Tag: Airtel Digital

Somani to lead Shemaroo’s DTH business

MUMBAI: Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd, one of the leading content houses appoints Subhash Somani to head DTH business for the company. Prior to joining Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd, he was working for Videocon d2h as Senior Manager – Content. In Shemaroo Entertainment, he will be responsible for driving the scale of business to next level. He will be primarily looking into Content Strategy, Business Development & Revenue. Also, he will lead & manage strategic partnerships with broadcasters/studios and will be playing key role in new initiatives & launches.

Somani has over seven years of experience in diverse roles in Media & Entertainment sector. In his last tenure with Videocon d2h, he was primarily involved in content acquisition and launch of new value added services (VAS) for d2h platform.

Shemaroo director Hiren Gada said “Subhash is a part of the DTH industry since its nascent stage and has deep understanding of the market. With an addition of new perspective and experience in the team, we believe, we will be able to leverage the platform to the fullest.”

Somani shared his thoughts, “Now when Shemaroo is expanding its DTH services, we plan to leverage the trust value it has created in the partners and consumers. We are at cusp of opportunities for DTH business in the country and with a company that has one of the largest content libraries, I believe sky is the limit.”

Shemaroo recently forayed into DTH business and today stands among the leading players in the industry. The company has tied up with all the DTH players including Tata Sky, Airtel Digital, Videocon d2h and Dish TV. Shemaroo offers a bouquet of VAS services on all the major DTH platforms covering multiple genres. These offerings range from devotional services like iDevotion and Sajda to special service tailored to fulfill the needs of bollywood buffs like Miniplex and Sadabahar Hits. It also includes regional services like Relamchhel and Punjabi Tadka.

February 9, 2017
Airtel Digital TV introduces Bengali SVOD service

MUMBAI: Leading Indian DTH player Airtel Digital TV is increasingly going to subscription video on demand (SVOD) way. Adding to its range of offering, the company announced the launch of Bangla Hitz a Bengali SVOD service. The DTH operator already offers language services in Gujarati, Tamil and Punjabi.

This ad free service is available at f Rs 39 per month and can be accessed on channel number 702 on Airtel Digital TV. The new service will offer a whole new range of exclusive entertainment options in Bengali for Airtel DTH customers. This includes, a showcase of seven unique Bengali movies in a day, totaling up to 15-20 unique titles per week. A company press release says that the frequency will gradually be increased to four new premieres every month.

Additionally, customers also get access to some of the finest musical performances from the region via the huge music catalog that comes with the service.

“We are delighted to announce the launch of our subscription video on demand services in Bengali.,” said Airtel Digital chief marketing officer S. Siram,. “This service will give our users access to exclusive local entertainment content, right from the comfort of their homes. We will continue to focus on delivering compelling content for our customers and change the way customers view entertainment in India.”

Airtel Digital TV customers will have to give a missed call to 9109121232 or SMS ADD 702 to 54325 to activate the service.
Airtel Digital’s DTH business grew 20 per cent plus in Q2 2017 to register top line revenues of Rs 854.5 crore

December 28, 2016
Airtel Digital TV introduces Bengali SVOD service

MUMBAI: Leading Indian DTH player Airtel Digital TV is increasingly going to subscription video on demand (SVOD) way. Adding to its range of offering, the company announced the launch of Bangla Hitz a Bengali SVOD service. The DTH operator already offers language services in Gujarati, Tamil and Punjabi.

This ad free service is available at f Rs 39 per month and can be accessed on channel number 702 on Airtel Digital TV. The new service will offer a whole new range of exclusive entertainment options in Bengali for Airtel DTH customers. This includes, a showcase of seven unique Bengali movies in a day, totaling up to 15-20 unique titles per week. A company press release says that the frequency will gradually be increased to four new premieres every month.

Additionally, customers also get access to some of the finest musical performances from the region via the huge music catalog that comes with the service.

