ITV

Tag: Dish TV

  • Dish TV announces rewarding partnership with JetPrivilege

    Dish TV announces rewarding partnership with JetPrivilege

    MUMBAI: Direct to home (DTH) operator Dish TV has signed up strategic alliance agreement with Jet Privilege Private Limited (JPPL) as a “Lifestyle Partner” for the JetPrivilege loyalty and rewards programme.

    Under this alliance any JPPL member can get rewarded with JPMiles in case he buys a new connection or recharge. All JetPrivilege members will get rewarded with JPMiles whenever they subscribe to a new Dish TV connection. With every recharge, a JetPrivilege member would get rewarded with 300/750 JPMiles for every high definition acquisition and 200 JPMiles for every standard definition. Additionally, the members would earn an extra 2 per cent JPMIles if they recharge their account with a minimum of Rs 500.

    Dish TV COO Salil Kapoor said, “As leaders in this category, it has been our constant endeavour to delight and reward our subscribers. We are pleased to join hands with Jet Privilege Private Limited. This is another positive step in building customer loyalty. With significant increase in TV viewership over the last couple of years, we are consistent in our efforts to make TV viewing a delightful experience for our customers.”                            

    JetPrivilege managing director Manish Dureja added, “Staying true to our promise of creating unique and enriching experiences for our JetPrivilege members, we are pleased to welcome Asia’s largest DTH operator, Dish TV as our new Lifestyle Partner. With Indian consumers getting accustomed to the exceptional TV viewing experience on DTH, the partnership with Dish TV is a logical extension of the JetPrivilege programme. By subscribing for a DISH TV connection, JetPrivilege members will now have the added advantage of accessing premium quality digital entertainment as well as getting rewarded with JPMiles.”

     

  • Dish TV’s Sri Lanka arm gets licence approval

    Dish TV’s Sri Lanka arm gets licence approval

    MUMBAI: Dish TV has finally received the nod from the government of Sri Lanka to commence operations for its Sri Lanka unit.

    The DTH operator in a statement to the BSE has said ‘Dish TV India Ltd has informed BSE that Dish TV Lanka (Private) Limited, the Company’s Subsidiary Company in Sri Lanka, has been granted the ‘Satellite Television Broadcasting License’ (DTH License) by the Government of Sri Lanka to establish, operate and maintain Satellite Television Network for the purpose of Digital Television Satellite Broadcasting.’

    Speaking to indiantelevision.com, Dish TV COO Salil Kapoor says, “We are pleased that we have been issued the DTH license by government of Sri Lanka to operate DTH services in the country, which we are working on for last couple of months. Now the focus will be on building up the ground opportunities”.

    Dish TV has been awaiting the licence clearance for quite some time. The company has expressed its intent to invest close to Rs 100 crore in the JV with Satnet.
    It has also bought extra transponder space on SES 8 that was launched in December last year.

     

  • Dish TV appoints new independent directors

    Dish TV appoints new independent directors

    MUMBAI: Dish TV, in the recently held 26th Annual General Meeting (AGM) announced the appointment of four new independent directors in the company.

     

    Lakshmi Chand, Bhagwan Dass Narang, Arun Duggal and Eric Louis Zinterhofer have been appointed as independent directors of the company to hold office for a term of three years.

     

    According to the statement issued by the company, all the four independent directors were appointed as “Director whose office was liable to retire by rotation, be and is hereby appointed as independent director of the company, whose office is not subject to retirement by rotation, to hold office for a term of three consecutive years.”

     

    Lakshmi Chand was an independent non-executive additional director on the board of the company. He is a post graduate in MA (Eco) from Punjab University and is a Law graduate from Delhi University.

     

    101 equity shareholders representing 78,27,27,656 equity shares comprising 99.999 per cent of  total  votes casted, voted in favor of the resolution of appointing Chand as an independent director and seven equity shareholders representing  10,170 equity shares comprising 0.001 per cent of total votes casted, voted against the resolution.

