ITV

Tag: Airtel

  • Amish Tripathi turns five kids into storytellers for Airtel

    Amish Tripathi turns five kids into storytellers for Airtel

    MUMBAI: The newly released video from Airtel titled Udaan is sure to take one down memory lane to childhood days which were full of ideas, however fantastic they were.

    Created by J. Walter Thompson the three minute video featuring bestselling author Amish Tripathi plays on the ‘dreams come true’ theme, where these children bring their stories to the people through an unexpected platform.

    Through the five kids — Nisha, Arya, Anshu, Anjali and Eklvaya — one is reminded how easy it is to be honest with our ideas without any fear of judgement. The viewers are won over by their innocent yet powerful imagination, which creates ample impact when we realise that these stories would have remained untold and the kids have would grow up eventually, shunning their unbashful creativity.

    That is when Amish Tripathi came into the picture and urged the kids to finish a story with him, a story that was eventually showcased at the Jaipur Literature Festival, where the kids took to stage in front of a hall full of audience. The effectiveness of the ad comes to light as we find out that the kids never really met Amish Tripathi in person, and their presence at the literature festival was through 3D imaging and hologram, possible through Airtel’s strong connection. While the association with Jaipur Lit Fest came from Airtel, it was JWT Delhi team’s vice president and executive planning director Shujoy Dutta who conceptualised the ‘entire scheme of getting a writer to inspire the kids to write.’

    When asked what the mandate from the client was, J. Walter Thompson Delhi managing partner and head Sanjeev Bharagava said, “The mandate really was what kind of presence that the brand should have at the Jaipur Literature Festival, so we had to devise something that could be associated with it and also create a positive awareness for the brand.”

    Carried out through phases spanning across six weeks, JWT’s rural team scouted around gramin (rural) areas at several less privileged schools to identify these five bright minds.

    “It was difficult because we required a different expertise to put everything together as wonderfully. There was an outreach team that worked rurally, there was a strategic team that thought of the idea, there was a digital team that carried out the campaign online — four different disciplines that were really involved to bring this idea live. That we carry it out seamlessly was the real challenge,” Bhargava shared.

    Justifying why Amish Tripathi was the best person to connect with the kids as well as be the spokesperson for the brand Bhargava said, “I feel Amish is a kind of author who has depth in his writing. We didn’t want to go the populist way and chose just any bestselling author, we wanted someone who would resonate with the core thought of the campaign.”

    With six weeks’ worth of content that culminated in the ultimate showcase of experiential marketing when the kids came alive through holographs that were powered by Airtel, the tough nut to crack was the content code for the video. The crux of the effort is the digital proliferation which the campaign brings to the fore cleverly and masterfully.

  • Amish Tripathi turns five kids into storytellers for Airtel

    Amish Tripathi turns five kids into storytellers for Airtel

    MUMBAI: The newly released video from Airtel titled Udaan is sure to take one down memory lane to childhood days which were full of ideas, however fantastic they were.

    Created by J. Walter Thompson the three minute video featuring bestselling author Amish Tripathi plays on the ‘dreams come true’ theme, where these children bring their stories to the people through an unexpected platform.

    Through the five kids — Nisha, Arya, Anshu, Anjali and Eklvaya — one is reminded how easy it is to be honest with our ideas without any fear of judgement. The viewers are won over by their innocent yet powerful imagination, which creates ample impact when we realise that these stories would have remained untold and the kids have would grow up eventually, shunning their unbashful creativity.

    That is when Amish Tripathi came into the picture and urged the kids to finish a story with him, a story that was eventually showcased at the Jaipur Literature Festival, where the kids took to stage in front of a hall full of audience. The effectiveness of the ad comes to light as we find out that the kids never really met Amish Tripathi in person, and their presence at the literature festival was through 3D imaging and hologram, possible through Airtel’s strong connection. While the association with Jaipur Lit Fest came from Airtel, it was JWT Delhi team’s vice president and executive planning director Shujoy Dutta who conceptualised the ‘entire scheme of getting a writer to inspire the kids to write.’

    When asked what the mandate from the client was, J. Walter Thompson Delhi managing partner and head Sanjeev Bharagava said, “The mandate really was what kind of presence that the brand should have at the Jaipur Literature Festival, so we had to devise something that could be associated with it and also create a positive awareness for the brand.”

    Carried out through phases spanning across six weeks, JWT’s rural team scouted around gramin (rural) areas at several less privileged schools to identify these five bright minds.

    “It was difficult because we required a different expertise to put everything together as wonderfully. There was an outreach team that worked rurally, there was a strategic team that thought of the idea, there was a digital team that carried out the campaign online — four different disciplines that were really involved to bring this idea live. That we carry it out seamlessly was the real challenge,” Bhargava shared.

    Justifying why Amish Tripathi was the best person to connect with the kids as well as be the spokesperson for the brand Bhargava said, “I feel Amish is a kind of author who has depth in his writing. We didn’t want to go the populist way and chose just any bestselling author, we wanted someone who would resonate with the core thought of the campaign.”

    With six weeks’ worth of content that culminated in the ultimate showcase of experiential marketing when the kids came alive through holographs that were powered by Airtel, the tough nut to crack was the content code for the video. The crux of the effort is the digital proliferation which the campaign brings to the fore cleverly and masterfully.

  • November 2015: ACT, Airtel lead subscriber additions for wireline broadband in India

    November 2015: ACT, Airtel lead subscriber additions for wireline broadband in India

    BENGALURU: Until 30 October, 2015 (Oct-15), ACT Broadband was leading in wireline broadband internet subscriber additions in India. November 2015 numbers released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) indicate that as on 30 November, 2015 (Nov-15), both ACT and Bharti Airtel have added 2.3 lakh subscribers (subject to a granularity of 10,000) each in the period between 31 December, 2014, hence 1 January, 2015 (Dec-14,) and Nov-15. In terms of wireline internet subscription numbers, Airtel had 16.4 lakh subscribers as on Nov-15, almost double the 8.4 lakh subscribers that ACT Broadband had.

    The top five players in India in the wireline broadband internet space in pecking order are the public sector Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Bharti Airtel Limited (Airtel), public sector Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), Atria Convergence Technologies Private Limited (ACT, ACT Broadband) and You Broadband (You BB). Among these five, only BSNL and Airtel can be termed national players at present. BSNL, Airtel and MTNL also provide wireline and mobile services while Airtel also has a direct to home (DTH) segment. ACT started off as an MSO with operations concentrated in a few major cities and towns located mainly in South India. It started internet services (ACT Broadband) a little later and has grown its broadband internet subscriber base over time, to the extent that it is quite likely the biggest private wireline broadband player in South India. You BB offers broadband operations in a few cities in Maharashtra, Gujarat the NCR region Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. 

    Overall, November 2015 saw 140,000 wireline subscriber additions, of which 30,000 were added by Airtel and 20,000 by ACT; 10,000 by You Broadband, while the public sector behemoth BSNL saw a decline of 10,000 subscribers. MTNL did not have any new additions, taking the contribution of the top five wireline broadband players to 50,000 (or 35.57 per cent of overall additions) during Nov-15.

    Note: (1) 100,00,000 = 100 Lakh = 10 million = 1 crore
    (2) TRAI reports indicate data in millions of numbers up to 2 decimal places. Hence it is assumed in this report that a figure of 0.47 million (4.7 lakh) subscribers for You BB for July-2015 would be granular to the nearest 10,000. While percentages perforce have been mentioned up to two decimal places, the accuracy may vary, depending upon the exact number.
    (3) Industry sources say that TRAI numbers in the case of ACT for May-2015 are incorrect at 0.66 million and the correct number would be 0.693 million. This report considers the number as 6.93 lakh or 0.693 million.
    (4) MSOs have a number of subsidiaries and alliances, hence broadband numbers are split as applicable. The consolidated subscription numbers of these entities could be larger. Hathway is a case in point.
    (5) Ortel’s numbers for Q3-2015 have been estimated from the numbers released by it for Q1-2015, Q2-2015, Q4-2015 and FY-2015.
    (6) The term ‘operating revenue’ in this report indicates ‘total income from operations.’