“We are delighted to announce the launch of our subscription video on demand services in Bengali.,” said Airtel Digital chief marketing officer S. Siram,. “This service will give our users access to exclusive local entertainment content, right from the comfort of their homes. We will continue to focus on delivering compelling content for our customers and change the way customers view entertainment in India.”

Airtel Digital TV customers will have to give a missed call to 9109121232 or SMS ADD 702 to 54325 to activate the service.
Airtel Digital’s DTH business grew 20 per cent plus in Q2 2017 to register top line revenues of Rs 854.5 crore

December 28, 2016
Govt earns over Rs 2,400 crore as licence fee from DTH players in 3 years: Rathore

NEW DELHI: A sum of Rs 2400.45 crore has been earned by the government from licence fee from the six private direct-to-home players in the last three years.

Lok Sabha was told in a written reply by Minister of State for Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) that while “there is no restriction on the total number of DTH licenses, no new application has been received in the Ministry for grant of DTH license.”

He said that a sum of Rs Rs.836.52 crores was earned in 2014-15, while the revenue from licence for 2015-16 was Rs.816.15 crores and for 2016-17 was Rs.747.78 crores.

The Ministry has granted license to six private companies: Dish TV India Limited; Tata Sky Limited; Sun Direct TV Pvt. Limited; Reliance BIG TV Limited; Bharti Telemedia Limited and Videocon d2h Limited

In addition, pubcaster Doordarshan provides a free-to-air DTH services in the country from its platform Freedish, which only requires a one-time investment in purchasing the dish and linked set-top-box.

DTH licenses, under the DTH guidelines, are granted to those companies which fulfill the eligibility criteria, terms and conditions and are subject to security clearance and technical clearances by the appropriate authorities of the government. The details are available on the website of this Ministry at www.mib.gov.in.

In a related development, broadcast carriage regulator TRAI has set in motion a consultation process to explore whether the private DTH operators and other distribution platforms can share infrastructure so as to optimise their usage and reduce overall cost.

The TRAI proposal has elicited mixed response from DTH operators till now, while Hong Kong-based Asian pay TV industry organisation CASBAA has opposed any government or regulator mandated sharing on the ground that consumers will not benefit ultimately, apart from other reasons.

July 22, 2016
Govt earns over Rs 2,400 crore as licence fee from DTH players in 3 years: Rathore

NEW DELHI: A sum of Rs 2400.45 crore has been earned by the government from licence fee from the six private direct-to-home players in the last three years.

Lok Sabha was told in a written reply by Minister of State for Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) that while “there is no restriction on the total number of DTH licenses, no new application has been received in the Ministry for grant of DTH license.”

He said that a sum of Rs Rs.836.52 crores was earned in 2014-15, while the revenue from licence for 2015-16 was Rs.816.15 crores and for 2016-17 was Rs.747.78 crores.

The Ministry has granted license to six private companies: Dish TV India Limited; Tata Sky Limited; Sun Direct TV Pvt. Limited; Reliance BIG TV Limited; Bharti Telemedia Limited and Videocon d2h Limited

In addition, pubcaster Doordarshan provides a free-to-air DTH services in the country from its platform Freedish, which only requires a one-time investment in purchasing the dish and linked set-top-box.

DTH licenses, under the DTH guidelines, are granted to those companies which fulfill the eligibility criteria, terms and conditions and are subject to security clearance and technical clearances by the appropriate authorities of the government. The details are available on the website of this Ministry at www.mib.gov.in.

In a related development, broadcast carriage regulator TRAI has set in motion a consultation process to explore whether the private DTH operators and other distribution platforms can share infrastructure so as to optimise their usage and reduce overall cost.

The TRAI proposal has elicited mixed response from DTH operators till now, while Hong Kong-based Asian pay TV industry organisation CASBAA has opposed any government or regulator mandated sharing on the ground that consumers will not benefit ultimately, apart from other reasons.