     

    Narang was an independent non-executive member of the board and is a post graduate in agricultural economics and brings with him 32 years of banking experience.

     

    68 equity shareholders representing 75,02,72,688 equity shares comprising 95.852 per cent of total  votes casted, voted in favor of the resolution of appointing Narang as an independent director and 40 equity shareholders representing  3,24,65,138 equity shares comprising  4.148 per cent of total votes casted, voted against.

     

    Arun Duggal was an independent non-executive member of the board. Duggal is a Mechanical Engineer from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

     

    97 equity shareholders representing 76,72,71,725 equity shares comprising 98.024 per cent of total  votes casted, voted in favor of the resolution of appointing Duggal and 11 equity shareholders representing  1,54,66,101 equity shares comprising 1.976 per cent of total votes casted, voted against.

     

    Eric Louis Zinterhofer was an independent non-executive member of the board. Prior to co-founding Searchlight Capital Partners in 2010, Zinterhofer was a senior partner at Apollo Managemen which he joined in 1998.

     

    61 equity shareholders representing 74,52,43,442 equity shares comprising 95.210 per cent of total  votes casted, voted in favor of the resolution of appointing Zinterhofer and 47 equity shareholders representing  3,74,94,384 equity shares comprising  4.790 per cent of total votes casted, voted against.

     

    In the AGM, the re-appointment of Mintoo Bhandari as the non­executive nominee director was also announced.

     

    64 equity shareholders representing  74,87,25,208 equity shares comprising  95.655 per cent of total  votes casted, voted in favor of the resolution and 44 equity shareholders representing  3,40,12,618 equity shares comprising  4.345 per cent of total votes casted, voted against.

     

    The company recently announced its financial results for the current quarter and reported a decline in loss for the current quarter at Rs 15.1 crore as compared to the Rs 16.05 crore in the trailing quarter. The company also reported an addition of 332,000 subscribers in the quarter.

  • Dish TV exploring possibility of setting up domestic STB manufacturing business

    Dish TV exploring possibility of setting up domestic STB manufacturing business

    MUMBAI: The positive thrust that the cable and DTH industry has been receiving from the current Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister Prakash Javadekar is getting encouraging response from the industry.

     

    While the government has classified set top boxes (STBs) as telecom equipment to encourage indigenous manufacturing of STBs, Dish TV has decided to tap into the emerging domestic market.

     

    Reporting improved results, Dish TV MD Jawahar Goel said that the company is ‘re-evaluating possibilities for domestic manufacturing of STBs’.

     

    Speaking to indiantelevision.com, Dish TV CEO RC Venkateish said, “We are exploring the idea of domestic STB manufacturing given the incentive and fillip that the government is keen to provide to domestic manufacturers.” He added that there seems to be an overall trust of the government which is the underlying assumption that indigenous manufacturing will save costs as compared to importing boxes.

     

    Venkateish said that the company is currently evaluating the cost structure for setting up an STB manufacturing unit that will not just provide boxes to Dish TV but to others in the industry as well. Though the company would have to invest in capex and opex for the manufacturing unit, whether this will help them save up the additional cost of custom duties that imported boxes incur, is still a question mark.

     

    Dish TV has reported an addition of 332,000 subscribers in Q2 2015 with lower losses at Rs 15 crore as compared to the previous quarter.

  • Dish TV reports improved results for Q2-2015

    Dish TV reports improved results for Q2-2015

    MUMBAI: Reporting earnings for the current quarter (Q2-2015), Dish TV India Limited (Dish TV) announced addition of 3,78,000 subscribers in the quarter taking net subscriber base to 1.21 crore at the end of the quarter. The company added 3,32,000 subscribers last quarter and 164,000 subscribers in the corresponding quarter last year.