    Please refer to Fig 1 below. 

    Over an 11 month period, the subscriber numbers share of the top five wired broadband players in the country has reduced from 88.45 per cent from Dec-14 to 85.56 per cent as on Nov-15. During the same period All India wireline internet subscriber base has grown 7.11 per cent from 153.2 lakh to 164.1 lakh.

    The average all India subscriber growth rate per month for the period 1 January, 2015 to 30 November, 2015 was 0.62 per cent. During the period Dec-14 to May-15, the maximum growth was 0.46 per cent in Feb-15 with 70,000 net new broadband connections. Apr-15 saw nil growth rate and witnessed a decline in growth rate of 0.07 per cent in subscribers in the case of the top five wireline players in India. The average subscriber growth rate in the first five month period of the previous year was 0.31 per cent per month. The average subscriber growth during the next six month period including June-15 until Nov-15 was 0.89 per cent, with the highest in Aug-15 at 1.01 per cent. Please refer to Fig 1A below. Overall, the all India subscriber base has been growing at a faster pace than growth rate of the subscriber base of the top five wireline internet service providers in India.

    Fig 2 below indicates the subscriber details of the top five wired broadband internet service providers. While ACT has shown the highest growth during the period in this report, BSNL has had the steepest fall in subscription numbers during the first 11 month period of calendar year 2015. ACT’s share of All India wireline broadband internet subscribers has increased from 3.98 per cent at the start of the year to 5.12 per cent until Nov-15, while BSNL’s share has declined from 65.14 per cent in Dec-14 to 60.51 per cent in Nov-15. By its very stagnancy, MTNL’s share of All India wireline broadband internet subscribers has reduced from 7.38 per cent to 6.89 per cent during the same period. Airtel’s share has increased from 9.20 per cent to 9.99 per cent, while You BB’s share has increased from 2.74 per cent to 3.05 per cent during the same period.

    As is obvious from Fig 1A above, the share of new subscriber additions by the top five players has been reducing. MSOs in India have started providing internet services on the back of their cable networks using Docsis technology. In general, they have started reporting double digit YoY increase in internet subscribers and revenue. Three of the major MSOs and a regional MSO, whose results are available in the public domain for the quarter ended 31 December, 2016 (Q3-2016 current quarter) have been showing steady growth in their broadband segment over the past few quarters.

    In this report, let us look at how these television cable industry players have performed in the broadband space in Q3-2016. The four are: Hathway Cable and Datacom Limited (Hathway), Den Networks Ltd (Den), Siti Cable Network Limited (Siti Cable), and the regional player Ortel Communications Limited (Ortel).

    Hathway’s consolidated broadband subscribers increased by 50,000 or 9.31 per cent more QoQ, in Q3-2015 to 5.67 lakh. Hathway’s Broadband subscription revenue in Q3-2016 increased 53.4 per cent YoY to Rs 78.7 crore as compared to Rs 57.7 crore and increased 9.5 per cent QoQ as compared to Rs 57.7 crore. Hathway’s broadband standalone ARPUs increased 3.8 per cent QoQ from Rs 658 to Rs 683.

    Siti Cable Broadband revenue in the current quarter almost doubled (grew 99 per cent) at Rs 13.9 crore (3.8 per cent of OPREV) as compared to Rs 7 crore (3.2 per cent of OPREV) in Q3-2015 and increased 49.5 per cent QoQ as compared to Rs 9.3 crore (four per cent of OPREV). Broadband subscribers in the current quarter increased 17 per cent to 1,07,000 from 91,450 in Q2-2016.

    Den has also ramped up its broadband subscribers by 33.3 per cent to 76,000 in the current quarter from 57,000 in the immediate trailing quarter. The company’s broadband segment revenue increased by over five times YoY (5.5 times) at Rs 11.96 crore (3.4 per cent of TIO) as compared to Rs 2.17 crore (0.8 per cent of TIO) in corresponding prior year quarter and increased 58 per cent QoQ as compared to Rs 8.23 crore (three per cent of TIO). The segment’s YoY operating loss increased to Rs 19.57 crore as compared to Rs 12.37 crore, but reduced QoQ as compared to Rs 23.07 crore. The company says that broadband ARPU has declined by Rs 10 in the current quarter to Rs 760 from Rs 770 in the previous quarter.

    Den’s Broadband Post Activation EBIDTA in Q3-2016 was negative Rs 16 crore as compared to the negative Rs 11 crore in Q3-2015 and negative Rs 20 crore in Q2-2016.

    Ortel’s broadband segment reported 16.3 per cent higher revenue at Rs 8.28 crore as compared to Rs 7.12 crore in the corresponding year ago quarter and 1.7 per cent more than the Rs 8.14 crore in Q2-2016. The broadband segment reported an operating profit of Rs 4.78 crore in the current quarter as compared to Rs 4.52 crore in Q3-2015 and 9.1 per cent higher than the Rs 438 crore in Q2-2016.

    Ortel’s broadband customers in the current quarter grew 16.2 per cent YoY to 67,709 as compared to 58,277 and grew 6.4 per cent QoQ as compared to 63,663. Broadband ARPU in Q3-2016 was higher at Rs 396, in Q3-2015 it was Rs 394 and in Rs Q2-2016 it was Rs 395.

  • November 2015: ACT, Airtel lead subscriber additions for wireline broadband in India

    November 2015: ACT, Airtel lead subscriber additions for wireline broadband in India

    BENGALURU: Until 30 October, 2015 (Oct-15), ACT Broadband was leading in wireline broadband internet subscriber additions in India. November 2015 numbers released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) indicate that as on 30 November, 2015 (Nov-15), both ACT and Bharti Airtel have added 2.3 lakh subscribers (subject to a granularity of 10,000) each in the period between 31 December, 2014, hence 1 January, 2015 (Dec-14,) and Nov-15. In terms of wireline internet subscription numbers, Airtel had 16.4 lakh subscribers as on Nov-15, almost double the 8.4 lakh subscribers that ACT Broadband had.

    The top five players in India in the wireline broadband internet space in pecking order are the public sector Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Bharti Airtel Limited (Airtel), public sector Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), Atria Convergence Technologies Private Limited (ACT, ACT Broadband) and You Broadband (You BB). Among these five, only BSNL and Airtel can be termed national players at present. BSNL, Airtel and MTNL also provide wireline and mobile services while Airtel also has a direct to home (DTH) segment. ACT started off as an MSO with operations concentrated in a few major cities and towns located mainly in South India. It started internet services (ACT Broadband) a little later and has grown its broadband internet subscriber base over time, to the extent that it is quite likely the biggest private wireline broadband player in South India. You BB offers broadband operations in a few cities in Maharashtra, Gujarat the NCR region Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. 

    Overall, November 2015 saw 140,000 wireline subscriber additions, of which 30,000 were added by Airtel and 20,000 by ACT; 10,000 by You Broadband, while the public sector behemoth BSNL saw a decline of 10,000 subscribers. MTNL did not have any new additions, taking the contribution of the top five wireline broadband players to 50,000 (or 35.57 per cent of overall additions) during Nov-15.

    Note: (1) 100,00,000 = 100 Lakh = 10 million = 1 crore
    (2) TRAI reports indicate data in millions of numbers up to 2 decimal places. Hence it is assumed in this report that a figure of 0.47 million (4.7 lakh) subscribers for You BB for July-2015 would be granular to the nearest 10,000. While percentages perforce have been mentioned up to two decimal places, the accuracy may vary, depending upon the exact number.
    (3) Industry sources say that TRAI numbers in the case of ACT for May-2015 are incorrect at 0.66 million and the correct number would be 0.693 million. This report considers the number as 6.93 lakh or 0.693 million.
    (4) MSOs have a number of subsidiaries and alliances, hence broadband numbers are split as applicable. The consolidated subscription numbers of these entities could be larger. Hathway is a case in point.
    (5) Ortel’s numbers for Q3-2015 have been estimated from the numbers released by it for Q1-2015, Q2-2015, Q4-2015 and FY-2015.
    (6) The term ‘operating revenue’ in this report indicates ‘total income from operations.’

