ITV

Tag: Dish TV

  • Dish TV seeks shareholder nod to borrow up to Rs 3000 crore

    Dish TV seeks shareholder nod to borrow up to Rs 3000 crore

    MUMBAI: Dish TV India has called on its shareholders to participate in a postal ballot to decide a few key decisions which will help it rev up its business going forward. The ballot that will take place between 8 August and 6 September firstly seeks permission from its shareholders to authorise the board of directors (BOD) to borrow up to Rs 3000 crore over and above the company’s paid up share capital and free reserves.

     

    Secondly, it seeks to authorise the BOD to create a charge/mortgage on its assets that will aid the borrowings. However, it says it will take care to keep the loan amounts well within the maximum borrowing limits, including all taxes. In an earlier meeting, the BOD had approved of the plan and it is now seeking Dish TV shareholders’ nod for the same.

     

    Additionally, it has sought their go-ahead to allow it to invite companies and individuals to subscribe to its non-convertible debentures (NCDs) through the private placement route. If the resolution is passed – which is quite likely –  it will allow Dish TV India  to make offers within one year seeking subscription for secured and/or unsecured, redeemable NCDs  in one or more series/tranches/currencies to persons such as FIIs, mutual funds, banks, body corporate, persons etc. These can be either Indian or foreign and the condition is that no single tranche will be more than Rs 500 crore and will be well within the boundary of the borrowing limit.

     

    Dish TV has informed shareholders that the BOD could take recourse to various instruments such as equity, project loans, corporate loans, bank and financial institutional loans or debentures to raise funds going forward. A right mix of all of these would help it get funding at an optimum cost.  Subject to member approval, the board says it is evaluating  the process of raising money through non convertible debentures on private placement basis.

     

    The last resolution – if pased – will authorise the BOD to make investments/give any loan or guarantee /provide security to any of Dish TV India’s subsidiary/associate companies to the tune of Rs 500 crore. This could be done from time to time and in tranches.  The investments, guarantees and securities are aimed to bring about optimum utilisation of the company’s  funds and achieve long term strategic and business objectives, the Dish TV postal ballot notice to the Bombay stock exchange says. 

     

    The aggregate of the investments that it will make along with the securities that it may provide to a loan taken by a subsidiary/associate company, guarantees and the proposed investments can be more than 60 per cent of the paid up share capital and free reserves and securities premium account or 100 per cent of its free reserves and securities premium account, whichever may be higher.

     

    “Your company has embarked upon a growth path and is constantly reviewing opportunities for expansion of its business operations,” says a note to Dish TV shareholders.

  • Assam’s Prag News aims for better distribution, content tie up

    Assam’s Prag News aims for better distribution, content tie up

    KOLKATA: The north eastern region of the country has been an ignored lot. And it is not just the people, who are asking for attention, but the channels as well that are now vying for more visibility. One such channel is Assam-based Prag News, a 24×7 satellite News channel, which is looking at pan-India presence. The channel has signed a deal with direct to home (DTH) operator Tata Sky to further enhance its distribution in other parts of the country.

     

    “We have already signed the deal with Tata Sky and as soon as the operator finds the bandwidth, Prag News will be included on the platform,” informs Prag News chairman and managing director Sanjive Narain.

     

    The News channel which is already available on Airtel Digital TV and Dish TV is also in talks with other DTH operators to ensure better reach. “We will disclose the information about the other players once the deal is finalised,” he adds.

     

    “It will be a win-win situation for any DTH player if it ties up with Prag News. The arrangement will also benefit the Assamese viewers of the platform,” opines Vinod Jhaveri of VKJ Advisory Services.

     

    The channel also enjoys a good reach in cable TV homes, across the country. While it is being distributed across the country via multi system operator SitiCable, in parts of Bihar it is distributed through Darsh Network, in J&K by 7 Sea, in Punjab with FastWay and in West Bengal via CTVN.

     

    Prag News, one of the oldest local news channels of the north east region which was launched in 2000 and operates out of Guwahati, has other plans as well. Taking cue from the tie-up between Times Now and Guwahati based News Live during Lok Sabha election, Prag News is also looking at content tie-up opportunity with a national News broadcaster.

