ITV

Tag: Direct to Home

  • DD Freedish to acquire ByDesign’s CAS technology for MPEG4 expansion

    DD Freedish to acquire ByDesign’s CAS technology for MPEG4 expansion

    NEW DELHI: Doordarshan’s free-to-air (FTA) direct to home (DTH) service Freedish is planning to acquire Bangalore based ByDesign India’s conditional access system (CAS) so as to increase its channel offerings to 112 from the current 64 by the end of March 2016.

     

    In conversation with Indiantelevision.com, DD Director General C Lalrosanga said that the DTH player will switch over to MPEG 4 from the current MPEG 2 in two phases. “The first phase may begin by early next month,” he informed.

     

    Late last year, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) approved a proposal by ByDesign India to develop an Indian conditional access system. ByDesign was to receive a support amount of Rs 19.79 crore from DeitY to develop the new system in association with Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC).

     

    The ByDesign model is totally indigenous and built for DVB-C setup. This CAS solution will enable broadcasters to control access to their services by viewers, and thereby enabling them to extend their business models to subscription based schemes.

     

    This will mean that the Freedish will become encrypted but will remain FTA. In addition to helping increase the number of channels on the platform, this will enable Freedish to gauge the exact number of households relying on Freedish as encrypted set top boxes (STBs) will only be available with authorised dealers.

     

    Lalrosanga said that collection of rural data by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India had shown that the claims made by Doordarshan about its reach were not erroneous. He said the BARC ratings had shown that both DD and Freedish had a tremendous reach in semi-urban and rural areas all over the country.

     

    Lalrosanga went on to add that many homes were gradually switching over to Freedish as they could then get their entire entertainment for a one-time fee of purchasing a dish, which cost as low as Rs 700 to Rs 1200.

     

    Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar had said earlier this year that Freedish’s aim was to reach 112 channels within a year or so.

     

    At present, there is no vacant slot on Freedish since all channels that were on the platform and whose licences had expired have come back through the 24 e-auctions conducted over the past year.

     

    Interestingly, the two new entrants on the platform – Aaj Tak and Big Magic – are pay channels, which are being run as FTA on Freedish. DD sources said that the reference interconnect agreement signed by these two channels no longer carries any non-discriminatory clause as it refers to Freedish.

     

    Lalrosanga also added that DD was working towards bringing regional language films to the prime time slots over the weekend. Additionally, the pubcaster was actively thinking on the lines of a dedicated channel for children and young people. 

  • HomeShop18 hops on to DD FreeDish DTH platform

    HomeShop18 hops on to DD FreeDish DTH platform

    MUMBAI: HomeShop18 has hopped on to Prasar Bharati’s direct to home (DTH) platform DD FreeDish.

     

    With this new e-auction win, the channel will reach out to an additional 18 million subscribers of the Indian free-to-air (FTA) DTH broadcasting platform.

     

    The channel has been made available on DD FreeDish from 1 November, 2015.

     

    HomeShop18 CEO Sanjeev Agrawal said, “As the exposure and aspirations of customers in tier II and III geographies evolve, so does their demand for high-quality products. However, due to the limited internet penetration and lack of presence of modern trade there is a gap in latent demand and supply. We have the advantage to cover this gap and reach out to customers across the country through television shopping and our wide range of products. Our association with DD FreeDish is a step towards our commitment to match the HomeShop18 signals to the country’s television penetration and our strong physical reach.”

     

    The channel has shows like 18 Shringaar, Today’s Special Offer amongst others that will provide shoppers with deals, expert advice, a complete new look to women and an assortment of products.

  • Tata Sky selects IBM hybrid storage to mitigate data loss risk & swift data access

    Tata Sky selects IBM hybrid storage to mitigate data loss risk & swift data access

    MUMBAI: Direct to home (DTH) operator Tata Sky has selected a new IBM hybrid storage system to help it better serve its 30 million customers.

     

    Additionally, IBM has also opened its first public cloud data centre in India, which is located in Chennai. Part of IBM’s $1.2 billion investment to expand its global cloud footprint into every major financial market, the Chennai data center underscores IBM’s commitment to India, a key growth market for the company.