    Please refer to Fig 1 below. 

    Over an 11 month period, the subscriber numbers share of the top five wired broadband players in the country has reduced from 88.45 per cent from Dec-14 to 85.56 per cent as on Nov-15. During the same period All India wireline internet subscriber base has grown 7.11 per cent from 153.2 lakh to 164.1 lakh.

    The average all India subscriber growth rate per month for the period 1 January, 2015 to 30 November, 2015 was 0.62 per cent. During the period Dec-14 to May-15, the maximum growth was 0.46 per cent in Feb-15 with 70,000 net new broadband connections. Apr-15 saw nil growth rate and witnessed a decline in growth rate of 0.07 per cent in subscribers in the case of the top five wireline players in India. The average subscriber growth rate in the first five month period of the previous year was 0.31 per cent per month. The average subscriber growth during the next six month period including June-15 until Nov-15 was 0.89 per cent, with the highest in Aug-15 at 1.01 per cent. Please refer to Fig 1A below. Overall, the all India subscriber base has been growing at a faster pace than growth rate of the subscriber base of the top five wireline internet service providers in India.

    Fig 2 below indicates the subscriber details of the top five wired broadband internet service providers. While ACT has shown the highest growth during the period in this report, BSNL has had the steepest fall in subscription numbers during the first 11 month period of calendar year 2015. ACT’s share of All India wireline broadband internet subscribers has increased from 3.98 per cent at the start of the year to 5.12 per cent until Nov-15, while BSNL’s share has declined from 65.14 per cent in Dec-14 to 60.51 per cent in Nov-15. By its very stagnancy, MTNL’s share of All India wireline broadband internet subscribers has reduced from 7.38 per cent to 6.89 per cent during the same period. Airtel’s share has increased from 9.20 per cent to 9.99 per cent, while You BB’s share has increased from 2.74 per cent to 3.05 per cent during the same period.

    As is obvious from Fig 1A above, the share of new subscriber additions by the top five players has been reducing. MSOs in India have started providing internet services on the back of their cable networks using Docsis technology. In general, they have started reporting double digit YoY increase in internet subscribers and revenue. Three of the major MSOs and a regional MSO, whose results are available in the public domain for the quarter ended 31 December, 2016 (Q3-2016 current quarter) have been showing steady growth in their broadband segment over the past few quarters.

    In this report, let us look at how these television cable industry players have performed in the broadband space in Q3-2016. The four are: Hathway Cable and Datacom Limited (Hathway), Den Networks Ltd (Den), Siti Cable Network Limited (Siti Cable), and the regional player Ortel Communications Limited (Ortel).

    Hathway’s consolidated broadband subscribers increased by 50,000 or 9.31 per cent more QoQ, in Q3-2015 to 5.67 lakh. Hathway’s Broadband subscription revenue in Q3-2016 increased 53.4 per cent YoY to Rs 78.7 crore as compared to Rs 57.7 crore and increased 9.5 per cent QoQ as compared to Rs 57.7 crore. Hathway’s broadband standalone ARPUs increased 3.8 per cent QoQ from Rs 658 to Rs 683.

    Siti Cable Broadband revenue in the current quarter almost doubled (grew 99 per cent) at Rs 13.9 crore (3.8 per cent of OPREV) as compared to Rs 7 crore (3.2 per cent of OPREV) in Q3-2015 and increased 49.5 per cent QoQ as compared to Rs 9.3 crore (four per cent of OPREV). Broadband subscribers in the current quarter increased 17 per cent to 1,07,000 from 91,450 in Q2-2016.

    Den has also ramped up its broadband subscribers by 33.3 per cent to 76,000 in the current quarter from 57,000 in the immediate trailing quarter. The company’s broadband segment revenue increased by over five times YoY (5.5 times) at Rs 11.96 crore (3.4 per cent of TIO) as compared to Rs 2.17 crore (0.8 per cent of TIO) in corresponding prior year quarter and increased 58 per cent QoQ as compared to Rs 8.23 crore (three per cent of TIO). The segment’s YoY operating loss increased to Rs 19.57 crore as compared to Rs 12.37 crore, but reduced QoQ as compared to Rs 23.07 crore. The company says that broadband ARPU has declined by Rs 10 in the current quarter to Rs 760 from Rs 770 in the previous quarter.

    Den’s Broadband Post Activation EBIDTA in Q3-2016 was negative Rs 16 crore as compared to the negative Rs 11 crore in Q3-2015 and negative Rs 20 crore in Q2-2016.

    Ortel’s broadband segment reported 16.3 per cent higher revenue at Rs 8.28 crore as compared to Rs 7.12 crore in the corresponding year ago quarter and 1.7 per cent more than the Rs 8.14 crore in Q2-2016. The broadband segment reported an operating profit of Rs 4.78 crore in the current quarter as compared to Rs 4.52 crore in Q3-2015 and 9.1 per cent higher than the Rs 438 crore in Q2-2016.

    Ortel’s broadband customers in the current quarter grew 16.2 per cent YoY to 67,709 as compared to 58,277 and grew 6.4 per cent QoQ as compared to 63,663. Broadband ARPU in Q3-2016 was higher at Rs 396, in Q3-2015 it was Rs 394 and in Rs Q2-2016 it was Rs 395.

  • Straddling the extremes of broadcasting & pointcasting: The coming of age of OOH

    Straddling the extremes of broadcasting & pointcasting: The coming of age of OOH

    It is indeed no more a conjecture that digital is on a growth path and despite it blooming to a large extent in 2015, it has a long way to go! 

    Nevertheless, in the process of its bloom, digital media has pushed media-fragmentation to a new limit of ‘singlecasting,’ arguably completing media fragmentation that travelled from broadcasting to narrowcasting to singlecasting. Yes, mobile is almost a personal media device – to each, her own. 

    The story however does not end here and the media fragmentation has been pushed a tad more by OOH wherein the ‘singlecasting’ – transmission of marketing messages to one person has further been fragmented into ‘Pointcasting’ that is, transmission of marketing messages to a ‘persona’ rather than a person. 

    Persona (Pl. – ‘personae’) is defined as the ‘psychological dimension’ of a person, which in turn is defined as a ‘biological being.’ Because man has emotions and these emotions vary according to time, place and state of mind, which exactly are the elements of the ‘media aperture’, OOH media thin-slices a ‘person’ into personae and creates more adequate situation for message reception and retention.

    There is a new awakening on the exact opposite side of the above argument. Whereas OOH media is capable of pushing the fragmentation further than what digital could achieve, it is dawning on all the professionals that OOH has also emerged as ‘the only broadcast media’ capable of delivering undifferentiated audience as all other media have lost their capacity to deliver the undifferentiated audience because of the increasing complexity of their content and distribution. 

    OOH has no content and has no inherent ‘editorial or content environment’ to provide context to marketing messages. It derives the context from the emotional state of the audience and from her exact psychographic state. The media is always ‘on’ and the message is disseminated indiscriminately to anyone who pays it a fleeting glance! The distinction however, lies in the way the message is received, interpreted and retained. And this totally depends on the prevailing psychographic stage of the person, the role she is playing – of a parent or of a spouse or of an executive or whatsoever. OOH media derives its context from ‘life’.

    It is logical that last year was a great revival year in many senses as we had first begun going beyond 2008 levels. The year didn’t have many remarkable events like the general elections but a lot of things were happening. The industry revenue grew by over 18 per cent in 2015 over that of 2014. The year saw e-commerce blooming to a new high with some very high profile launches like Housing.com. 

