ITV

Tag: Airtel Digtial TV

  • Tata Play & Airtel Digital TV to Merge in Share Swap Deal – Economic Times report

    Tata Play & Airtel Digital TV to Merge in Share Swap Deal – Economic Times report

    MUMBAI — A major consolidation is underway in India’s television distribution landscape as Tata Play and Airtel Digital TV prepare to merge through a share swap, according to a report by The Economic Times.

    The deal will see Airtel holding over 50 per cent of the combined entity, effectively consolidating India’s direct-to-home (DTH) sector as viewers increasingly shift towards digital streaming platforms.

    Tata Play, formerly known as Tata Sky, is India’s largest DTH provider and was previously a joint venture with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, which was later acquired by Disney in 2019. Through this merger, Airtel will gain access to Tata Play’s 19 million subscribers, bolstering its strategy to bundle telecom, broadband, and DTH services.

    The merger follows the 2016 consolidation of Dish TV and Videocon d2h, and comes amid Reliance Industries and Disney combining Star India and Viacom18 to form JioStar, now India’s largest media company with Rs 26,000 crore revenue in FY24.

    First reported by The Economic Times on 8 October 2024, the agreement is expected to be formalised soon. Airtel is likely to control 52-55 per cent of the new entity, while Tata Play’s shareholders, including Disney, will retain 45-48 per cent. Tata Sons is reportedly seeking two board seats, while Airtel’s management is expected to lead operations.

    “This will be a non-binding agreement,” an executive familiar with the deal told the newspaper. “Both parties have been engaged for months and are expected to resolve outstanding issues quickly.”

    Both companies are valued at between Rs 6,000-7,000 crore each. Airtel Digital TV operates under Bharti Telemedia Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel. Tata Sons owns 70 per cent of Tata Play after acquiring Temasek Holding’s 10 per cent stake in April 2024 for Rs 835 crore, valuing Tata Play at $1 billion, down from its pre-pandemic $3 billion.

    Disney is expected to maintain its stake in the merged entity. As of September 2024, the two DTH providers had a combined 35 million subscribers, generating over Rs 7,000 crore in revenue in FY24. Tata Play also serves 500,000 broadband customers.

  • DD FreeDish to roll out call centre

    DD FreeDish to roll out call centre

    MUMBAI: It’s getting customer-focused. Almost as if inspired by the services provided by the private DTH providers such as Tata Sky, DishTV, Videcon d2h, Airtel Digtial TV, and Sun Direct, the Doordarshan-promoted free TV provider DD FreeDish is getting set to launch its call centre facility.

    It is taking this step concurrent with the expansion of its channel capacity from 80 channels to 104, courtesy the move to upgrade its set-top boxes from MPEG2 to MPEG4.

    A senior Prasar Bharati official yesterday confirmed while talking to indiantelevision.com that a call centre would be set up after completion of MPEG4 Switchover.

    Once customers buy their iCAS-enabled and approved set top boxes from authorized retailers, they will then have to make a call to the FreeDish call centre to get their STB registered. This will then allow DD’s engineers to keep a tab on the number of subscribers the DTH platform has.

    The call centre would be set up after the total switch-over to MPEG4 when a centre number on which a subscriber could call would also be given, the Prasar Bharati official said.

    DD has been plagued by a lack of subscriber information to DD FreeDish over the years. The pubcaster created the platform but sold the MPEG2 STBs through retailers without keeping a tab on who was buying them and who is active. Estimates are that its subscriber base could be anywhere from 20 million to 40 million.

    Since the new STBS are MPEG 4 compliant and have a conditional access system installed in them, they will have to be activated which will happen courtesy the call centre. This will give DD the facility of logging in every new subscriber into its system and hence have accurate subscriber counts. The call centre will apparently be the touch point for all service related complaints to the STB also.

    Hitherto DD FreeDish had toll free help line and a customer help desk numbers which operate from morning to 10 pm, according to its website. The opening of a 24 hour call centre facility could add to the FreeDish customer’s delight

  • DD FreeDish to roll out call centre

    DD FreeDish to roll out call centre

    MUMBAI: It’s getting customer-focused. Almost as if inspired by the services provided by the private DTH providers such as Tata Sky, DishTV, Videcon d2h, Airtel Digtial TV, and Sun Direct, the Doordarshan-promoted free TV provider DD FreeDish is getting set to launch its call centre facility.

    It is taking this step concurrent with the expansion of its channel capacity from 80 channels to 104, courtesy the move to upgrade its set-top boxes from MPEG2 to MPEG4.

    A senior Prasar Bharati official yesterday confirmed while talking to indiantelevision.com that a call centre would be set up after completion of MPEG4 Switchover.

    Once customers buy their iCAS-enabled and approved set top boxes from authorized retailers, they will then have to make a call to the FreeDish call centre to get their STB registered. This will then allow DD’s engineers to keep a tab on the number of subscribers the DTH platform has.

    The call centre would be set up after the total switch-over to MPEG4 when a centre number on which a subscriber could call would also be given, the Prasar Bharati official said.

    DD has been plagued by a lack of subscriber information to DD FreeDish over the years. The pubcaster created the platform but sold the MPEG2 STBs through retailers without keeping a tab on who was buying them and who is active. Estimates are that its subscriber base could be anywhere from 20 million to 40 million.

    Since the new STBS are MPEG 4 compliant and have a conditional access system installed in them, they will have to be activated which will happen courtesy the call centre. This will give DD the facility of logging in every new subscriber into its system and hence have accurate subscriber counts. The call centre will apparently be the touch point for all service related complaints to the STB also.

    Hitherto DD FreeDish had toll free help line and a customer help desk numbers which operate from morning to 10 pm, according to its website. The opening of a 24 hour call centre facility could add to the FreeDish customer’s delight