     

    “Nothing has been finalised as yet on this front,” informs Narain.

     

    Post Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi’s decision to step down after his defeat in the general elections and BJP-led government deciding to monitor the states closely, the region has become a hub of new.

     

    “Mainstream media especially TV has always ignored the north east.  While clubbing all stories under the section ‘North East’ is an easy way out for channels, it is completely unfair to the people there. It is good to know that local channels like Prag News are looking for content tie-ups. If this happens, we can hope to see substantial increase in coverage from different states of north east in the media space,” says a Kolkata based television expert.

     

    The channel is currently available across Assam and other north-east states and enjoys a viewership of over 10 million. 

  • DTH ops plea: Exclude content cost from AGR

    DTH ops plea: Exclude content cost from AGR

    MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), last week, came out with the much needed recommendation paper on new DTH licences. The issue had come into light when India’s oldest DTH operator Dish TV was nearing the end of its 10 year licence that was given to it when it started operating.

     

    While the need for fresh and transparent rules came up, TRAI issued a consultation paper in October 2013 and it was just last week that it came up with its recommendation paper on the same. What most DTH operators were glad about was the reduction in the annual licence fee from 10 per cent of gross revenue (GR) to 8 per cent of adjusted gross revenue (AGR). This would mean that the DTH industry in all will save around Rs 200 crore to Rs 300 crore.

     

    The AGR is calculated after deducting service tax, sales tax and entertainment tax from the GR. TRAI states that since there has been growing convergence of telecom and broadcast, the 8 per cent is aligned to the unified licence (UL) in the telecom field. The recommendation paper states that in the UL, AGR is arrived at by excluding taxes and charges of ‘pass through’ nature. Even though TRAI states that there is no such charge of ‘pass through’ nature for DTH players, the latter disagrees.

     

    “We were hoping for either a 6 per cent of AGR or 8 per cent of AGR with ‘pass through’ of content cost,” says Videocon d2h CEO Anil Khera. When a few months ago, the Ministry had sent notices to all the DTH operators to pay the licence fee dues, they had taken the issue to court. Tata Sky CEO Harit Nagpal had then said that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had itself asked the Finance Ministry to reduce the fee from 10 per cent to 6 per cent.

     

    The paper says that two DTH operators had recommended that for calculating AGR, deduction should be made for not just service tax, sales tax and entertainment tax, but also for content costs, transponder costs, hardware sales revenue etc.

     

    Dish TV CEO and soon to be DTH Operators Association president RC Venkateish says that the fight for exclusion of content cost isn’t over yet. He says, “We will approach the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to press for content cost to be excluded from the AGR. Like we had said, either it should be removed or else the licence fee should be brought down to 6 per cent of AGR instead of the recommended 8 per cent of AGR.”

     

    The parliament was told in April 2013 that six private DTH operators paid Rs 307.8 crore as licence fee to the government for the year 2011-12. According to figures furnished in the reply to the Parliament, Tata Sky paid licence fee of Rs 79.3 crore in 2011-12 as against Airtel Digital’s Rs 61.87 crore and Dish TV’s Rs 30 crore. Sun Direct paid Rs 36 crore, Reliance Big TV paid Rs 9.5 crore, and Videocon d2h paid Rs 5 crore.

     

    For now, the recommendations are pending with the Ministry for approval.

  • Al Jazeera English exposes India’s baby-making booming industry

    Al Jazeera English exposes India’s baby-making booming industry

    MUMBAI: The birth business is thriving in India. Childless couples from around the world are flocking to the country, pinning their hopes on the poor young Indian women willing to bear other people’s babies. Al Jazeera English unveils India’s booming baby-making industry in a special episode of 101 East, a weekly Asian current affairs programming on July 26.

    In poverty-plagued India, the thousands of dollars couples pay their surrogates, can open the door to a much brighter future. About 12,000 babies, produced by Indian surrogates, are for Western clients. Al Jazeera English follows the two Australian couples hoping to bring home a “made in India” baby and, the highs and lows of them trying to bring a baby home, the stories of women who give birth to babies they will never know.