    The industry also witnessed a reversing trend in terms of the duration of the OOH campaigns. The years before had witnessed the shrinking of campaign periods and most of the campaigns were 10 – 15 days. There were very few three months or six months campaigns, albeit annual sites remaining in fashion. Last year, we saw emergence of Apple, which brought in long term OOH campaigns and showed that OOH media works surely and every week of exposure results into ‘real volume offtake.’ Maruti Suzuki also resorted to long term campaigns and built brand Nexa from concept to a premium destination. Its galloping success with Baleno and its beating the reigning category leader i20 from Hyundai, a part of the advertising and marketing folklore in recent times. The year’s other notable contributors have been mobile phone brands and government. The categories that remained quite subdued are consumer durable, telecom services, ISPs and real estate. 

    Whole of India contributed to the growth of OOH media revenues but almost 60 per cent of spends still remains directed towards top six cities namely Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai. When we get into the next level of detailing we see that in terms of media formats that are the recipients of this revenue, billboards still rule the roost. Their share however has declined from 75 per cent three years back to about 60 per cent now. The media formats that have emerged as clear ‘growth formats’ are ambient and transit. The new metro lines, new malls, corporate parks and world-class airports have given a new boost to OOH advertising. It is no surprise that Airport, transit and ambient together account for 26 per cent of revenue share and this segment is posting steady growth. 

    The growth story was scripted by advertisers from across categories like e-commerce, retail, automobile, mobile handsets, education, consumer banking and media except cinema advertising. The top ten OOH advertisers last year were Airtel, Cadbury, Honda, Housing.com, Hyundai, LIC, Maruti Suzuki, SBI, Samsung and Quikr, not necessarily in that order. 

    I am not a big votary of ‘innovation’ in OOH media segment as OOH advertising is subtle advertising and it must ‘occur’ to the audience. I say this because OOH media is not a ‘conscious and committed consumption.’ It is consumed sub-consciously and almost always in a non-committed mode because the audience consumes this media only when it is ‘out-of-home in order to participate in life’ and as such its principal focus, attention and commitment is elsewhere. OOH media receives ‘fleeting attention’ but in the regime of CPA or ‘Continuous Partial Attention’ where no one is investing complete attention in anything or any medium, this has emerged as a distinctive strength of OOH media. Very loud innovations, demand conscious investment of attention, which is contrary to the inherent strength of this medium. 

    The year however saw some offbeat work where people tried to bring in some elements of surprise, which not only generated some interest but also lots of publicity. Maruti Baleno, LED lit innovation on a billboard in Kalkaji, Delhi was extremely innovative. The movement of light created attractiveness for the billboard and the dynamic illumination highlighted the distinct features of the car. Other innovations that generated interest were done by Oreo, Hanuman by Sony Entertainment Television and an innovation for the serial Sumit Sambhal Lega by Star Plus. Aircel executed an Umbrella branding on a bus shelter whereas Godrej Realty used LED in an innovative way to highlight its projects ‘Sky’ and ‘Trees.’ 

    The industry has not seen many take-overs and mergers though some new entities came into being. Most of these are media agencies, which is a disturbing trend as the business model does not require much capital investment. The industry, which is bereft of measurements and operates still largely in commodity-mode, mushrooming of agencies shift the pivot of the game to pricing alone. This creates an internecine war between the incumbent and the newbie, ensuing only in value-erosion for the industry. 

    The industry has been doing well as we did not see any company in the industry going belly up. Every agency has claimed a growth in billing and people also look much better-off. Despite no institutional investment coming to the industry, there has been quite a bit of expansion and upgradation, which means the internal accruals have been healthy. 

    The year ahead looks like a growth year for the advertising industry as a whole. India is conspicuous in still allowing growth to print media. The macroeconomic data have all been in favour of India and now even sectorial green shoots have started showing. With some big events like cricket World Cup T20 and launch of some 70 new automobile models will create a positive growth environment for OOH also. 

    OOH is now an integral part of the media plan in almost all categories, hence growth of advertising will mean growth in OOH revenues. The decline in overall percentage share of ad revenue of OOH media is a statistical eyesore but in absolute number terms, the OOH media industry remains healthy and finds itself in a growth arena. We hope sectors like real estate, telecom, BFSI, consumer durable, FMCG and e-commerce will find more traction and will enhance their ad spend to post better performance. 

    The OOH media industry is progressing institutionally also with IOAA having been recognised by AAAI. The industry will see new SOP being widely accepted this year and with that a lot of vexatious issues in the regulatory structure will be addressed. Smooth flow of transactions will unlock better values for all concerned. 

    The OOH media is finding a new relevance in the fast urbanising world where people are staying out of home much more – either by compulsion or by choice. Since in this fast-paced world, if one has to ‘participate in life,’ chances are that one will mostly have to step out of ‘home.’ It is only after we have taken care of all the ‘businesses’ of life, and nothing remains to be done or having been pushed to tomorrow, we return ‘home.’ It is no wonder that home has emerged as ‘residual destination’ today. This creates its own opportunities and threats for all media formats, which still get consumed mostly ‘at home.’ No wonder OTT is a fast emerging rival to the TV as we know traditionally!! 

    Even TV steps ‘out of home’!! 

    (These are purely personal views of Laqshya Hyderabad Airport Media CEO Shashi Sinha and Indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to these views.)

  • Straddling the extremes of broadcasting & pointcasting: The coming of age of OOH

    Straddling the extremes of broadcasting & pointcasting: The coming of age of OOH

    It is indeed no more a conjecture that digital is on a growth path and despite it blooming to a large extent in 2015, it has a long way to go! 

    Nevertheless, in the process of its bloom, digital media has pushed media-fragmentation to a new limit of ‘singlecasting,’ arguably completing media fragmentation that travelled from broadcasting to narrowcasting to singlecasting. Yes, mobile is almost a personal media device – to each, her own. 

    The story however does not end here and the media fragmentation has been pushed a tad more by OOH wherein the ‘singlecasting’ – transmission of marketing messages to one person has further been fragmented into ‘Pointcasting’ that is, transmission of marketing messages to a ‘persona’ rather than a person. 

    Persona (Pl. – ‘personae’) is defined as the ‘psychological dimension’ of a person, which in turn is defined as a ‘biological being.’ Because man has emotions and these emotions vary according to time, place and state of mind, which exactly are the elements of the ‘media aperture’, OOH media thin-slices a ‘person’ into personae and creates more adequate situation for message reception and retention.

    There is a new awakening on the exact opposite side of the above argument. Whereas OOH media is capable of pushing the fragmentation further than what digital could achieve, it is dawning on all the professionals that OOH has also emerged as ‘the only broadcast media’ capable of delivering undifferentiated audience as all other media have lost their capacity to deliver the undifferentiated audience because of the increasing complexity of their content and distribution. 

    OOH has no content and has no inherent ‘editorial or content environment’ to provide context to marketing messages. It derives the context from the emotional state of the audience and from her exact psychographic state. The media is always ‘on’ and the message is disseminated indiscriminately to anyone who pays it a fleeting glance! The distinction however, lies in the way the message is received, interpreted and retained. And this totally depends on the prevailing psychographic stage of the person, the role she is playing – of a parent or of a spouse or of an executive or whatsoever. OOH media derives its context from ‘life’.

    It is logical that last year was a great revival year in many senses as we had first begun going beyond 2008 levels. The year didn’t have many remarkable events like the general elections but a lot of things were happening. The industry revenue grew by over 18 per cent in 2015 over that of 2014. The year saw e-commerce blooming to a new high with some very high profile launches like Housing.com. 

    The industry also witnessed a reversing trend in terms of the duration of the OOH campaigns. The years before had witnessed the shrinking of campaign periods and most of the campaigns were 10 – 15 days. There were very few three months or six months campaigns, albeit annual sites remaining in fashion. Last year, we saw emergence of Apple, which brought in long term OOH campaigns and showed that OOH media works surely and every week of exposure results into ‘real volume offtake.’ Maruti Suzuki also resorted to long term campaigns and built brand Nexa from concept to a premium destination. Its galloping success with Baleno and its beating the reigning category leader i20 from Hyundai, a part of the advertising and marketing folklore in recent times. The year’s other notable contributors have been mobile phone brands and government. The categories that remained quite subdued are consumer durable, telecom services, ISPs and real estate. 