     

    The subscription revenue for the quarter rose 12.2 per cent to Rs 616.8 crore y-o-y while the total operating income (Total Income from Operations – TIO) at Rs 672.3 crore was 11.9 per cent more than Rs 600.8 crore in Q2-2014 and 4.9 per cent more than Rs 640.6 crore in Q1-2015.

     

    Also reporting the half yearly result, the HY1-2015 TIO for the company at Rs 1290.8 crore was 7.2 per cent more than Rs 1203.9 crore in HY1-2014.

     

    The company announced a decline in loss for the current quarter at Rs 15.1 crore as compared to the Rs 16.05 crore in the trailing quarter but higher than the Rs 8.53 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

     

    The total expenditure of the company for the current quarter also rose to Rs 661.9 crore, 11.1 per cent up from Rs 595.5 crore in Q2-2014 and 5.2 per cent more than Rs 628.8 in the trailing quarter.

     

    The company reported the total expenditure for HY1-2015 at Rs 1290.8 crore which was 7.2 per cent more than Rs 1203.9 crore in HY1-2014.

     

    The increase in total expenditure can be attributed to rise in Employee benefit expense (EBE), advertising expense (AE) and selling and distribution expenses (S&DE).

     

    The EBE for Q2-2015 was reported at Rs 25.16 crore, up 12.6 per cent from Rs 22.34 crore in the corresponding quarter last year and 1.6 per cent lower than the trailing quarter.

     

    AE in Q2-2015 at Rs 17.7 crore, was 39.4 per cent more than Rs 12.7 crore in Q1-2015 while the selling and distribution expenditure rose 22.1 per cent Q-o-Q.

     

    The S&DE comprises of commission and other selling and distribution expenses.

     

    The commissions for the company in Q2-2015 was reported at Rs 60.74, 12.2 per cent more than Rs 54.12 crore announced in the immediate trailing quarter and  41.3 per cent more than Rs 42.96 crore in Q2-2014.

     

    While the other selling and distribution expenses at Rs 53.8 crore jumped 42.1 per cent from Rs 37.86 in Q1-2015 and 74.9 per cent from Rs 30.76 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

     

    ARPU for the second quarter increased to Rs 172 from Rs 170 in the previous quarter. Despite significantly higher activations, churn continued to be at a healthy 0.7 per cent per month. Festival driven, higher selling and distribution expenses resulted in the EBITDA margin being marginally lower at 24.1 per cent compared to 24.5 per cent in the previous quarter, said the press release.

     

    EBITDA for the quarter was Rs 162.3 crore, up 4.4 per cent as compared to Rs 155.4 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

    Talking about the overall industry growth, Dish TV chairman Subhash Chandra said, “The industry, led by Dish TV, recorded a healthy 38 per cent Y-o-Y growth in gross additions during the second quarter of fiscal 2015.”

     

    “Our performance during the second quarter is a reflection of our belief that a financially stable business is best placed to capitalize on any growth opportunity. While we have been growing in the right direction, growth without healthy returns to our shareholders falls below our aspirations. However, we are committed to generate them and by focusing on revenues, expenses and balance sheet quality we are building near term benefits for all our stakeholders,” he added commenting on the company’s earnings report.

     

    Adding to the same, Dish TV MD Jawahar Goel said, “Dish TV maintained its leadership position during the second quarter. Buoyed by a healthy growth in HD sales and good traction coming in from sale of the ‘Zing’ brand.”

     

    He further added, “In view of the Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ campaign Dish TV is re-evaluating possibilities for domestic manufacturing of set top boxes.” High Definition (HD) box sales gained Traction. It comprises of 15 per cent of the incremental additions.

     

    Despite the push back of digitization, ‘Zing’ helped propel the sales of the flagship ‘Dishtv’ brand through a wider reach and top of the mind recall. The newly introduced Sports driven packaging also found instant favor with subscribers, thus enabling Dish TV outgrow the industry growth rate, the press release added.