    “If you are just a critic who feels a childless person should live a life of misery and stay childless throughout their life, or a poor person is meant to remain poor all throughout their life then you’ll consider this as something wrong, as something immoral. A farm. A baby-making factory..” said Dr. Nanya Patel, one of the pioneers of the commercial surrogacy business.

    The women and increasingly would-be parents are being exploited as ethics are swept aside in pursuit of profit. But have regulations kept pace with the huge expansion in surrogacy services? Many say this emotionally-charged industry is littered with pitfalls for parents and risks for surrogates. The special episode uncovers the success and failures of India’s surrogacy industry.

    Tune into Al Jazeera on Dish TV 618 and Tata Sky Channel 533 to catch the special episode on July 26, 09.00 AM and on July 27, 10.00 PM IST

  • DTH licensing recommendations: TRAI restricts vertically integrated broadcasters from owning more than one DPO

    DTH licensing recommendations: TRAI restricts vertically integrated broadcasters from owning more than one DPO

    MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has come out with some rules and regulations regarding a host of issues including crucial ones such as DTH licences and cross holding. In a recommendation paper that it gave out, it has said that certain restrictions be placed on vertically and horizontally integrated broadcasters and distribution platform operators (DPOs).

     

    A vertically integrated broadcaster will be permitted to control only one DPO while a vertically integrated DPO will be restricted from controlling any other DPO of other category in the relevant market. For this it has defined the meaning of cross holding and control to be as: ‘a broadcaster includes the broadcaster itself, its subsidiary companies /associate companies/ companies of its relatives, its holding company and subsidiary companies /associate companies/ companies of its relatives of its holding company and any other broadcaster in its control. Similarly, a DPO includes the DPO itself, its subsidiary companies /associate companies/ companies of its relatives, its holding company and subsidiary companies /associate companies/ companies of its relatives of its holding company and any other DPO in its control.’

     

    In its paper, TRAI states that ‘In order to ensure orderly growth of the broadcasting and distribution sectors and to avoid compromises or limitations on competition, certain cross-holding restrictions may be required to be put in place. Accordingly, the Authority recommends uniformity in the policy of cross holding /control between broadcasters and DPOs and amongst DPOs in the broadcasting and distribution sector.’

     

    Depending on the shareholding patterns as prescribed by TRAI, companies will have to restructure their operations within one year. Industry sources say that the only two probable companies that are likely to be affected are the Zee group with Siti Cable and Dish TV and the Sun group with Sumangli Cable and Sun Direct.

     

    However TRAI also states that there can’t be cross holding amongst DPOs of different categories. The paper states, ‘there cannot be any cross holding/control between an MSO (A), MSO cum HITS operator (B) or a HITS operator (C) and a DTH operator (D), while there could be controlling stakes amongst A, B and C subject to market share restrictions, as specified from time to time.’

     

    DPOs have been given set parameters for market share/dominance. For DTH operators, the relevant market would be the entire country while for an MSO it is the state. The market share of a DPO would be the number of active subscribers of that DPO as a percentage of the total number of active subscribers of that category of DPOs.

     

    On the DTH side, most operators are glad with the outcome of the paper that will now go through the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB). Says DTH Operators Association of India president and Tata Sky CEO Harit Nagpal, “We are glad with the outcome. There were two main issues that needed to be addressed: continuity of DTH licences and licence fee. The paper has made both amply clear, the migration process included. When the licence fee of 10 per cent was introduced there wasn’t any additional service and entertainment tax on it. We had been asking for relief on the licence fee to be calculated on adjusted gross revenue rather than gross revenue.”

     

    The period of DTH licence has been extended from the current 10 years to 20 years while the one time entry fee has been retained at Rs 10 crore. The big relief is the reduction of licence fee from 10 per cent of gross revenue (GR) to 8 per cent of adjusted gross revenue (AGR). An industry source said that the DTH industry earns anywhere between Rs 8000 crore to Rs 9000 crore annually, pegging the savings that will come due to the 2 per cent relief at nearly Rs 200 crore. “The reprieve on overall taxation is the highlight point. Although industry would have liked it to be 6 per cent of AGR, this isn’t bad at all,” said the source.