    Whole of India contributed to the growth of OOH media revenues but almost 60 per cent of spends still remains directed towards top six cities namely Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai. When we get into the next level of detailing we see that in terms of media formats that are the recipients of this revenue, billboards still rule the roost. Their share however has declined from 75 per cent three years back to about 60 per cent now. The media formats that have emerged as clear ‘growth formats’ are ambient and transit. The new metro lines, new malls, corporate parks and world-class airports have given a new boost to OOH advertising. It is no surprise that Airport, transit and ambient together account for 26 per cent of revenue share and this segment is posting steady growth. 

    The growth story was scripted by advertisers from across categories like e-commerce, retail, automobile, mobile handsets, education, consumer banking and media except cinema advertising. The top ten OOH advertisers last year were Airtel, Cadbury, Honda, Housing.com, Hyundai, LIC, Maruti Suzuki, SBI, Samsung and Quikr, not necessarily in that order. 

    I am not a big votary of ‘innovation’ in OOH media segment as OOH advertising is subtle advertising and it must ‘occur’ to the audience. I say this because OOH media is not a ‘conscious and committed consumption.’ It is consumed sub-consciously and almost always in a non-committed mode because the audience consumes this media only when it is ‘out-of-home in order to participate in life’ and as such its principal focus, attention and commitment is elsewhere. OOH media receives ‘fleeting attention’ but in the regime of CPA or ‘Continuous Partial Attention’ where no one is investing complete attention in anything or any medium, this has emerged as a distinctive strength of OOH media. Very loud innovations, demand conscious investment of attention, which is contrary to the inherent strength of this medium. 

    The year however saw some offbeat work where people tried to bring in some elements of surprise, which not only generated some interest but also lots of publicity. Maruti Baleno, LED lit innovation on a billboard in Kalkaji, Delhi was extremely innovative. The movement of light created attractiveness for the billboard and the dynamic illumination highlighted the distinct features of the car. Other innovations that generated interest were done by Oreo, Hanuman by Sony Entertainment Television and an innovation for the serial Sumit Sambhal Lega by Star Plus. Aircel executed an Umbrella branding on a bus shelter whereas Godrej Realty used LED in an innovative way to highlight its projects ‘Sky’ and ‘Trees.’ 

    The industry has not seen many take-overs and mergers though some new entities came into being. Most of these are media agencies, which is a disturbing trend as the business model does not require much capital investment. The industry, which is bereft of measurements and operates still largely in commodity-mode, mushrooming of agencies shift the pivot of the game to pricing alone. This creates an internecine war between the incumbent and the newbie, ensuing only in value-erosion for the industry. 

    The industry has been doing well as we did not see any company in the industry going belly up. Every agency has claimed a growth in billing and people also look much better-off. Despite no institutional investment coming to the industry, there has been quite a bit of expansion and upgradation, which means the internal accruals have been healthy. 

    The year ahead looks like a growth year for the advertising industry as a whole. India is conspicuous in still allowing growth to print media. The macroeconomic data have all been in favour of India and now even sectorial green shoots have started showing. With some big events like cricket World Cup T20 and launch of some 70 new automobile models will create a positive growth environment for OOH also. 

    OOH is now an integral part of the media plan in almost all categories, hence growth of advertising will mean growth in OOH revenues. The decline in overall percentage share of ad revenue of OOH media is a statistical eyesore but in absolute number terms, the OOH media industry remains healthy and finds itself in a growth arena. We hope sectors like real estate, telecom, BFSI, consumer durable, FMCG and e-commerce will find more traction and will enhance their ad spend to post better performance. 

    The OOH media industry is progressing institutionally also with IOAA having been recognised by AAAI. The industry will see new SOP being widely accepted this year and with that a lot of vexatious issues in the regulatory structure will be addressed. Smooth flow of transactions will unlock better values for all concerned. 

    The OOH media is finding a new relevance in the fast urbanising world where people are staying out of home much more – either by compulsion or by choice. Since in this fast-paced world, if one has to ‘participate in life,’ chances are that one will mostly have to step out of ‘home.’ It is only after we have taken care of all the ‘businesses’ of life, and nothing remains to be done or having been pushed to tomorrow, we return ‘home.’ It is no wonder that home has emerged as ‘residual destination’ today. This creates its own opportunities and threats for all media formats, which still get consumed mostly ‘at home.’ No wonder OTT is a fast emerging rival to the TV as we know traditionally!! 

    Even TV steps ‘out of home’!! 

    (These are purely personal views of Laqshya Hyderabad Airport Media CEO Shashi Sinha and Indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to these views.)

  • ACT continues to lead in wireline broadband internet additions in 2015: TRAI October 2015

    ACT continues to lead in wireline broadband internet additions in 2015: TRAI October 2015

    BENGALURU: South Indian broadband internet service provider Atria Convergence Technologies Private Limited (ACT) continued to lead in addition of new subscribers in wireline broadband internet services during the period between 31 December, 2014 and 31 October, 2015. ACT added 2.10 lakh net subscribers or 22.11 per cent of the all India additions during the period as per the Telecom Regulatory of India (TRAI) report for the month ended 31 October, 2015. As per the TRAI reports, as on 31 December, 2014, ACT had 6.1 lakh subscribers (3.98 per cent of all India subscribers) and it had 8.2 lakh subscribers (5.04 per cent of all India subscribers) as on 31 October, 2015. Hence, its growth has also been the highest in percentage terms at 34.43 per cent during the period.

    The top five players in India in the wireline broadband internet space in pecking order are the public sector Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Bharti Airtel Limited (Airtel), public sector Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), Atria Convergence Technologies Private Limited (ACT) and You Broadband (You BB). Among these five, only BSNL and Airtel could be termed national players at present. BSNL, Airtel and MTNL also provide wireline and mobile services while Airtel also has a direct to home (DTH) segment.

    Note: (1) 100,00,000 = 100 Lakh = 10 million = 1 crore

    (2) TRAI reports indicate data in millions of numbers up to two decimal places. Hence it is assumed in this report that a figure of 0.47 million (4.7 lakh) subscribers for You BB for July-2015 would be granular to the nearest 10,000. While percentages perforce have been mentioned up to two decimal places, the accuracy may vary, depending upon the exact number.

    (3) Industry sources say that TRAI numbers in the case of ACT for May-2015 are incorrect at 0.66 million and the correct number would be 0.693 million. This paper considers the number as 6.93 lakh or 0.693 million.

    (4) MSOs have a number of subsidiaries and alliances, hence broadband numbers are split as applicable. The consolidated subscription numbers of these entities could be larger. Hathway is a case in point.

    (5) Ortel’s numbers for Q3-2015 have been estimated from the numbers released by it for Q1-2015, Q2-2015, Q4-2015 and FY-2015.

    (6) The term ‘operating revenue’ in this paper indicates ‘total income from operations.’

    Please refer to Figure 1 below. Overall, during the 10 month period in CY-2015 until end October 2015, wireline broadband internet subscriber base in India grew by 6.2 per cent or by 9.5 lakh net new subscribers. During the period, wired broadband internet subscriber base increased from 153.2 lakh to 162.7 lakh. During the period, the combined share of wireline broadband internet subscribers of the top 5 players has dropped 246 basis points from 88.45 per cent as on 31 December, 2014 to 85.99 per cent as on 31 October, 2015. The drop in share between 30 September, 2015 and 31 October, 2015 was 31 basis points from 86.30 per cent to 85.99 per cent as on 31 October, 2015. Of the 9.5 lakh new all additions, 4.4 lakh (46.32 per cent of total additions) were added by the top five players. Compared to the all India growth of 6.2 per cent in subscribers, the top five players combined subscription numbers grew by 3.25 per cent.