     

    Tata Sky’s transition to IBM Cloud infrastructure has helped its business become more agile and reduce latency seen in day-to-day processes.

     

    “As the fastest growing, direct-to-home, digital television satellite service provider in India, Tata Sky simply cannot operate without mission-critical storage that provides the utmost business continuity and operational efficiency in both our primary and disaster recovery sites,” said Tata Sky CIO N. Ravishanker.

     

    The technology deployed at Tata Sky relies on mitigating risk of data loss and at the same time, accessing data swiftly. “With IBM DS8000 hybrid flash storage, our response time has significantly improved and queries now return in less than one second, bringing higher efficiencies,” he added.

     

    The company is using IBM DS8000 systems as its primary storage for all critical workloads, including CRM, billing and disaster recovery.

     

    Constant uptime and the risk of data loss is always at the forefront of data-driven enterprises, like Tata Sky, as well as banking, financial and healthcare operations. By 2020, 15 per cent of digital businesses will fail due to inadequate protection against downtime.

     

    Security is also essential for both customer trust and business operations. The cost of a single data breach can spiral to $3.8 million, up 23 per cent since 2013. The DS8000 family meets these challenges by significantly improving the management of growing storage demands required by the realities of today’s digital businesses.

     

    To accelerate business critical computing, IBM announced a new IBM DS8880 family of enterprise hybrid storage, a powerful, next generation system designed with real-time data insights for clients requiring increased performance, data protection and uncompromised, nonstop availability. 

     

    With the DS8880 mission-critical applications are accelerated — up to two times faster than previous generations, making it an ideal storage option for banking and financial industries, for use with electronic medical records, as well as for ERP, CRM and retail systems that need reliable, agile and constant access to data. 

     

    The latest architecture also mitigates risk since all components are redundant and can be upgraded online. This minimizes downtime to approximately 30 seconds per year — even less if a multi-site disaster recovery solution is also installed.

     

    With a large-scale disaster, business continuance is just as important as data protection and the DS8880 allows remote mirroring that can be integrated with a high availability server capability to provide the highest levels of availability.

     

    For those customers like Tata Sky that are looking for integration with cloud-based and mission critical environments, the DS8880 family offers powerful integration with IBM z Systems and other IBM compute platforms to improve business processes and services by enabling systems for the dynamic demands of analytics, big data and cloud environments. It maximises utilisation of resources, including staff productivity, space and cost with streamlined management and operations and 30 percent reduction in footprint5 on a new 19-inch rack.

     

    “In today’s fast, analytics data-driven, cloud-based world, our clients need storage options that they can rely on and that directly impact their ability to deliver high quality service to their customers and outperform competitors. As part of IBM’s bold commitment to storage, today’s launch of the DS8880 family offers an ideal solution for clients like Tata Sky that require high performing, mission critical acceleration to manage the changing conditions in the modern enterprise,” said IBM Storage general manager Jamie Thomas.

     

    The new DS8880 family of storage incorporates a high performance flash enclosure module providing optimised performance for mission critical applications. Additionally, the system can scale three petabytes, offering advanced features for compliance and security. The DS8880 graphical user interface (GUI) also includes intuitive navigation and streamlined configuration processes, providing customizable views, interactive menus and a configuration wizard to help administrators configure an entire solution in less than 30 minutes.

     

    The new family of storage is available worldwide beginning 14 October, 2015 with a starting price of $50,000 and with new licensing packages for simplified ordering and installation.

  • MIB cancels tripartite agreements in DTH sector for loan assistance

    MIB cancels tripartite agreements in DTH sector for loan assistance

    NEW DELHI: The Government today cancelled the provision for tripartite agreements to provide loans to Indian direct-to-home (DTH) operators.

     

    According to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), the provision had been made for financial loan and assistance in the DTH sector by assigning licence agreement as security to banks as well as financial institutions.

     

    This was to be done in the form of a tripartite agreement with the bank or financial institution, the operator and the government.