     

    Speaking on the new guidelines, Videocon director Saurabh Dhoot says, “This is a step in the direction towards encouraging industry riddled with high taxation and double taxation. However, content cost not included in deduction remains a concern area.”

     

    Supporting the extension of DTH licence, TRAI states that though the guidelines are silent on the provision of extension, it could not be its intent to disallow them from continuing their business post 10 years of existence. ‘Starting a DTH business entails a huge investment of resources. It would, therefore, be a reasonable expectation on the part of DTH licensees that, on the expiry of the initial 10 year licence, they would be eligible to apply for issue of a new licence, so that they could continue their business,’ it states.

     

    The new DTH licensing regime has been brought to bring fair degree of stability in the sector, to proper overall growth of the sector as it will create a conducive environment for investment from strategic investors. This will in turn spur innovation in terms of adoption of better technology and services.

     

    The DTH Operators Association had requested TRAI to consider initial licence of 20 years which it has agreed to give on the lines of Telecom licence while its second request of a 20 year extension has been kept to 10 years. ‘The Authority also recommends that the renewal shall be on the terms and conditions, including renewal fee, specified by the Licensor (MIB), in consultation with the TRAI.’

     

     AGR is calculated by excluding service tax, entertainment tax and sales tax/VAT paid to the government from the GR. The annual licence fee shall be subject to a minimum of 10 per cent of the entry fee while the licence should have a provision that prescribes that the licensor has the right to modify the licence fee as a percentage of AGR any time during the currency of the agreement.

     

    The earlier rule of providing a bank guarantee (BG) of Rs 40 crore has been changed. Licencees will have to furnish a BG for an amount that is equal to payable licence fee for two quarters and other dues not otherwise securitised.  The BG has to be valid for a year and renewed on a year on year basis in a way that it will be valid for the entire licence period. New entrants will have to give a fixed BG of Rs 5 crore for first two quarters and then continue in the manner prescribed above.

     

    Those DTH operators that are serving their time in the existing regime can migrate to the new regime any time during its current licence period. Before migrating, it has to however clear dues and fulfill obligations under the old regime as well as clear legal cases. The ones who want to migrate will have to pay the entry fee again for a new licence but a rebate, commensurate to the remaining licence period may be granted to them.

     

    The quantum of migration fee will be as follows:

     

    Migration fee = [Entry fee in the new DTH licensing regime – (Entry fee under existing License/existing license period i.e. 10 years) x (No. Of years remaining in the existing regime at the time of migration)]. In this formulation part of a year is not to be counted.

     

    Currently, STB interoperability isn’t possible because of the different technologies being adopted by the operators due to their entering the market at different times. Therefore, the bureau of Indian standards (BIS) has been asked to regularly keep updating the standing of STB technology, in consultation with TRAI. A tariff order for DTH was recommended by TRAI last year that allowed an easy exit option to subscribers, ensuring availability of consumer–premises-equipment (CPE – that primarily consists of STB and Dish antenna) at reasonable prices, easy to understand terms and conditions and at the same time, protecting the interests of the service providers. This order is sub-judice in TDSAT.

  • TRAI extends DTH licence period to 20 years

    TRAI extends DTH licence period to 20 years

    MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released its recommendations for a new DTH licensing regime today. As part of this, the period of DTH licence has been extended from the current 10 years to 20 years, renewable by 10 years at a time.

     

    The Regulator has said that the existing licence fee will be reduced from 10 per cent of gross revenue to 8 per cent of adjusted gross revenue, in line with the telecom licences.

     

    Also, the existing DTH licensees will be permitted to migrate to new regime at any time during the currency of the existing licences. Meanwhile, the one time entry fee has been retained at Rs 10 crore.

     

    The salient features of the recommended new DTH licensing regime are as follows:

     

    • The   period   of  DTH  license  to  be  increased  from   10  years to  20  years, renewable by 10 years at a time.

     

    • One time entry fee to be retained at Rs 10 crore.