July 22, 2016
A+E Networks and TV18 launches FYI TV18

MUMBAI: A+E Networks and TV18 has begin soft run of factual and lifestyle channel- FYI TV18 on July 4. The channel will be fully launched in couple of days on all major DTH and analog cable platforms. Whether FYI TV18 will be categorised under factual entertainment or as a lifestyle channel is not yet clear.

FYI TV18 will have management hierarchy same as History TV18, headed by
A+E Networks|TV18 vice president and head of marketing Sangeeth Aiyer. A+E Networks|TV18 and President Strategy, Product & Alliances – Network 18 , MD Avinash Kaul will launch the channel this week.The channel will be live on all major DTH platforms. Tata Sky, Dish Tv, Airtel Digital, Videocon D2h are some. It will also be launched as HD channel. The tagline of the channel is life se milofy

The channel will be launched in all the major markets in languages like Hindi, English, Tamil, Telegu to name a few. Initially, the channel will have 100 hours of Hindi programming, with one of the prime shows hosted by fiction writer Chetan Bhagat. Another show will be Chef Vickey Ratnani’s Rivals in Law featuring actor Rohit Roy with his wife and mother.

There will be three locally produced shows in the beginning. The channel has launched the trailer on their facebook page today.

FYI also airs in Australia and Southeast Asia.

July 4, 2016
A+E Networks and TV18 launches FYI TV18

MUMBAI: A+E Networks and TV18 has begin soft run of factual and lifestyle channel- FYI TV18 on July 4. The channel will be fully launched in couple of days on all major DTH and analog cable platforms. Whether FYI TV18 will be categorised under factual entertainment or as a lifestyle channel is not yet clear.

FYI TV18 will have management hierarchy same as History TV18, headed by
A+E Networks|TV18 vice president and head of marketing Sangeeth Aiyer. A+E Networks|TV18 and President Strategy, Product & Alliances – Network 18 , MD Avinash Kaul will launch the channel this week.The channel will be live on all major DTH platforms. Tata Sky, Dish Tv, Airtel Digital, Videocon D2h are some. It will also be launched as HD channel. The tagline of the channel is life se milofy

The channel will be launched in all the major markets in languages like Hindi, English, Tamil, Telegu to name a few. Initially, the channel will have 100 hours of Hindi programming, with one of the prime shows hosted by fiction writer Chetan Bhagat. Another show will be Chef Vickey Ratnani’s Rivals in Law featuring actor Rohit Roy with his wife and mother.

There will be three locally produced shows in the beginning. The channel has launched the trailer on their facebook page today.

FYI also airs in Australia and Southeast Asia.

July 4, 2016
DTH subs in Jharkhand, West Bengal, J&K jump manifold with DAS Phase III

MUMBAI: As a result of being the major beneficiaries of cable television digitisation in the country, direct to home (DTH) operators in January have seen an increase of 62 per cent in their subscriber base, with states like Jharkhand, West Bengal and Jammu & Kashmir being the major contributors as per Chrome Data Analytics & Media.

While Jharkhand’s DTH subscriber base jumped to 54 per cent in January from a meagre one per cent; in West Bengal, where there was almost nil DTH penetration, a jump to 42 per cent has been seen. Jammu & Kashmir, on the other hand, upped its DTH subscriber base from 22 per cent to 61 per cent post the Digital Addressable System (DAS) Phase III deadline of 31 December, 2015.

Bihar followed next with a 32 per cent jump in DTH subscriber base. The state’s 13 per cent DTH penetration has now has increased to 45 per cent.

With a 31 per cent jump in subscriber base, Gujarat’s DTH penetration now stands at 34 per cent, while Chhastisgarh registered a hike of 22 per cent and achieved 39 per cent DTH penetration in January.

Karnataka’s DTH subscriber base saw an increase of 12 per cent with the state achieving 21 per cent DTH penetration. While Goa saw a 11 per cent jump at 21 per cent.

