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  • Important to have a product portfolio that can stand the next decade of digital growth: NxtDigital CEO

    Important to have a product portfolio that can stand the next decade of digital growth: NxtDigital CEO

    Mumbai: NxtDigital has upskilled 30-35 per cent of its workforce in digital technology, in addition to making a complete shift to the pre-paid model through enabling digital payment mechanisms, said MD and CEO Vynsley Fernandes as he talked about the company’s transformation from a cable company into a digital platforms company.

    Fernandes was in a fireside chat with Indiantelevision.com group founder CEO and editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari at the 18th edition of Video & Broadband Summit (VBS 2022) organised by Indiantelevision.com on Wednesday.

    Pandemic as the trigger point

    The digital metamorphosis of NxtDigital, as well as the ecosystem as a whole, started a couple of years back in 2019 when the new tariff regime (NTO) was introduced, but it was the pandemic that actually gave impetus to it. “One of the biggest learnings from the pandemic was that digital aspirations are not limited to the city dweller. The tier 2, 3, and 4 towns, even though poorly connected to both TV and broadband, are equally aspirational. At least 60 per cent of our base comes from the semi-urban, semi-rural and rural markets, and yet there’s still significant growth that has to be achieved,” said Fernandes.

    Realising the importance of supporting these markets, the company set up digital Nxthubs at locations across India to deliver digital TV with up to 650 channels, broadband, and OTT.

    Also read : NxtDigital launches 40 NxtHubs across India

    The pandemic also forced the traditional distribution platforms that were facing challenges due to changing consumer preferences, to look at new strategies for growth, and new technology for fresh, and innovative products. This, combined with the realisation that customers increasingly want a single window to manage their multiple products and solutions, led NxtDigital to launch three new offerings including an advanced android set-top box, TV stick, and a combo product providing access to around 700 TV channels, OTT content (including regional) and broadband with speeds up to 1000 Mbps. The company had also introduced a work-from-home bundle during the pandemic.

    “We have been extremely cognisant of the fact that times are changing, and we need to be at the forefront to be able to harness technology to deliver the best experience to customers,” said Fernandes.

    Also read : Nxtdigital launches ‘live’ TV stick and Android STB

    Working with broadcasters and LMO/digital service partners

    Transformation is never an easy process. Like any other change that is met with resistance in the beginning, it took some effort for NxtDigital to convince and train its digital service partners, also the Last Mile Owners (LMOs), to support the implementation of the fully digital payments enabled, pre-paid model.

    And the results have been quite positive. “While individual verticals may have seen some softening, the absolute growth in terms of revenue for the LMOs saw an uptick because of the increased ticket size allowed by the combo product (Broadband + OTT+ Digital TV). Our partners are now, in fact, excited to know about the next digital service they can offer customers,” shared Fernandes.

    As far as broadcaster partners are concerned, he added that even though they have largely been supportive, there’s the need at the top of the pyramid for more patience and the understanding that the industry is still in a state of flux. It will take some time for the metrics to be worked out, and for the results to start manifesting as significant gains. 

    “Though we can’t yet call it significant, there has been steady growth in the business quarter-on-quarter, and this not necessarily from just the video business, but also broadband and OTT. The overall pie has definitely grown, and the stakes are only getting better from here as long as collaborations and innovation come into play,” asserted Fernandes. 

    Also read: I&B ministry lays down guidelines for infrastructure sharing by MSOs

    Appreciating the government’s new guidelines for infrastructure sharing, he remarked, “A DPO can no longer say that it cannot service a client/region because of the high cost of connectivity. As we see a lot more infra sharing happening, broadcasters will also be a beneficiary to that growth.”

    Word of Caution

    As a word of caution, Fernandes pointed out four themes that players need to align themselves with to thrive in the digital future.

    Commenting on the fate of cable and broadband he noted, “Cable will continue to grow, more so with I&B Ministry’s infrastructure sharing guidelines for MSOs announced last December.  However, there will be significant growth in broadband. This has also been indicated by Trai’s recommendation on AGR (adjusted gross revenue) that will encourage cable operators to provide broadband services. The one thing that’s clear is that the government is looking at facilitating the growth of the industry.”

    Fernandes’ third observation was that broadband over satellite and regionalised OTT will start to make inroads over the next couple of years. Lastly, the characteristics of the business will impact single product companies. In the ‘and’ world that awaits, cable or broadband or OTT alone will find it difficult to survive. The future will belong to those who are able to leverage technology to combine them externally and internally into a robust product.