     

    • Existing license fee to be reduced from 10 per cent of gross revenue (GR) to 8 per cent of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) in line with the telecom licenses.

     

    • The existing DTH licensees to be permitted to migrate to new regime at any time during the currency of their existing licenses.

     

    • BIS   to    come     out    with     updated     specifications for     STBs in consultation with TRAI which should be complied by DTH licensees.

     

    • The DTH licensees to be mandated to comply with the tariff order  scheme prescribed by TRAI for commercial inter-operability.

     

    The salient features of the Recommendation on Cross Holding/Control in the Broadcasting and Distribution Sectors are as follows:

     

    • Policy on Cross-holding/Control to be restructured to bring in uniformity in the broadcasting and distribution sectors.

     

    • Comprehensive definition of ‘control’ to be uniformly adopted in all segments of broadcasting and distribution sectors.

     

    • Relevant market for DTH to be the   entire country and   for MSO /HITS – State.

     

    • Broadcasters and Distribution Platform Operators (DPOs) – MSO /HITS  and DTH operators to be separate legal entities.

     

    Rationalised and regulated vertical integration to be permitted between broadcasters and DPOs.

     

    • Vertically integrated broadcaster(s) and DPO   to   be   subjected   to additional set of regulations.

     

    •A vertically integrated broadcaster to be permitted to control only one DPO.

     

    • A vertically integrated DPO to be restricted from controlling any other DPO of other category in the relevant market.

     

    • A vertically integrated DPO not to be permitted to acquire more than 33 per cent of the market share in the relevant market.

     

    The additional regulations for a vertically integrated broadcaster to include:

     

    • The   agreements with   the   DPOs   to be non-discriminatory and   on charge-per-subscriber (CPS) basis.

     

    • To file the   Reference Interconnect Offer (RIO) for approval by the Authority. All Interconnection Agreements to be only on the terms specified in the RIO.

     

    • To make disclosures as prescribed by the Authority.

     

    The  additional regulations for a vertically integrated DPO would  include:

     

    • DPO to declare its channel carrying capacity and not to reserve more than 15 per cent of this capacity for its vertically integrated broadcaster(s). Rest of the capacity to be offered to other broadcasters on non¬ discriminatory basis.

     

    • DPO   to   publish the   access fees   for carriage of channels over   its network.  The    charging of   the    access fees    should be   on   non­ discriminatory basis.

     

    • To make disclosures as prescribed by the Authority.

     

    • The   Authority  to  come   out   with   appropriate  Regulations/Orders for  the regulatory  framework  and  disclosures  after    the   government   takes  the   policy decision on  the  recommendations.

     

    Click here to read the full recommendation paper
  • Dish TV adds 3.32 lakh net subscribers in Q1-2015; maintains FY-2014 ARPU of Rs 170

    Dish TV adds 3.32 lakh net subscribers in Q1-2015; maintains FY-2014 ARPU of Rs 170

    Updated: 05:45 PM

     

    BENGALURU:  In its earnings release today, India’s largest DTH operator, Dish TV Limited (Dish TV) informed the bourses that its net subscriber base in Q1-2015 has gone up to 1.17 crore, the company says that it has added a net of 3.32 lakh subscribers in this quarter. The company says further that its average revenue per user (ARPU) is Rs 170, same as the ARPU reported for FY-2014.

     

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

     

    Dish TV’s total income from operations (TIO) has gone up marginally by 0.6 per cent in Q1-2015 to Rs 640.69 crore from Rs 636.91 crore in Q1-2014 but was 1 per cent lower than Rs 647.38 crore in Q1-2014. The company has reported a lower loss of Rs 16.5 crore in Q1-2015 as compared to a loss of Rs 149.05 crore in Q4-2014 and a profit of Rs 31.73 crore in Q1-2014. It may be noted that Dish TV’s Q4-2014 loss was impacted by a prior period adjustment of Rs 116.4 crore.

     

    The company reported subscription revenue for the quarter were Rs 588.6 crore while total standalone operating revenues stood at Rs 640.7 crore.