    Telecom major Bharti Airtel Limited (Airtel) is not far behind ACT in subscriber additions during the 10 month period. Airtel has added two lakh net new subscribers or 21.05 per cent of the net new all India additions during the period. Its subscriber base grew two lakh (grew by 14.18 per cent) in the first 10 months of CY-2015. Airtel’s wireline broadband internet subscriber base grew from 14.1 lakh (9.20 per cent of the all India base) as on 31 December, 2014 to 16.1 lakh (9.90 per cent of the all India base) as on 31 October, 2015. While the share of subscribers of Airtel, ACT and You BB has been growing, the shares of the public sector BSNL and MTNL have fallen, either because of fall in number of subscribers or because of no growth in numbers. Please refer to Fig 2 below.

    MSOs’ contribution to broadband

    As mentioned above, the combined share of overall wired internet subscribers of the top five companies is declining, with other players increasing their contribution to wireline broadband subscription numbers.

    The decline between 31 December, 2014 and 31 October, 2015 was 246 basis points. Other ISPs’ share of subscribers has increased to the same extent. Among the ‘Others’ are included Cable TV MSOs. MSOs in India, which are looking at broadband revenues to prop up their cable revenue numbers because of the comparatively higher ARPUs from broadband internet services. We can only repeat the figures that we have mentioned in our earlier report Wired Broadband: ACT, Airtel lead growth in Sep 2015; MSOs’ broadband numbers increasing.

    MSOs have started reporting double digit increase in internet subscribers and revenue. Four MSOs – Hathway, Siti Cable, Ortel and Den added 1.09 lakh (25.34 per cent of total additions in Q2-2016 or the quarter ended 30 September, 2015) subscribers during that period as per their financial reports filed at the bourses. QoQ, the combined broadband subscribers in Q2-2016 added by the four MSOs increased by 58.36 per cent from 0.69 lakh added in Q1-2016. The third quarter of the current fiscal (Q3-2016) ended on 31 December, 2015 and companies will start filing their numbers over the next few weeks.

    Some MSOs’ broadband numbers from our previous report

    Broadband contributes in double digit percentages to the total incomes or operating revenue of two of the four companies – Hathway (about 25 per cent and growing) and Ortel (declined from 21.07 per cent in Q1-2015 to 16.80 per cent in Q2-2016). In the case of Siti Cable and Den, revenue from broadband services contributed to less than five per cent to their operating incomes. However, sources at Siti Cable say that the company will now be focusing at broadband internet services in a big way.

    Hathway reported broadband revenue of Rs 71.9 crore (26.24 per cent of operating revenue) in the current quarter, 58.4 per cent higher YoY than the Rs 45.4 crore (17.23 per cent of operating revenue), and 10.4 per cent more than the Rs 65.1 crore (24.62 per cent of operating revenue) in the immediate trailing quarter. Last quarter, the company said that it had added 50,000 broadband subscribers in Q1-2016, and claimed a broadband subscriber base of 4.6 lakh, of which 1.7 lakh were under Docsis 3.0. Hathway says that broadband ARPU increased 6.8 per cent QoQ to Rs 616 from Rs 577 and that its Docsis 3 consumer ARPU has reached Rs 750.

    Ortel’s broadband customers grew 8.9 per cent to 63,663 in Q2-2015 from 57,528 in Q2-2015 and grew 4.5 per cent from 60,900 in Q1-2016. Ortel’s broadband ARPU in Q2-2016 was Rs 395, in Q2-2015, it was Rs 398 and in Q1-2016, it was Rs 393. Ortel reported 11.7 per cent growth in YoY total broadband services revenue to Rs 8.1 crore (16.80 per cent of operating revenue) in the current quarter as compared to Rs 7.3 crore (19.89 per cent of operating revenue) and a 7.9 per cent QoQ growth from Rs 7.5 crore (17.40 per cent of operating revenue).

    Siti Cable says that it has added 16,950 broadband subscribers in Q2-2016, taking its broadband subscriber base to 91,450 from 74,500 in the previous quarter. Broadband revenue increased 50 per cent YoY in Q2-2106 to Rs 9.30 crore (3.30 per cent of operating revenue) from Rs 6.20 crore (3.95 per cent of operating revenue) and increased 3.3 per cent QoQ from Rs 9 crore (2.83 per cent of operating revenue).

    Den says that it has added 21,000 subscribers in Q2-2016 as compared to 12,000 in Q1-2016. Its total broadband subscriber base in Q2-2016 was 57,000 as compared to 35,000 in Q1-2016 and 16,000 in Q2-2015. Den’s broadband revenue increased 58 per cent in Q2-2015 to Rs 8.23 crore (3.03 per cent to operating revenue) as compared to the Rs 5.21 crore (1.96 per cent of operating revenue) in Q1-2016 and Rs 1.44 crore (0.49 per cent of operating revenue) in the corresponding year ago quarter.

  • Reliance Jio appoints Shah Rukh Khan as brand ambassador

    Reliance Jio appoints Shah Rukh Khan as brand ambassador

    MUMBAI: Shah Rukh Khan will soon be seen as the face of Mukesh Ambani’s telecom services brand Reliance Jio, which is slated for a soft launch next week.

     

    Khan, who earlier endorsed rival telecom brand Airtel, will be present at Reliance Jio’s soft launch on 27 December, which is also the eve of Dhirubhai Ambani’s birth anniversary.

     

    As was reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, Reliance Jio will be handing out two lakhs cards to hand-picked ‘privileged’ people as a part of the soft launch. The commercial roll-out of the telecom service is expected by March 2016.

     

    On 27 December, Khan will be unveiling the Reliance Jio brand along with the company’s employees. AR Rahman will also be a part of the launch.

  • Q2-2016: Indian DTH players replicate improved performance of previous quarters

    Q2-2016: Indian DTH players replicate improved performance of previous quarters

    Over the past two quarters, the DTH segment of the television carriage industry has posted improved performances as has been mentioned by Indiantelevision.com for Q4-2015 and Q1-2016.

    The industry seems to have reached an inflection point in Q4-2015, with three players that have a combined market share of about 62 per cent posting improved results. The biggest player among them in terms of revenue as well as number of subscribers, Dish TV with about 27 per cent market share even reported a consolidated profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 34.94 crore in Q4-2015, a figure that helped wipe out the losses reported by the company for the previous three quarters. Dish TV reported consolidated PAT of of Rs 3.14 crore for FY-2015.

    As a matter of fact, even Airtel DTH services reported a positive EBIT of Rs 8.1 crore for Q4-2015, as compared to a negative EBIT of Rs 36 crore in Q3-2015 and a negative EBIT of Rs 67.6 crore in Q2-2015. The three players have now reported improved performances for the quarter ended 30 September, 2015 (Q2-2016, current quarter).

    Note: (1)100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10 million = 1 crore.

    (2) This paper covers only three of the seven DTH service providers in India (as had the previous two papers) since the other four– Reliance Digital TV, Sun Direct (about 97 lakh subscribers as on 31 March, 2015), Tata Sky and DD Free Dish are not listed directly on the bourses and their financial numbers are not available, unless the principals of these companies/segments chose to reveal them. The three players – Airtel DTH, Dish TV and Videocon d2h have already been covered in our earlier reports mentioned above.

    (3) Some of the three players mention their financial as well as subscription numbers in millions in their financial reports/investor presentations and other documents that they make available publically. The financial numbers have been converted to Rs crore to an approximation of a single decimal place, though percentages have been mentioned to the second decimal place approximation.

    (4) There could be some ambiguity about the market share of the three players. If one were to go by the latest numbers released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in November 2015 for June 2015. TRAI’s indicator report says that the number of registered DTH subscribers as on 30 June, 2015 was 787.4 lakh. The combined subscription numbers of the three players as on the same day as reported by them individually was 343.12 lakh and hence the market share of these players works out to 45.58 per cent. However, TRAI’s report also says that the number of active DTH subscribers as on 30 June, 2015 was 397.4 lakh. Based on the second TRAI number, the combined total subscribe market share of the three players in this paper works out to 86.34 per cent. The figures of 27 percent and 62 per cent have been taken from Dish TV’s estimates.