     

    An order to this effect had been issued by the Ministry on 3 December, 2009.

     

    The order has now come into immediate effect. 

  • FY-2105: Dish TV in black; adds 1.5 million subscribers

    FY-2105: Dish TV in black; adds 1.5 million subscribers

    BENGALURU: Last quarter (Q3-2015, quarter ended 31 December, 2015), India’s largest DTH operator, Dish TV Limited had reported a lower loss at just Rs 2.87 crore as compared to double-digit crore loss numbers in the previous or like-to-like quarters.

     

    However that is now a thing of the past as the company has reported a standalone net profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 35.01 crore in Q4-2015 and a standalone PAT of Rs 1.01 crore in FY-2015 as compared to a standalone loss of Rs 154.21 crore in FY-2014.

     

    This probably makes Dish TV the first among listed DTH companies in the country 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. Dish TV’s consolidated PAT for FY-2015 was Rs 3.14 crore as against a consolidated loss of Rs 157.61 crore in FY-2104.

     

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

     

    The company also added 1.5 million net subscribers in FY-2015 and closed the year with a subscriber base of 12.9 million. With the addition of 4.04 lakh subscribers in Q4-2015, Dish TV maintained the tempo it had set in the previous quarter (Q3-2105) by adding a slightly higher number of subscribers at 4.16 lakhs.

     

    Dish TV also reported higher average revenue per user (ARPU) of Rs 179 in Q4-2014 as against Rs 177 in Q3-2015 (1.13 per cent increase in ARPU). In Q4-2014, the company had added 2.26 lakh net subscribers and its annual ARPU was Rs 170 (Q4-2105 ARPU increased 5.3 per cent as compared to Q4-2014).

     

    Dish TV chairman Subhash Chandra said, “The DTH sector is a direct beneficiary of a positive consumer sentiment. Dish TV achieved a strong, sector leading, subscriber growth of 1.5 million net subscribers during the year. Fiscal 2015 also saw Dish TV swing to net profit, a first for any DTH company in India. Through this milestone to the next and thereafter, Dish TV remains committed to outperform the industry growth rate and create shareholder value while continuing to entertain its subscribers with rich content and compelling value added services using updated modes of delivery.”

     

    Dish TV managing director Jawahar Goel added, “During the quarter, we garnered net subscribers that were almost equal to the numbers during the festival quarter of October – December 2014. While Zing gained ground in Phase 3 and 4 markets, high definition (HD) driven sports offerings were the mainstay, in Rest of India, during the Cricket World Cup 2015.”

     

    Let us look at the other numbers reported by Dish TV:

     

    Dish TV’s standalone and consolidated net Total Income from Operations (TIO) in FY-2016 at Rs 2781.64 crore was 10.9 per cent more than the Rs 2508.97 crore in FY-2014. Standalone TIO in Q4-

     

    2015 at Rs 754.72 crore grew 18.5 per cent as compared to the Rs 636.91 crore in the corresponding year ago quarter and was 10.3 per cent more than the Rs 684.26 crore in Q3-2015.

     

    As mentioned above, net profit for Q4-2015 was Rs 35.01 crore as against a loss of Rs 149.05 crore in Q4-2014 and a loss of Rs 2.87 crore in the immediate trailing quarter.

     

    The company’s EBIDTA in FY-2015 increased 17.5 per cent to Rs 733.1 crore as compared to the Rs 624 crore in FY-2014. EBIDTA in Q4-2015 at Rs 221.9 crore was a whopping 72.1 per cent more than the Rs 128.9 crore in Q4-2014 and 16.1 per cent more than the Rs 191.2 crore in the preceding quarter.

     

    The company’s total expenditure (TE) in FY-2015 increased 8.7 per cent to Rs 2048.5 crore as compared to the Rs 1884.9 crore in the previous year. TE in the current quarter increased 4.9 per cent to Rs 532.8 crore as compared to the Rs 508 crore in the corresponding year ago quarter and was 1.9 per cent more than the Rs 522.7 crore in Q3-2015.