     

    Let us look at the other Q1-2015 numbers reported by Dish TV

     

    Dish TV’s Total expenditure (TE) in Q1-2015 at Rs 628.88 crore (98.2 per cent of TIO) was 4.3 per cent lower than the Rs 657.05 crore (103.2 per cent of TIO) in Q4-2014 and 3.4 per cent more than the Rs 607.94 crore (93.9 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2014.

     

    The company’s programming content and other costs (programming cost) in Q1-2015 at Rs 66.44 crore (10.4 per cent of TIO) was 0.8 per cent lower than the Rs 66.98 crore (10.5 per cent of TIO) in Q4-2014 and 0.9 per cent less than the Rs 67.04 crore (10.4 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2014.

     

    Dish TV paid 16 per cent lower licence fees at Rs 69.24 crore (10.8 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2015 as compared to the Rs 82.38 crore (12.9 per cent of TIO) in the immediate trailing quarter and 10 per cent more than the Rs 62.92 crore (9.7 per cent of TIO) in the year ago quarter Q1-2014.

     

    The company’s commission expense at Rs 54.12 crore (8.5 per cent of TIO) was 6.9 per cent higher than the Rs 50.65 crore (8 per cent of TIO) in Q4-2014 and 36.4 per cent more than the Rs 39.69 crore (6.1 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2014.

     

    Dish TV’s other selling and distribution expense for Q1-2015 at Rs 37.86 crore (5.9 per cent of TIO) was 15.9 per cent more than the Rs 32.66 crore (5.1 per cent of TIO) in Q4-2014 and 24.8 per cent lower than the Rs 50.32 crore (7.8 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2014.

     

    Dish TV’s finance cost in Q1-2015 at Rs 39.48 crore (6.2 per cent of TIO) was 8.4 per cent more than the Rs 32.3 crore (5.1 per cent of TIO) in Q4-2014 and 5 per cent lower than the Rs 35.44 crore (5.5 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2014.

     

    Dish TV chairman Subhash Chandra said, “Going by the first quarter run-rate, the Indian DTH industry seems to have set ground for a 25 per cent growth in subscriber additions this year. Factoring in the opportunities ahead Dish TV is optimistic about outgrowing the industry growth rate. The company delivered in line with expectations during the first quarter and reclaimed its position as the fastest growing DTH player in the country”.

     

    Dish TV managing director Jawahar Goel said, “Post a mediocre 2014, fiscal 2015 had a promising start for the DTH industry. Dish TV, supported by a debt light balance sheet and a more willing consumer market, put the pedal to the metal and led the industry growth by garnering the highest incremental share during the quarter.”

     

    “In line with our objective of growth with profitability, we took a price hike of 5-7 per cent across the middle and top level packs with effect from the first week of June. ARPU increased to Rs. 170 per month in the first quarter with churn also increasing marginally to reach 0.7 per cent per month. There have been efforts to implement last mile billing by the MSO’s however, a full-fledged roll-out is key to a step jump in ARPU’s across the category,” added Goel. In Q4-2014, the company had reported a churn of 0.6 per cent.

     

     “We continued to expand ‘Zing’, our innovative offering for vernacular content across regional markets. The ‘Zing’ service is now available across Odisha, West Bengal, Tripura, parts of Assam and most parts of Maharashtra. A powerful sub-brand, ‘Zing’ has also propelled the sales of the main brand through a wider reach and top of the mind recall. Moving closer towards Phase III and IV of digitisation we remain optimistic about our strategy to capture leading share in these markets,” further added Goel.

     

    Click here to read the financial result

    Click here to read the Earnings release

  • Dish TV adds some Zing to Maharashtra

    Dish TV adds some Zing to Maharashtra

    MUMBAI: After targeting the east of the country, Dish TV has trained its sights on the diametrically opposite part of India – Maharashtra – with its regional sub brand Zing.  The western state has arguably the highest penetration of TV viewing homes nationally.

    Zing has been spreading out gradually over various towns and districts of Maharashtra right from Nashik to Ratnagiri to Aurangabad to Amravati over the past few days. It will however be focusing primarily in the heartlands and on areas where language consumption is very high; hence bigger cities like Mumbai, Thane, Pune and Nagpur won’t be exposed to the brand.