With an increase ranging from four – 10 per cent, the DTH penetration percentage in other states stood as follows: Uttar Pradesh – 78 per cent, Haryana – 32 per cent, Rajasthan – 41 per cent, Punjab – 22 per cent and Uttrakhand – 45 per cent as per Chrome Data Analytics & Media.

As of 30 June, 2015 there were 78.74 million registered DTH subscribers, of which only 39.74 million were active subscriber being served by six private DTH operators. As of October 2015, the market share of these DTH operators was as follows: Dish TV – 27 per cent, Tata Sky – 20 per cent, Airtel Digital – 19 per cent, Videocon d2h – 16 per cent, Sun Direct – 12 per cent and Big TV – six per cent.

As of 31 December, 2015, while Dish TV’s subscriber base stood at 1.4 crore, Videocon d2h boasted of 1.13 crore subscribers and Airtel Digital TV had 1.11 crore subscribers. The subscriber numbers for Tata Sky, Sun Direct and and Big TV are not known.

Now with the share of DTH subscribers increasing across the country, it will be interesting to note, which operator has benefited the maximum with DAS Phase III.

What’s more, despite the stay by the High Court in five states on the implementation of DAS Phase III due to shortage of set top boxes (STBs), there has been a successful 50 per cent digitisation for phase III across the country according to Chrome.

It may be recalled that earlier this year, Chrome had claimed that post the Phase III deadline of 31 December, 2015, over 70 per cent digitisation had been achieved when analogue signals were completely switched off in various cities. However, the company has now revised its figures in the wake of analog signals being switched on again in various states, which has been stated as the cause for the steep fall in digitisation percentage in a place like Goa.

According to the revised data provided by Chrome, three states namely Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Punjab have achieved more than 90 per cent digitisation as of January 2016.

Below is the percentage of digitisation achieved by Indian states in descending order:

Andhra Pradesh – 94 per cent

Kerala – 93.5 per cent

Punjab – 90 per cent

Uttar Pradesh – 89.2 per cent

Bihar – 68.4 per cent

Haryana – 66.7 per cent

Goa – 64.9 per cent

Rajasthan – 64.2 per cent

Jammu & Kashmir – 61.2 per cent

West Bengal – 60 per cent

Jharkhand – 59.5 per cent

Chhattisgarh – 56.2 per cent

Uttarakhand – 53.4 per cent

Karnataka – 51.8 per cent

Gujarat – 51.6 per cent

February 8, 2016
DTH subs in Jharkhand, West Bengal, J&K jump manifold with DAS Phase III

MUMBAI: As a result of being the major beneficiaries of cable television digitisation in the country, direct to home (DTH) operators in January have seen an increase of 62 per cent in their subscriber base, with states like Jharkhand, West Bengal and Jammu & Kashmir being the major contributors as per Chrome Data Analytics & Media.

While Jharkhand’s DTH subscriber base jumped to 54 per cent in January from a meagre one per cent; in West Bengal, where there was almost nil DTH penetration, a jump to 42 per cent has been seen. Jammu & Kashmir, on the other hand, upped its DTH subscriber base from 22 per cent to 61 per cent post the Digital Addressable System (DAS) Phase III deadline of 31 December, 2015.

Bihar followed next with a 32 per cent jump in DTH subscriber base. The state’s 13 per cent DTH penetration has now has increased to 45 per cent.

With a 31 per cent jump in subscriber base, Gujarat’s DTH penetration now stands at 34 per cent, while Chhastisgarh registered a hike of 22 per cent and achieved 39 per cent DTH penetration in January.

Karnataka’s DTH subscriber base saw an increase of 12 per cent with the state achieving 21 per cent DTH penetration. While Goa saw a 11 per cent jump at 21 per cent.