     

    Programming, content/other costs (programming) in FY-2015 increased 2.9 per cent to Rs 800.75 crore from Rs 778.44 crore in FY-2014. Programming cost in Q4-2015 at Rs 207.63 crore was three per cent more than the Rs 201.57 crore in Q4-2014 and 4.4 per cent more than the Rs 1988.86 crore in Q3-2015.

     

    License Fees in FY-2015 increased 10.5 per cent to Rs 288.83 crore from Rs 261.38 crore in the previous year. Dish TV paid 16.7 per cent higher license fees in Q4-2015 at Rs 78.17 crore as compared to the Rs 66.98 crore in Q4-2014 and 5.1 per cent more than the Rs 74.35 crore in Q3-2015.

     

    Advertisement expense in Q4-2015 at Rs 11.5 crore was 10.6 per cent more than the Rs 10.4 crore in Q4-2014, but declined 7.3 per cent from Rs 12.4 crore in Q3-2015.

     

    Consolidated Employee Benefit Expense (EBE) in FY-2015 increased 14.1 per cent to Rs 101.75 crore as compared to Rs 89.16 crore in FY-2014. EBE in Q4-2015 at Rs 25.71 crore was 17.6 per cent more the Rs 21.02 crore in Q4-2014 and was 4.3 per cent lower than the Rs 25.83 crore in Q3-2015.

     

    Summing up Dish TV’s performance, Goel said, “Fiscal 2015 was a satisfying year. Our single-minded devotion to being the leader in the DTH industry along with uncompromised financial discipline enabled us to reach the net profitability milestone much ahead of our peers. With cost line items under control, the resultant EBITDA for the quarter increased by a strong 72.1 per cent y-o-y. EBITDA margin improved to 29.4 per cent. PAT of Rs 35.01 crore resulted in Free Cash Flow (FCF) of Rs 70.2 crore for the quarter. Churn for the quarter was maintained at 0.7 per cent per month.”

     

    Click here to read the financial statement  

  • Vserv to offer solutions to telcos & DTH operators

    Vserv to offer solutions to telcos & DTH operators

    MUMBAI: Smart data platform for mobile marketing in India and Southeast Asia – Vserv has forayed into the burgeoning commerce space.

     

    In an industry-first move, Vserv will now provide an end-to-end solution for telcos and DTH operators, right from the discovery of customers to the transaction of services. This step will empower consumer-facing companies to utilize the combined power of Vserv Smart Data platform and commerce solution.

     

    With this added capability, Vserv will enable telcos to promote segmented offers across data and voice. By driving these transactions, Vserv enhances average revenue per user (ARPU) for telcos. For DTH operators, this translates into selling segmented channel packs leading to a major jump in subscriptions and higher revenue.

     

    Vserv co-founder and CEO Dippak Khurana said, “We saw the opportunity to redefine the relevance, simplicity and convenience of these services for the customer. Vserv’s massive reach of 120 million unique users in India combined with this commerce solution creates a disruptive development in the mobile Internet ecosystem. While our Smart Data platform is a revolutionary offering for mobile marketing, with our commerce solution, we now complete a user’s journey from intent to purchase. This unique proposition provides a powerful opportunity for consumer-facing companies, which are seeking to tap into the growing mobile Internet user base. We have always challenged the status quo and this offering is a gigantic leap towards bringing about a radical shift in the ecosystem.”

     

    The Vserv commerce solution delivering relevance, simplicity and convenience works on a four- pronged approach of: discovery (identifying the right user with Vserv Smart Data), promotion (engaging the user with segmented offers), payment (enabling seamless transaction for the user) and activation (quick and easy activation of the service).

     

    The total revenue of telco and DTH services in India stood at around $31 billion in 2014, and is currently growing at a rate of 10 per cent per annum. Within this, the share of digital commerce is close to 10 per cent and is expected to grow by 300 per cent in the next four years. This growth will be fuelled by the rapidly expanding Internet user base, which is expected to reach 500 million users by 2018, 80 per cent of which will be contributed by mobile users. With the largest mobile Internet user base in India and its unique proposition of enabling commerce for consumer-facing companies, Vserv is strategically positioned to capture a sizeable market share.