     

    Earlier this year, Zing was launched in West Bengal, Odisha and Tripura. The aim is to provide a DTH offering that can compete with cable but with digital picture quality, stereophonic sound and at affordable rates. Says Dish TV marketing VP Anjali Malhotra, “When these analogue consumers think of going digital we come as the first proposition. As markets will open up in phase III and IV, we do see an opportunity between other private DTH players and DD’s Freedish.”

     

    There are three packs available – Utsav, Anando and Shubharambh that will have 16 Marathi channels such as Zee Talkies, Zee 24 Taas, Zee Marathi, Star Pravah, Mi Marathi, ABP Mazha, IBN Lokmat, Saam TV, Maayboli, 9X Jhakaas, Jai Maharashtra, TV9 Maharashtra,  DD Sahyadri and ETV Marathi.

     

    Estimates peg Maharashtra’s cable TV and DTH homes at around 4-5 crore with a considerable amount of that being covered under the first two phases of digitisation.

    A marketing campaign worth Rs 6 crore has already begun across various towns and cities. The first phase was ground activations through mobile vans and merchandising activities. The ATL campaign that just commenced includes Marathi newspapers, local radio spots and close to 100 outdoor billboards in city and market areas. The ATL marketing that has been executed by McCann with planning in the hands of Madison will go on for a month.

    “Consumers are warming up to the idea that they are getting an offering that his cablewallah will have,” says Malhotra while highlighting some of the learning from Zing in the east. West Bengal and Odisha were test areas and she says that at an aggregate level the two brands, Dish and Zing, have collectively taken 40 to 50 per cent share.

     

    The regionalisation of DTH also means that new channels need to be added as and when they come. Earlier this year the DTH operator secured additional transponder space on the newly launched SES 8 satellite, thus allowing it to add several more channels.

     

    While there is a worry that the sub brand may eat up into the parent brand, Malhotra says that research has shown that isn’t the case. “The customers for Dish and Zing are very different. Which is why we aren’t even bringing Zing to the cities. In some places we will only display Zing, in some Dish and in some both, depending upon the language consumption in each of the areas,” she says.

     

    While on the one hand, a couple of DTH operators are going high tech and targeting premium viewers with 4K Ultra HD announcements, Dish TV, the oldest of them all, is going desi and local.

  • Big Magic Bihar & Jharkhand now available on Airtel Digital TV

    Big Magic Bihar & Jharkhand now available on Airtel Digital TV

    MUMBAI: As part of its distribution-strengthening strategy, BIG MAGIC Bihar & Jharkhand the regional entertainment channel from the Reliance Broadcast Network stable, inks distribution deal with Airtel Digital TV becoming available on Channel No.628. Airtel Digital TV subscribers will now add to BIG MAGIC Bihar & Jharkhand’s massive reach as it spreads out to a larger diaspora across India.

     

    Backed with an aggressive distribution plan and an endeavor to reach its rich regionally rooted content, to discerning audiences across the country, the channel’s availability on the massive DTH platform – Airtel Digital TV is a step in this direction. With an eclectic content mix that encompasses a wide slate ranging fiction, crime, reality, music, devotion, movies and mythology, tailored to offer a wholesome family viewing experience, the Channel is primed to get a huge loyal audience base instantly. Viewers can now savour television shows coated with the regional flavor ranging Police Files, Hindustan ka BIG Star, Bhojpuri Films, BIG Memsaab, BIG Bahuria and upcoming reality show BIG Folk Star.

     

    Commenting on the development, Reliance Broadcast Television Business COO Lavneesh Gupta said, “We are a leading player in the regional market and have delivered excellent performance. We see a huge opportunity in catering to a larger diaspora by partnering with Airtel Digital TV and our endeavor is to reach our content mix to the discerning audiences spread across the length and breadth of India. We are proud to partner with them as yet another step in this direction.”

     

    BIG Magic Bihar and Jharkhand is currently available on Dish TV, Hathway, Incable, Manthan, Digicable, GTPL, Siti Cable, Maurya, DEN and other all independent operators.