With an increase ranging from four – 10 per cent, the DTH penetration percentage in other states stood as follows: Uttar Pradesh – 78 per cent, Haryana – 32 per cent, Rajasthan – 41 per cent, Punjab – 22 per cent and Uttrakhand – 45 per cent as per Chrome Data Analytics & Media.

As of 30 June, 2015 there were 78.74 million registered DTH subscribers, of which only 39.74 million were active subscriber being served by six private DTH operators. As of October 2015, the market share of these DTH operators was as follows: Dish TV – 27 per cent, Tata Sky – 20 per cent, Airtel Digital – 19 per cent, Videocon d2h – 16 per cent, Sun Direct – 12 per cent and Big TV – six per cent.

As of 31 December, 2015, while Dish TV’s subscriber base stood at 1.4 crore, Videocon d2h boasted of 1.13 crore subscribers and Airtel Digital TV had 1.11 crore subscribers. The subscriber numbers for Tata Sky, Sun Direct and and Big TV are not known.

Now with the share of DTH subscribers increasing across the country, it will be interesting to note, which operator has benefited the maximum with DAS Phase III.

What’s more, despite the stay by the High Court in five states on the implementation of DAS Phase III due to shortage of set top boxes (STBs), there has been a successful 50 per cent digitisation for phase III across the country according to Chrome.

It may be recalled that earlier this year, Chrome had claimed that post the Phase III deadline of 31 December, 2015, over 70 per cent digitisation had been achieved when analogue signals were completely switched off in various cities. However, the company has now revised its figures in the wake of analog signals being switched on again in various states, which has been stated as the cause for the steep fall in digitisation percentage in a place like Goa.

According to the revised data provided by Chrome, three states namely Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Punjab have achieved more than 90 per cent digitisation as of January 2016.

Below is the percentage of digitisation achieved by Indian states in descending order:

Andhra Pradesh – 94 per cent

Kerala – 93.5 per cent

Punjab – 90 per cent

Uttar Pradesh – 89.2 per cent

Bihar – 68.4 per cent

Haryana – 66.7 per cent

Goa – 64.9 per cent

Rajasthan – 64.2 per cent

Jammu & Kashmir – 61.2 per cent

West Bengal – 60 per cent

Jharkhand – 59.5 per cent

Chhattisgarh – 56.2 per cent

Uttarakhand – 53.4 per cent

Karnataka – 51.8 per cent

Gujarat – 51.6 per cent

February 8, 2016
Airtel Digital TV launches 4K UHD channel

MUMBAI: Airtel Digital TV, the direct to home (DTH) arm of mobile services provider Bharti Airtel, has launched its first 4K-Ultra HD (UHD) channel.

Airtel will showcase the world TV premiere of the Salman Khan starrer blockbuster Bajrangi Bhaijaan on the newly launched channel on 11 October.

Bajrangi Bhaijaan is the first movie to premiere on Airtel’s 4K UHD channel.

Available exclusively to users of the Samsung Smart Direct TV, the movie will premiere at 12:30 pm on Sunday on Star Gold 4K.

Airtel’s 4K UHD channel is available free of cost to users of the Samsung Smart Direct TV for a limited period. Airtel will also showcase programs like Overhalin from Discovery and other movies like Singh is King, Kick and Jai Ho on the channel in the coming days.

The Samsung Smart Direct TV is an integrated digital TV pioneered and launched by Airtel Digital TV in partnership with Samsung.

It is among the many innovations by Airtel and is a technology platform that has miniaturized the set-top-box (STB) into a small smart card that fits inside the television set at the back panel. The solution offers a smart TV viewing experience with minimal signal loss and maximum audio & video clarity while also ensuring maximum power savings. An industry first, it uses minimal wiring and a single remote solution powered by an intuitive user guide enabling built-in Smart Card that allows customers to enjoy TV viewing without an external STB. The newly launched Samsung J-Series Smart Direct TV comes with additional features such as in-built Wi-Fi, Skype calling, Smart Apps etc.

October 10, 2015