    (5) Videocon d2h EBIDTA numbers are adjusted – Q4-2015 Adjusted EBIDTA is before accounting for one off securities issue expenses of Rs 10.543 crore and Employee Share based Compensations cost of Rs. 2.974 crore towards provision of ESOP plan of 2014; Q1-2016 and Q2-2016 Adjusted EBITDA is before accounting for Employee Share based Compensations cost of Rs. 2.944 crore towards provision of ESOP plan of 2014

    Please refer to the graphs below. Panel A, B and C and D show the Q2-2015, Q1-2016 and Q2-2016 combined performances of the three DTH operators in this report and then in alphabetical order- Airtel DTH, Dish TV and Videocon d2h respectively. Panel E shows the ARPU value trends and Panel F shows the Monthly Subscriber Churn of the three players over 6 consecutive quarters starting Q1-2015 until Q2-2016.

    Please refer to Panel A in the graphs below. The combined revenues of the three players in the current quarter grew 16.20 per cent year on year (YoY) to Rs 2149.32 crore as compared to Rs 1849.60 crore and grew 3.12 per cent quarter on quarter (QoQ) as compared to Rs 2084.28 crore. EBIDTA increased 47.96 per cent YoY in Q2-2016 to Rs 680.30 crore (31.65 per cent margin) as compared to Rs 459.8 crore (24.86 per cent margin) and grew 1.90 per cent QoQ as compared to Rs 667.6 crore (31.65 per cent margin). Hence, EBIDTA margin declined slightly in the current quarter as compared to the immediate trailing quarter. Reported Combined Subscription numbers in Q2-2016 grew 12.77 per cent YoY to 351.16 lakh as compared to 311.4 lakh and increased 2.34 per cent QoQ as compared to 343.12 lakh.

    All the three DTH operators reported growth in revenue and subscription numbers, both YoY and QoQ. Dish TV and Videocon d2h reported growth in YoY and QoQ EBIDTA, while Airtel DTH reported a YoY increase, but a QoQ drop in EBIDTA and EBIT for Q2-2016. In terms of subscription numbers as well as revenue, Dish TV is the biggest player among the three. While Videocon d2h has a slight edge in terms of subscription numbers over Airtel DTH, the latter has a slight edge over Videocon d2h in terms of revenue.

    The average revenue per customer (ARPU) in the case of Airtel DTH increased QoQ to Rs 224 from Rs 222, it was flat in the case of Videocon d2h at Rs 205 and declined to Rs 171 in Q2-2016 from Rs 173 in the immediate trailing quarter in the case of Dish TV.

    During the six consecutive quarter period starting Q1-2015 until the current quarter, ARPUs of all the three DTH players show linear increasing trends. Monthly Subscriber Churn also seems to be increasing in case of all the three players as is obvious from the linear broken trend lines in Panel F. As a matter of fact the Monthly Subscriber Churn reported by all the three players in the current quarter – Q2-2016 was the highest during a period spread over six consecutive quarters.

    At the cost of repeating some of what has been mentioned above, let us see how these players have performed in Q2-2016.

    Airtel DTH

    Airtel DTH is a small segment of Indian telecom major Bharti Airtel Limited and its revenues constitute around four per cent of its parent company’s revenues and its EBIDTA is contributes just three per cent to overall EBIDTA. Capex investment however is in the seven per cent region of Bharti Airtel’s overall capex investments.

    Please refer to Panel B in the graphs above. Airtel’s DTH segment reported 12.85 per cent YoY growth in its revenue for the current quarter at Rs 706.8 crore as compared to the Rs 623.6 crore in Q2-2015. QoQ, the segment’s revenue grew 3.21 per cent as compared to Rs 684.8 crore.

    EBIDTA increased 53.24 per cent YoY to Rs 234.3 crore (33.15 per cent margin) as compared to the Rs 152.9 crore (24.41 per cent margin), but was 2.70 basis points lower than the Rs 240.8 crore (35.16 per cent margin).

    Airtel DTH segment reported a positive EBIT of Rs 17 crore (2.41 per cent margin) in the current quarter as compared to a negative EBIT of Rs 67.7 crore in the corresponding year ago quarter. EBIT in the current quarter, however was less than half (declined by 59.04 per cent) as compared to the Rs 41.5 crore (6.06 per cent margin) in the immediate trailing quarter.

    The company reported a 10.86 per cent YoY growth in its subscriber base to 105.76 lakh in Q2-2016 as compared to the 95.40 lakh in the corresponding year ago quarter and a 1.58 per cent QoQ growth from 104.12 lakh in the immediate trailing quarter. Monthly subscriber churn however increased to 1.3 per cent in the current quarter as compared to 1.1 per cent in Q2-2015 and 0.8 per cent in Q1-2016.

    The company reported a slight increase in Average Revenue per User (ARPU) in Q2-2016 in terms of Indian rupees, but a flat ARPU in terms of the US dollar at $3.5, which means that ARPU in dollar terms declined due to the rise in the price of the dollar in Indian Rupees. ARPU in Q2-2016 increased to Rs 224 as compared to the Rs 220 in Q2-2015 and the Rs 222 in Q1-2016.

    Monthly Subscriber churn in Q2-2016 at 1.3 per cent was higher than the 1.10 per cent in the corresponding year ago quarter and the 0.80 per cent in the immediate trailing quarter.

    Airtel MD and CEO India & South Asia Gopal Vittal said, “Airtel’s revenue growth in India has accelerated to 13.3 per cent in Q2 on an underlying basis, the highest in the last 12 quarters. Our smaller businesses – home broadband, DTH and our business segment all continue to perform strongly.”

    Dish TV

    This is the third consecutive quarter that Dish TV has reported growth across important financial and operational parameters including operating revenues (Total Income from operations or TIO), PAT and subscription numbers. During the previous fiscal and its last quarter (year and quarter ended 31 March, 2015, Q4-2015), the Subhash Chandra led Essel group’s Dish TV Limited turned the corner with a consolidated PAT of Rs 3.14 crore and Rs 34.94 crore (margin 4.8 per cent) respectively. The company followed this up with even better numbers in the previous quarter (Q1-2015). Dish TV was probably the first among listed DTH companies in the country in FY-2015 and Q4-2015 to report a profit after tax as opposed to the operating profits reported by a segment of the other Goliaths for whom DTH services is just another small segment or group company.

    Please refer to Panel C in the graphs above. For the current quarter ended 30 September, 2015 (Q2-2015), Dish TV has reported Operating revenue of Rs 752.42 crore, hence registering a 15.77 per cent YoY growth as compared to Q2-2015’s number of Rs 649.90 crore and a 2.14 per cent QoQ growth as compared to Rs 736.68 crore.

    The company reported PAT of Rs 86.96 crore (11.56 per cent margin) for the current quarter as compared to a loss of Rs 14.2 crore in the corresponding year ago quarter and a whopping 60.41 per cent growth in profit as compared to the Rs 54.21 crore (7.36 per cent margin) in the previous quarter.

    EBITDA in the current quarter increased 57.50 per cent YoY to Rs 255 crore (33.89 per cent margin) as compared to Rs 161.9 crore (24.91 per cent margin) and increased 7.69 per cent QoQ as compared to Rs 236.8 crore (32.14 per cent margin).

    The company’s subscriber numbers in Q2-2016 increased by 3.38 lakh to touch a subscriber base of 137 lakh as compared to the 133 lakh subscribers reported at the end of the previous quarter (Q1-2016). Monthly Subscriber Churn increased to 0.8 per cent after remaining flat for the previous five consecutive quarters at 0.7 per cent.

    Dish TV reported a YoY growth in Average Revenue per User to Rs 171 as compared to the Rs 166, but a QoQ decline from Rs 173 in the previous quarter.