    Fernandes believes that NxtDigital’s product portfolio comprising broadband, HITS, digital cable television, content syndication, and teleshopping will stand the company in good stead. He surmised by saying that “It is necessary to have a product portfolio that can stand the next decade of digital growth.”

    The day-long virtual summit held on 19 January was co-powered by broadpeak. Disney Star was the presenting partner, while NxtDigital was the summit partner.

  • DD Free Dish emerged as enabler of competitiveness in M&E industry: Prasar Bharati CEO

    DD Free Dish emerged as enabler of competitiveness in M&E industry: Prasar Bharati CEO

    Mumbai: With a presence in over 40 million households, DD Free Dish has emerged as an enabler of competitiveness in the media and entertainment industry, said Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati on Wednesday, highlighting the stupendous growth recorded by the platform in recent years.

    Vempati delivered the keynote address at the 18th edition of the Video and Broadband Summit (VBS) organised virtually by Indiantelevision.com on Wednesday. The day-long summit was co-powered by broadpeak, with Disney Star as the presenting partner and Nxtdigital as the summit partner.

    Talking about the growth of DD Free Dish, the Prasar Bharati CEO said it was present in two crore households when he joined the public broadcaster in 2017 and has since doubled its base. “It was because of the Free Dish audience that channels like Dangal and genres like Bhojpuri have come of age,” he remarked. “There have been new, upstart channels that have challenged the incumbent bigger media houses. It has created a platform for people to sample content and subscribe to whatever they want to watch.

    DD Free Dish now in 40 million households

    During his five-year association with the public broadcaster, Vempati shared that he has observed striking changes in the way that the TV and video viewing market has evolved. According to him, the key factors that are driving this change are regulatory interventions, the decision by the government to phase-out analog terrestrial TV and the rise of OTT and digital.

    “The pandemic had a tremendous impact on the way we work,” he elaborated. When I joined the organisation, everything was paper-based but now we’ve become IT-based. The situation has forced us to think innovatively and put technology first.”

    Public Broadcaster’s Digital Turnaround

    Prasar Bharati’s digital growth has doubled every year with its YouTube channels clocking more than a billion views every month. The public operator which operates more than 400+ radio stations is now delivering its radio services via the News On-Air app. “While the app has several million downloads and an active listener base, it has also become a proxy for us to understand what people like to listen to on the radio,” said Vempati. “Analytics from the app gives us insights like which is the top city for online radio listening (Pune) and which streams do people prefer in every city. It also lets us know what time people are listening and which programmes they love the most.”

    He added that it was astounding that India has not leveraged its strength as the biggest media market and largest English-speaking market to build a local ecosystem for technology that can support the M&E sector. “As a public broadcaster, we invest (capital spending via government grants) up to Rs 100-200 crore in technology and it is very saddening to see this infusion of funds leaving the country,” he noted.

    Need for indigenous technology-development

    Most of the technology requirements of the M&E industry in India are imported and royalties go to entities in other countries. “We need to build a local ecosystem of technology vendors to supply the industry with all kinds of equipment,” said Vempati. “That’s why it is important that we focus on indigenous standards development.”

    For example, most of the 5G tech stack has been framed by entities in other markets. Prasar Bharati has recently signed a MoU with IIT Kanpur to develop IIndian-specific standards for 5G that allow for convergence between broadband and broadcast. This will allow for new opportunity areas such as direct-to-mobile broadcasting that will be in line with India’s unique needs to deliver content directly to mobile.

    Prasar Bharati developing next generation broadcast solution

    “With millions of people live streaming every event, it is going to raise the costs of the network and the pipes are going to choke. The telcos will not be able to handle so much traffic and that will lead to buffering. The way out is having the ability to offload steaming traffic to broadcast infrastructure if necessary. This benefits everyone including big OTT platforms,” he added.

    Another opportunity area that Vempati sees is innovation in the supply-side economics of content. “Why is content so expensive?” he asked. “There is a need to deliver higher quality content at lower cost and India should be cost leaders in terms of creating content, seeing the enormous talent base that we have. The M&E industry in India is looking for its “Walmart moment” when it comes to bringing down the cost of content. We should find innovative means, technologies, and approaches that can bring down the cost of content.”