  • Airtel Digital TV unveils three-pronged strategy for growth

    Airtel Digital TV unveils three-pronged strategy for growth

    MUMBAI: The Direct To Home (DTH) arm of Bharti Airtel – Airtel Digital TV has reached the 10 million customer mark. The company has achieved the feat within a period of six years. As part of its growth plans ahead, the operator has decided to chalk out three key strategies.

     

    Firstly, the company is all set to add 12 new channels to its bouquet taking its portfolio up to 500 channels and services. In addition, it will also expand the High Definition (HD) portfolio to over 50 HD channels making it one of the largest HD bouquets in the industry. Last but not the least, the operator has also decided to expand the regional portfolio soon to offer the highest number of channels in Assamese, Gujarati, Kannada and Tamil languages.

     

    Airtel Digital TV CEO Shashi Arora said, “Innovation and customer satisfaction is the core of our DNA. As we look back, we take pride in the product and service innovations that we have brought to the industry. These offerings have not only helped increase customer stickiness but have also made us one of the fastest growing DTH companies today. We will continue to go this path and offer customers world class content and television viewing.”

     

     

    The operator also claims that it was the first to introduce the Universal Remote to the market along with value added services like Multi-lingual EPG, World’s first USSD-based self-care facility on mobile among others. The recently launched Integrated Digital TV (iDTV) was pioneered in partnership with TV manufacturer, the iDTV technology miniaturized set-top-box into a small yet efficient smart card that fit directly at the back panel of television sets with minimal wiring and a single remote thereby offering customers a superior and world class experience adds the operator.

  • Tata Sky selects Genesys to revolutionise home entertainment

    Tata Sky selects Genesys to revolutionise home entertainment

    MUMBAI:  Direct-to-Home (DTH) provider Tata Sky, has associated with Genesys, to deploy customer experience platform to enhance service delivery to its subscribers.

     

    The association is an endeavour to empower Tata Sky’s workforce to service customers seamlessly across multiple touch points. The platform provides greater efficiencies in the company’s contact center operations and also provides subscribers with new, personalised self-service applications to provide customers with a complete user friendly experience, said the press release.

     

    Excited with the collaboration, Tata Sky CEO Harit Nagpal said, “Tata Sky is pleased to partner with Genesys in our quest to bring superior quality television entertainment to its viewers. The system is clearly the best in class and offers cost savings, operational efficiencies and visibility into contact center operations.”

     

    “Tata Sky strives to bring not only superior quality television entertainment to its viewers, but also to offer the best customer service possible. We have built an extensive customer service network across the country with 24-hour call centers manned by multi-lingual highly competent customer service associates,” he added.

     

    The multi-channel capabilities of the Genesys solution integrates with Siebel, and provides Tata Sky customer service agents with a more productive and efficient work environment that takes advantage of ‘customer-priority’ based agent routing technology.

     

    “We are pleased that Tata Sky has implemented Genesys to enhance the subscriber experience,” said Genesys APAC managing director Bruce Eidsvik. “Our best in class, multi-channel software is an ideal complement to Tata Sky’s vision of revolutionizing home entertainment in India and empowering every television viewer,” he added.

     

    Additionally, the company also provides a personalised, voice self-service application that reduces the time that customers spend on unwanted menu options and helps transform the overall customer experience.

  • Govt says TV industry to be Rs 50,140 crore in 2014

    Govt says TV industry to be Rs 50,140 crore in 2014

    NEW DELHI: With the general elections coming closer, the government is ensuring that the public becomes aware of the good work it has done in the 10 years of its regime. One of the departments flaunting its feat is the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) that issued a statement today which claimed a paradigm shift in information dissemination and policy measures which has led to a vibrant information order in the last ten years.

     

    The Ministry says that with the growth of television channels from 130 in 2004 to 788 in 2014, India has become the third largest TV market with close to 154 million TV households, next to China and the United States. At the same time, the size of the TV industry has witnessed an exponential growth as well. The value of the TV industry is valued at Rs 50,140 crore in 2014 from Rs 18,300 crore in 2006.