     

    Click here to read the unaudited financial result

     

    Click here to read the press release

  • Big Magic launches weekend property ‘Shahi Shanivaar’

    Big Magic launches weekend property ‘Shahi Shanivaar’

    MUMBAI: Big Magic, the flagship Hindi general entertainment channel from Reliance Broadcast Network brings another new offering in its bouquet of shows.

     

    Riding on the immense popularity of ‘Har Mushkil Ka Hal Akbar Birbal’, the channel is extending the show now on weekends with a one hour new episode every Saturday at 9 pm.

     

    Titled ‘Shahi Shanivaar’, the latest weekend property stands on the backdrop of magnificent look and historical stories and aims to retain its audience attention even on weekends.

     

    Commenting on announcement of Shahi Shanivaar, Reliance Broadcast Network COO Lavneesh Gupta said, “We are delighted to announce a weekend property called ‘Shahi Shanivaar’ on the popular show ‘Har Mushkil Ka Hal Akbar Birbal’ that keeps up the historical comedy quotient on Saturdays too.”

     

    “The one hour shows will have new and interesting plots backed by historical research on the backdrop of royal splendour and special appearances by celebrities. We have maintained the same timing of 9pm so that from Monday to Saturday our audience’s experience the show same time thus offering greater value and consistency for marketers,” he added.

     

    Beginning on 1 November 2014, popular artist and celebrity Chetan Hansraj will be a part of a major conspiracy plot in the show, which will be followed by an episode on ‘Vishkanya’ on 18 November and a ‘Maha-episode’ on 15 November. Each of these episodes will also be integrating local festivals of the Hindi heartland that characterises India and is backed by strong local research and insight.

  • Tariff orders in case of DTH operators set aside by TDSAT

    Tariff orders in case of DTH operators set aside by TDSAT

    NEW DELHI: The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has set aside the tariff orders drawn up by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in the case of direct-to-home operators.

     

    The judgment follows two separate petitions filed by Dish TV and Bharat Business Channel, in which TDSAT chairman Aftab Alam and member Kuldip Singh clarified that it will be open to TRAI to issue a fresh tariff order after taking into consideration the inputs provided by the appellants and addressing the issues raised by them.

     

    The Tariff Order had been issued by TRAI on 27 May 2013 under the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act 1997 read with notification of 9 January 2004.

     
    The petitioners have alleged that TRAI has no jurisdiction to fix the tariff for the supply of set top boxes (STBs) and there is basis for arriving at the price of STBs. Furthermore, it was alleged that even if TRAI had such powers to fix the tariff or rental for STBs, it has not been exercised lawfully, reasonably and in a non-arbitrary manner and after considering the relevant matters which are required to be considered in price fixation.

     
    Clause 4 of the impugned Tariff Order prescribes tariff for supply and installation of customer premises equipment.

     
    The stand of TRAI is that the operators are offering the services in a bundled form and can spread its costs on the bundled services which include the programming service. TRAI said ‘In view of this fact, the expenditure side of the hardware (CPE) cannot be seen in isolation of the pricing of the bundled service which includes programming service.”

     
    The Tribunal said there was an apparent contradiction in this stand and the main objective of the tariff order which is commercial interoperability. In other words, if a subscriber is not satisfied with the service of an operator or wants to change the operator due to any reason, it is not stuck with the cost of the CPE, it can return the CPE and get its security back at any time.

     
    “In our opinion, one way to address this issue can be to permit the DTH operators to supply recovered/refurbished CPE under the standard tariff order and the subscribers may not insist on new CPE if they want this tariff. However, we may clarify that this is just one example and the respondent is free to address the various issues as it may deem fit. Though all these issues have been raised by the appellants, in our view the same have not been satisfactorily addressed TRAI.”

     
    In view of the above, we find that some elements of cost have not been taken into account and issues raised by the appellants have not been fully addressed by TRAI.