  • Nxtdigital board gives in-principle nod for digital, media biz to be acquired by Hinduja Global Solutions

    Nxtdigital board gives in-principle nod for digital, media biz to be acquired by Hinduja Global Solutions

    Mumbai: Nxtdigital Board on Friday accorded in-principle approval for its digital and media businesses comprising broadband, HITS, digital cable television, content syndication & teleshopping to be acquired by Hinduja Global Solutions Limited (HGSL).

    The proposed acquisition is subject to all statutory or regulatory approvals and approval of the shareholders.

    The move is set to fuel and accelerate Nxtdigital Ltd (NDL)’s planned expansion across the digital ecosystem through synergies with HGS’ strength in digital processing and back-end expertise. “NDL will focus on harnessing the best of emerging technologies, whilst expanding its portfolio of digital solutions across geographies,” it said in a statement on Friday.

    The proposed acquisition will include the management team, employees, all businesses and technology across the entire media, communications and broadband spectrum.

    According to the details available, the proposed acquisition will result in shareholders of NDL receiving shares of HGS as per an independent share swap valuation, subject to applicable regulatory approvals.

    The media vertical of the global Hinduja group, Nxtdigital has launched some innovative solutions in the recent past and planned significant expansion in the emerging digital solutions space. “This move will provide much needed synergies, by leveraging the inherent expertise of HGS in the digital back-office and processes space, while allowing the media business to focus on digital expansion. This is also in line with NDL’s vision and mission of being a significant digital platforms company, harnessing the best of emerging technologies, whilst expanding its portfolio of digital solutions across geographies,” it said in a statement.

    The company said it will appoint independent valuers to carry out the valuation exercise and submit the report including share exchange ratio; besides also appointing other key intermediaries to facilitate the proposed move.

  • Nxtdigital launches ‘live’ TV stick and Android STB

    Nxtdigital launches ‘live’ TV stick and Android STB

    Mumbai: Nxtdigital has launched Android set-top-box Nxtconnect and ‘live’ TV stick Nxtgo that can give subscribers access to 700 TV channels and 300,000 hours of OTT content with broadband speeds up to 1000 Mbps.

    The company has also launched a combo package for its subscribers in India starting at Rs 409 per month to access content from platforms such as Amazon Prime, Sonyliv, Disney+ Hotstar, Zee5, Voot, Sun Nxt, ShemarooMe, Epic-On, Hungama Music, Hungama Play, Eros Now, aha and hoichoi. OTT services can be accessed on existing devices like mobile phones, tablets, laptops, desktops or smart TVs.

    The Android STB has 8Gb of storage and allows subscribers to upgrade their standard TV sets into smart TVs getting access to a host of Android applications beyond OTT ranging from karaoke to games. For existing smart TV users, Nxtgo can give subscribers access to up to 700 TV channels. Both devices are available at a bundled introductory offer of Rs 1499 which includes a one-month subscription to an OTT package.

    The launch of the combo package, the advanced Android STB and the ‘live’ TV stick reflects our inherent agility in adapting to changing consumer patterns of content consumption and our focus on emerging technologies,” said Nxtdigital managing director and CEO Vynsley Fernandes. “The combo package gives our subscribers a single window to access the best of television, OTT and hi-speed broadband, seamlessly and on-demand.”

    The combo product will also form part of the solutions being offered by its owned-and-operated Nxthubs across the country, launched late last year, providing television and broadband on a plug-and-play model.

  • Nxtdigital’s rights issue subscribed by 194 %, receives Rs 560.13 cr

    Nxtdigital’s rights issue subscribed by 194 %, receives Rs 560.13 cr

    New Delhi: Nxtdigital has announced that the company’s rights issue of equity shares of two shares for every five shares held in the company (aggregating a total of 96,20,463 shares) which closed on 29 November was subscribed 1.94 times.

    The company has reported receiving a total of Rs. 560.13 crores or 194 per cent of the Rights Issue size of Rs. 288.61 crores. This is a clear statement of confidence in the company demonstrated by the shareholders and vindicates the vision of the media group in continuing to transform to an end-to-end digital solutions platform, the company said on Wednesday.

    “The Rights Issue was another positive step taken by the company towards our stated objective of reducing our overall debt,” said Nxtdigital MD and CEO Vynsley Fernandes. “With this, the debt-to-equity ratio is expected to significantly come down to approximately 1.5 times vis-à-vis the pre-issue debt-to-equity ratio of over four times. This is, without doubt, a robust position from which to continue on our path of digital transformation”.

