind of phenomenon with people who can afford to have that extra wallet consumption for entertainment because it is over and above your basic television and basic entertainment needs.
So there is a lot of scope for Dish TV being a very, very mass company, which has reached smaller towns and also rural pockets. I think that’s where the opportunity comes and there is a lot of opportunity.
On pricing and TG
Almost 70 million is the reach of Watcho today, that’s the number of people who have been consuming our platform to app downloads and on our web platform. In terms of the price range, our virtual exclusive pricing for Dish D2H customers starts at as low as Rs 29 per month. However, that is only for the existing customers. For other customers, it is Rs 39 per month. If you look at the aggregated bundles, then let’s say the starting point is Rs 49, the highest point being Rs 299 per month.
We have 11 platforms integrated right now, in our scheme of things we have aimed at the most popular platforms in the mass segment, we have Hotstar, ZEE5, Sony Live, Watcho, Hungama and Epic and some of the regional ones like OhGujarati, Chaupal which is very popular in Punjab and Haryana, and then there is HoiChoi which is very popular in Bengal. We have multiple languages but the idea is to have the top 10 – 11 platforms in India. We’re looking across the regions, as to what are the top platforms, we must integrate.
On AVoD, SVoD and TVoD
None of the platforms can be pure SVoD or AVoD. So the whole idea is that there should be certain content available for free so that people can come to the platform, they can explore the platform and they’re able to see what is available. Once they like it, they would want to consume more premium content that should be available to them.
That is after the paywall. Platforms today would be a hybrid of AVoD & SVoD and maybe you could also have a pay-per-view. So, various formats are available, why should we restrict ourselves?
We have explored TVoD and I think going forward, there could be content, which is in very high demand, and high-profile content, which could be sold individually also.
On Watcho subscription numbers and demography of the TG
We have 70 million users, and if we look at the demography and profile of the subscriber it would be both urban primarily, but also tier II and III. The age profile is young adults, mainly in the 18 to 35 age group, and there is more male viewership right now, when our content changes and content aggregation happens, that profile could also change dramatically. The Watcho aggregated platform is very new; it was launched around two months back. However, our exclusive content has been present for more than two years now.
On co-branding and integration in shows
But right now, we are focusing on content first. Customers or rather subscribers are not interested in commercial messaging as it is unless it is very well integrated. We have left it to our content team, if they feel there is a natural integration of and then definitely they would like that, but no false fit.
On growing the brand Dish TV
Dish TV was built on mass reach, the distribution was built on this whole idea of ‘Dish Karo, Wish Karo’ with Sharukh Khan and then we moved off late, the face of the brand was Ranveer Singh. The face of D2H is Rishabh Pant. In Dish, we have always been about getting the number one entertainment star whereas D2H is more about young innovation and it is straight from the heart, ‘Direct to Heart’ is the tagline for D2H.
To answer your question, we have always been built on mass reach and communicating effectively through social pop icons. We continue to do that and I think with Watcho also, this whole idea of ‘One hain to dum hain’ is going to be propagated in a very mass fashion.
On the reach of Dish TV
We are available across the country and it is a 45 – 55 split between urban and rural. Technically we will be more rural that way, but that is typical because satellite reach is much more and can reach where the cable cannot. So by default, most of DTH will have a lot of rural households and viewers. We used to say “Jahan tak India wahan tak Dish TV,” that’s the beauty of a satellite that it can reach all nooks and corners.
On how the brands are going to expand in 2023
So overall, for Dish TV, I think 2023 is all about transformation. We have done our homework. For the last many years, we have been very customer-centric, and we have also been transforming digitally. I think that is what helped us during the lockdown and even before the lockdown most of our touch points were digital, and most of our revenues were coming from digital modes. That helped us a lot in our work. So right now, more than 71- 72 per cent of our recharges are happening digitally. That’s one of the highest in the industry.
So for 2023, we have been prepping ourselves for the last four or five years, and we have been on that journey. It should be a year of transformation, it should be an era of becoming much more available to our customers in various modes, like you said, any screen, anytime, anywhere. So that’s what our vision is.
On Watcho content
We would be doing more exclusives and also sprucing up our Watcho content library. At the same time, there is going to be a lot of emphasis on integrating more apps as far as our Watcho OTT aggregation platform is concerned. It is constant work in progress across.
On the marketing strategy
The answer to that is really, what the Indian market is all about? I believe and I’ve said that many times earlier also is not about this or that, we all as customers want TV and OTT. In our families, there are various segments, some watch TV more, some watch OTT less, some watch only OTT, and some are completely on TV. I see this game as being a hybrid game.
That’s what we’re trying to do as we go along. Our strategy is not going to be completely focused on OTT, but the mainstay is the millions of customers that we have, we have to serve them in the best possible manner and give them much better products and services. So that continues at the same time, we have to build on the hybrid consumption which is happening in India today. We provide people with what they want.
On regional expansion
When we started, we started with multiple languages. We had Hindi content, Telugu content and some other languages. But during the growth phase of Watcho, we’ve decided to focus more on Hindi and also get a lot of international content dubbed in Hindi. Once we consolidate that market, we plan to add a lot more regional content.
Dish TV itself is traditional, if you look at Dish TV, we have three brands now, but traditionally, we had Dish TV and D2H. Dish TV is still very strong in the Hindi market, the east markets and Maharashtra whereas D2H is strong in the southern markets as well as the west markets.
So together with our base, we have customers across markets. We can always leverage that. All the markets we are in are very important to us and Maharashtra with both dish & D2H combined is the leader. So sooner or later we are going to have content which is going to be there in all the major Indian languages.