    Dish TV chairman Subhash Chandra said, “Dish TV further reinforced its leadership position during the quarter. The company, while being at the forefront of the DTH industry in India, reached out to television viewers with innovative products that promise to enhance their television viewing experience. Dish TV’s improving financial strength coupled with its passion to be ahead of the curve, should be an advantage to further enhance its presence in the vast and still untapped analogue and free-to-air television markets in the country.”

    Videocon d2h

    Videocon d2h reported sales growth in both subscription revenue and revenue from operations for the current quarter. Subscription revenue increased 24.63 per cent YoY to Rs 629 crore as compared to Rs 504.7 crore, and increased 4.67 per cent QoQ as compared to Rs 599.61 crore.

    Please refer to Panel D in the graph above. Total revenue increased 20.35 per cent YoY to Rs 690.1 crore as compared to Rs 573.40 crore and increased 4.12 per cent QoQ as compared to Rs 662.83 crore.

    The company reported lower loss in Q2-2016 at Rs 24.6 crore as compared to a loss of Rs 61.4 crore in Q2-2015, but was slightly higher than the loss of Rs 24.4 crore in the immediate trailing quarter.

    Adjusted EBIDTA in the current quarter increased 31.72 per cent YoY to Rs 191 crore (27.68 per cent margin) as compared to Rs 145 crore (25.29 per cent margin) and was almost flat (increased 0.53 per cent) as compared to Rs 190 crore (28.67 per cent margin).

    The company notched up higher net subscribers at 108.4 lakh in Q2-2016 as compared to 94.6 lakh in Q2-2015 and 106.4 lakh in the immediate trailing quarter. Monthly Subscriber Churn in the current quarter at 1.19 per cent was higher than 0.85 per cent in Q2-2015 and 0.46 per cent in the immediate trailing quarter.

    The company reported higher ARPU at Rs 205 in Q2-2016 as compared to Rs 190 in Q2-2015 but was flat when compared to Rs 205 in the immediate trailing quarter.

    Videocon d2h executive chairman Saurabh Dhoot said, “I am happy to share that we have achieved EBITDA growth of 30.3 per cent in the first half of the current fiscal as against our guidance of 25 to 30 per cent growth. We are on track to deliver even stronger growth in the second half of this year, in line with the guidance shared earlier. During the quarter, we focused on enhancing our channel offering and added 14 Standard Definition and four High Definition channels. We have recently launched two proprietary services, namely d2h Hollywood HD and Darshan. With more than 500 lakh eye balls we also continue to gain traction on advertising revenue with marque advertisers coming on our platform.”

    Speaking on the near term subscriber growth outlook, Videocon d2h CEO Anil Khera said, “We estimate around 500 lakh television homes come under Phase III digitization, of which 240 to 250 lakh television homes are already on the digital platform. Thus, the target market under Phase III digitization is the remaining 250 to 260 lakh television homes that are currently on analog cable.”

    End Points

    Implementation of Phases III and IV of DAS presented a potential of about 700 to 750 lakh existing television households plus another 200 to 250 lakh new television households for the carriage industry as per industry estimates. How well each of the players in the ecosystem takes advantage of this  potential remains to be seen. The DTH players in the country are adding to their net subscription numbers, going by the combined 7.64 lakh net subscriber additions that the three players in this paper have reported for Q2-2016 as compared to the immediate trailing quarter. Reported capex investments to the extent of Rs 250 crore in the current quarter and Rs 211 crore in the previous quarter by Airtel DTH and Rs 246 crore in Q2-2016 and Rs 153 crore in Q1-2016 by Videocon d2h indicate that the DTH players are intent on gaining a large portion of this opportunity.

    An Icra Research Services paper of September 2015 on TV Distribution says that DTH players remain well positioned for tapping growth opportunities in Phase III and Phase IV markets due to inherent technology advantage and easier access to cable dark areas. Moreover, incremental investments towards the establishment of infrastructure in the rural markets and relatively high operating costs render it commercially unviable for national MSOs to enter such markets.

    The rural markets continue to remain cost sensitive; hence, MSOs and DTH players are also looking at introducing plain vanilla set top boxes (STBs) specifically for these markets to encourage subscribers to migrate. In this direction, Dish TV launched a lower priced STB under the brand name of Zing, the base pack of which is typically 20 per cent lower than a regular Dish TV STB. Amongst other measures, distributors are also evaluating channel packages with focus on regional content. The media consumption in Phase III and Phase IV markets are driven by regional content and hence such packages are expected to help distributors further expand their subscriber universe in these markets says the Icra report.

    HD channels is another opportunity that DTH players have sensed. Sensing a strong business opportunity Videocon d2h has started augmenting a new strategy early this year. With the number of HD channels set to increase in the coming years, Videocon d2h, which also manufactures STBs, will be phasing out its Standard Definition (SD) STBs over the next year or so. Videocon d2h is looking at 50 to 60 per cent acquisitions in the HD STB space.

    In early May 2015, while speaking at the Asia Pacific Video Operators Summit (APOS) held in Bali, Videocon d2h’s Khera had said, “The cost of difference between SD and HD set top boxes for us is only one and half dollar. In terms of gross adds, the market has been consistently growing and we have seen a growth of eighty to ninety lakh new additions in a year. Net additions has been a challenge, and the industry has been able to get net addition of fifty to sixty lakh. As far as the rotation churn is concerned how one retains customers and provides additional services, is a big challenge.”

    This brings forth another challenge-bandwidth allocation with a limited satellite bandwidth available. Projecting that there would be at least a hundred HD channels over the next one and a half year, Khera had then said, “All the Hindi and English general entertainment channels and movie channels will have a HD and SD feed.” That was six months ago.

    The cut-off date for DAS Phase III – 31 December, 2015 is less than a month away and for DAS IV – 31 December, 2016 just a little more than a year away. Initially the next 13 months followed by a year or two is the period required by the industry to gain some sort of maturity and have a semblance of stability. The next two to four years are going to be real chaotic and exciting times for the carriage industry. For now, the existing analogue consumers and the new television households, are the real low hanging fruits that can be plucked with relative ease. Post digitisation the game will be different, probably with a different set of unwritten rules (and most probably written rules on the path to market maturity).

  • TOPSGRUP recognized as India’s Most Trusted Brand for 2015 in the Security Category

    TOPSGRUP recognized as India’s Most Trusted Brand for 2015 in the Security Category

    Mumbai – November 30, 2015: TOPSGRUP, India’s largest security group, received the unique recognition of being recognized as INDIA’S MOST TRUSTED BRAND for 2015 in the Security Category. The brand was selected amongst more than 2,000 short listed brands related to various categories based on a consumer survey conducted in India by Media Research Group (MRG), a company with close to 15 years’ experience in conducting exhaustive research of this nature.

     

    Being the 3rd such award for the company this year, the global security service provider has been recognized as INDIA’S NO. 1 BRAND IN THE SECURITY CATEGORY by the Indian Brand Leadership Awards in association with IBC Infomedia (International Brands Consultants). Furthermore, according to the BRAND TRUST REPORT INDIA, TOPSGRUP has significantly risen to 171th position from 800th position in 2014 across all segments and brands in India.

     

    Ramesh Iyer, Vice Chairman & CEO – India, TOPSGRUP said, “INDIA’S MOST TRUSTED BRAND Award is a true recognition of excellence and appreciation of our brand. As trust is the very basis of security solutions, all the three awards are a source of great pride to our firm. They reassure and show our dedication towards creating the most secure environment for our clients.”

     

    At the awards ceremony, organized by IBC Infomedia Corp, USA, TOPSGRUP proudly finds itself in the company of other leading and established brands like as Airtel, Samsung, Dabur, Air Asia, Asian Paints, HDFC Bank, Croma, Lodha and Aquaguard among others.

     

    The grand awards ceremony which felicitated and honoured more than 50 successful brands saw more than 200 delegates including CEOs, Managing Directors, Vice Presidents and Directors in attendance.