     

    MIB says that the initiatives undertaken by it enabled the discourse of ‘India Story’ to be disseminated across different platforms. It also aimed at providing quality information to the masses, thereby ensuring that the inclusive growth perspective is spread. 

     

    The Ministry also claims to have pursued policies in order to utilise the benefits of technology and ensure that a framework is built enabling growth and change for the broadcasting landscape in the country. It says that the digitisation process has brought transparency in the system with 30 million STBs being installed in the first two phases.

     

    Some of the highlights of the decade have been the implementation of various guidelines including policy guidelines for uplinking and downlinking of TV channels (amended in 2011), policy guidelines for HITS broadcasting services (2009), policy guidelines for IPTV (2008), Revision of FDI Policy in five segments of broadcasting sector (2012), policy guidelines for TV rating agencies in India (2014) and policy guidelines on direct to home services (2001).

    In the film sector, the panel under the Chairmanship of Punjab and Haryana High Court retired Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal examined issues of certification under the Cinematograph Act 1952. The Committee reviewed major areas of concern pertaining to Advisory Panels; Guidelines for certification and issues such as portrayal of women, obscenity and communal disharmony; Classification of Films; Treatment of Piracy; Jurisdiction of the Appellate Tribunal; Review of the provisions of the Cinematograph Act, 1952.The committee has recently submitted its report which is being reviewed by the Ministry. 

    One of the key highlights of the film sector has been the National Museum of Indian Cinema (NMIC) showcasing India’s rich film heritage over the past 100 years. The Museum is situated in the 6,000 square-foot Gulshan Mahal – a heritage building. The museum is a ready-reckoner of the history of Indian cinema showcasing technological aspects of production and screening of films, as well as its social aspects during the past 100 years. Through its interactive galleries, it traces the evolution of celluloid from the Lumiere Brothers, Raja Harishchandra onwards, and showcases Indian cinema in three stages – silent era, golden era and the modern era.

  • Videocon d2h launches Sun HD channels

    Videocon d2h launches Sun HD channels

    MUMBAI: Videocon d2h is growing leaps and bounds in strengthening its position in the High Definition (HD) space. The direct to home (DTH) operator has added four Sun HD channels on its platform, thus taking the total number of HD channels and services to 27. These channels are: Sun TV HD, KTV HD, Sun Music HD and Gemini HD.

     

    The addition, according to the DTH player, is an extension of its mantra ‘Delighting the Customer Always.’ The four HD channels will be available in the South Platinum HD pack at Rs 540.45. The DTH player through a release, informed that the Sun TV HD will be available on channel no 802, KTV HD on channel no 797, Sun Music HD on channel no 798 and Gemini TV HD on channel no 872.

     

    “The presence of the four new south HD channels on our platform will definitely give us an edge over other DTH players in the highly competitive south market. Viewing preferences are very important for us and we ensure every effort to provide more content for customers suiting their needs. We look forward to consolidating our leadership position in high definition category and delighting consumers,” said Videocon d2h CEO Anil Khera.

     

    The announcement of the four new HD channels has come after the DTH player had recently announced the addition of another 20 channels on its platform in the past 2-3 weeks. These channels include GSTV, India News, News X, Oscar Movies, Reporter TV, Zee Anmol, Big RTL Thrill, Gemini Life, Sun Life, Surya Music, T News, Chintu TV, Kushi TV, etc.

     

    “Our aim of continuously raising the bar in the High Definition category has got a further boost. We always strive to provide the best to our consumers and in this endeavor we have been continuously adding new channels and services. With growing demand for the high definition channels from subscribers and especially addition of Tamil and Telugu HD channels, we are definitely on the right track,” informed Videocon group director Saurabh Dhoot.

     

    “The ‘South base pack’ and the ‘South Silver pack’ has been made extremely strong by adding 55 channels which includes almost all south language channels. The operator with this has 290 channels and services at Rs 175.28 per month,” the release said.