  • Dish TV leverages sports channels to push HD packs

    Dish TV leverages sports channels to push HD packs

    MUMBAI: With festive fervor just around the corner, India’s oldest DTH operator Dish TV has decided to make the most of the season. New packs have been introduced for north India with special variants for south India.

     

    A recent study done by Dish TV showed that HD was a big necessity and an increasing number of people were keen to take sports channels. “Even if multi screen viewing is on the rise, HD is going to be big. So we tweaked and introduced flexible packs. Sports is picking not just due to cricket but also events such as Asian Games, Olympics, Kabaddi and Football,” says Dish TV COO Salil Kapoor speaking to indiantelevision.com. Consumers have the choice to opt for HD packs with channels that may not be in the base SD pack.

     

    The operator has laid stress on sports in every level for SD packs. It has a total of 36 HD channels with several additions coming in after it got its additional transponder space early this year. Dish TV claims that it provides more sports content at every price point. The HD boost is also being backed by the uptake of HD TV sets during Diwali. The new packs have been introduced a month ago and Kapoor says that the growth has been ‘multifold’.

     

    While regional channels that are available in HD will be on Dish TV, its second brand Zing does not have an HD side to it. Kapoor says it would like to keep its HD audience to stay with Dish TV. The HD focus will be primarily in the metros. However, a plus point is that it provides the feature of inbuilt recorder in every HD STB, without any additional cost.

     

    The packs available are:

     

    Game on HD at Rs 125 (sports and Hindi entertainment)

    Life on HD at Rs 175 (English entertainment with sports and Hindi entertainment)

    Full on HD at Rs 200 (entertainment)

    Sports packs include:

     

    Maxi pack at Rs 275 (six sports channels)

    All sports at Rs 320 (maximum 11 sports channels)

    Platinum Sports at Rs 440 (English, Hindi, Sports, Lifestyle and Infotainment

     

    The HD channels include Ten HD, Six HD, Star Sports HD 1, Star Sports HD 2, Baby TV HD, AXN, Movies Now HD, Star Movies HD, Star World HD, WB HD, Zee Studio HD, Fox Crime, FX, Zee Café, Sony Pix HD, Life OK HD, Star Gold HD, Star Plus HD, Zee Cinema HD, Zee TV HD, Sony HD, &Pictures HD, Dish Box Office, Animal Planet HD World, Discovery HD World, NGC Wild HD, Nat Geo HD, Discovery Science, Nat Geo People HD, TLC HD World, Fox Life HD, NGC Music, M Tunes HD, Travel XP HD and ET Now.

  • IDOS 2014: ‘Customer is the King and not the Content’

    IDOS 2014: ‘Customer is the King and not the Content’

    GOA: Content is the king is a passé; in today’s world it is the customer which rules.

     

    Businesses across the world understand that involving their customers will help them innovate and provide better products and services. The same goes for the Indian cable television industry. The players believe that the core intention of digitisation was not just converting the analogue signal into digital one, but to offer choice to the customers.

     

     “One key element, which we all missed out in the phase I and II of digitisation is the customer, itself. Customer is the king and not the content. Customer decides whether ARPUs will go up or not. Hence, a methodology needs to be found by all the stakeholders,” said Hinduja Group MD and IMCL CEO Tony D’silva while adding that if  a customer wants broadband, VAS or cable, we have to give it to him/her as per the need.

     

    He was speaking at a panel discussion on ‘Digitisation: The phase III and phase IV Challenge’ held at IDOS 2014.

     

    Ortel Communication CEO BP Rath said that the core intention of digitisation was not to decrease the carriage fee but to increase the ARPUs. “The aim was to offer choice to the customers; those who want more services, will pay more or otherwise,” he said and added that he is happy with the delay in dates for digitisation in phase III and IV as the players would get more time to understand the needs of their clients.

     

    “It was inevitable. Most of the people sitting here don’t know what India is. The lessons are simple. Except for seeding boxes in phase I and II, nothing much has been done. Customers’ choice was not taken into consideration in earlier phases,” he said.

     

    Instead of taking the top-down approach, we should work from customers’ perspective and integrate those into our plans, suggested Rath.

     

    Speaking in the same tone, CSG International south Asia vice president Letchu Narayanan said that customer experience matters the most. The industry should shift focus to customer as it is a customer-driven industry.

     

    Essel Group’s Dish TV CEO RC Venkateish feels that in phase III and IV there is a need for regional and low price offerings in around 70-80 million cable TV homes, which are yet to be digitized. He said that even though the players have different models, customer addressability is the need of the hour.

     

    On the content and the challenges to be handled in phase III and IV, Venkateish said the DTH players are working on different packages as per the customers need. “The road for better revenue can be achieved if all solve the problem together,” he said.

     

    Talking about the Dish TV business model, he said India is a big market and there are different needs. The company reports around 55 per cent of its revenue from the mass as only 15-20 per cent customers go for HD channels. “It all depends on the purchasing power,” he said.

     

    Maharashtra Cable Operators Foundation (MCOF) president Arvind Prabhoo said the players are mulling to offer choices to customers by not only providing network, Wi-Fi but also ensuring that the up-gradation is done before the next rollout.

     

    Agreeing with others Sagar E-Technologies executive director Sudish Kumar further elaborated that by understanding the needs of the customers, the industry players can establish the market well. “Every cable TV home in our network will connected with internet. If a customer will get a taste of it then it will contribute to the ARPU. We might not charge for cable, at all,” he proposed.

     

    The public broadcaster, Doordarshan, also has the same opinion that customer has to play a key role in digitisation. Doordarshan deputy director general CK Jain said, “Doordarshan is trying to ensure that people, who can’t afford the subscription of cable and DTH, we will provide value to them.”

     

    Cable TV Operators Association (COA) president Nassir Hassan Anwar talking about the preference of the customers in the southern region of the country said the demand for Hindi channels among the customers is comparatively less hence, the packages are designed keeping that in mind.

     

    So, going forward if customers’ needs are addressed, cable digitisation in India offers huge opportunity for all the stakeholders.

     

  • Dish TV’s Zing now targets Telugu viewers

    Dish TV’s Zing now targets Telugu viewers

    MUMBAI: After making inroads into West Bengal, Odisha, Tripura and Maharashtra, Dish TV’s regional targeted brand Zing Digital has now made its presence in the Telugu market of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

     

    38 Telugu channels and services and over 100 channels will be available for selection with packs starting at Rs 99 per month. This is the maximum number of channel for any state till now.

     

    Speaking on the development, Dish TV India COO Salil Kapoor said, “Zing is our unique initiative where a complete new brand is being launched to address this need for regional content. Now not only will packages cater to specific audiences across states, but even communication will be in the customer’s language of choice. Zing will address this need and provide maximum available regional content to viewers through exciting packs as compared to other DTH brands.” Therefore, customers will have a dedicated Telugu call centre and local dealers to help solve their issues.

     

    A consumer demographic study conducted by them has indicated that a large segment of TV viewers from medium and small town prefer content from their own region. Which is why Dish TV has ventured into creating this sub brand.

     

    Four packs have been offered:

     

    -Namaskaram Pack that 16 Telugu channels for Rs 99.

     

    -Shubharam pack that has maximum Telugu channels and Hindi entertainment for Rs 165.

     

    -Kridangam pack which will cater to sports lovers for Rs 199.

     

    -Utsawam pack with sports, English entertainment and 38 Telugu channels and services for Rs 349.

     

    Dish TV is looking at acquiring a decent amount of subscribers from the large analogue market in the state into first time digital subscribers. As per a TRAI report, Andhra Pradesh has the highest cable TV homes in India at 15 per cent of the total cable TV homes.