    The company has also been taking steps to liquidate non-core assets and pare its debt thereby.

    According to Nxtdigital’s whole-time director and CFO Amar Chintopanth, the company has already received 25 per cent of the total consideration of Rs 69.30 crores in line with its objectives of paring debt, against the sale of land at Hyderabad. “Considering that the conditions precedent for the sale have been completed within the agreed timelines the company expects the transaction to close before the end of the financial year and the entire proceeds to be realised. Such proceeds would also be utilised towards reducing of the company’s debt”.

    The integrated digital platforms company had recently launched its innovative concept of owned-and-operated NXTHUBs across the country – which besides video and broadband, promise to be future-ready to offer customers a slew of additional digital services including OTT and WiFi.

    The company is also working to operationalise the infrastructure sharing model with other Multi-System Operators (MSOs) on HITS. The model is set to help MSOs not just reduce cost and improve their quality of service, but also facilitate their expansion into markets, especially rural, where connectivity costs are a deterrent to digital proliferation, it added further.

  • Nxtdigital clocks 15.48% revenue growth in H1

    Nxtdigital clocks 15.48% revenue growth in H1

    New Delhi: Integrated digital platforms company Nxtdigital, the media vertical of the Hinduja Group has reported a 15.48 per cent growth in its consolidated revenues for the half year ending 30 September. The revenue reached Rs 543.42 crore, up from Rs 470.58 crores for the corresponding period of the previous year.

    The company with a presence in digital cable, satellite (Hits), broadband and content syndication announced its results for the quarter and half year ending 30 September on Thursday.

    Nxtdigital continued to maintain a robust EBIDTA at Rs 102.89 crore for the half year, and ended the second quarter with a 17.38 per cent year-on-year revenue growth, closing at Rs 276.83 crore against Rs 235.76 crore in Q2 of the previous fiscal. It maintained a robust EBIDTA at Rs 51.63 crore.

    The company attributed its revenue growth to its strategy and aggressive growth plans, with a clear focus on positive cashflows across business verticals.

    The broadband business segment crossed 7.2 lakh subscribers. Nxtdigital also launched 40 future-ready Nxthubs across the country – each with digital capability of providing video, broadband and other emerging solutions including OTT and WiFi to distribute up to 650 digital TV channels received via satellite.

    Even whilst the pandemic continued to have a bearing on the media and entertainment industry, Nxtdigital’s business verticals continued to grow. Buoyed by the demand for internet connectivity across retail customers and enterprise businesses, the broadband business vide its subsidiary OneOTT Intertainment crossed 7.2 lakh subscribers, clocking a growth rate of 76 per cent in Q2 of the current fiscal over last year.

    “Our performance in the first half of this fiscal reflects the company’s focus on growth, gradually emerging out of the challenges of the pandemic that still have a bearing on the media and entertainment industry,” stated Nxtdigital CEO and MD Vynsley Fernandes. “Our strategy for the rest of this fiscal is premised on leveraging the strength of our solutions and our pan-India footprint of touch-points. With a network of Nxthubs offering a host of digital services – ranging from video and broadband, to OTT and WiFi; and layered by our growth in our broadband base and our infrastructure sharing platform – we believe we will not just see growth but also unlock value across our media businesses.”

    The company also informed that it continues to dispose off its non-core assets to reduce debt, and it has sold land held by it in Hyderabad for a total consideration of Rs 69.30 crore, originally acquired at an approximate cost of Rs 25 crore.

    The Rights Issue announced on 13 May by the company – of two equity shares for every five equity shares held in the company, at an issue price of Rs 300 per share is scheduled to open on 15 November and close on 29 November.

    For Q3 and Q4, Nxtdigital said it will continue on its aggressive growth strategy focusing on three key verticals, expanding its footprint through another 60 Nxthubs; continuing to grow its broadband base through a mix of combo products, organic and inorganic growth; and operationalising the infrastructure sharing model, which has now secured all necessary permissions to become India’s first digital content distribution PaaS platform.

  • Nxtdigital launches 40 new Nxthubs across India

    Nxtdigital launches 40 new Nxthubs across India

    Mumbai: Integrated digital distribution company Nxtdigital Ltd (NDL) has launched 40 Nxthubs across India and unveiled a value-added app for its last-mile owner (LMO) on Thursday.

    Following the launch of its pilot in Ranchi, these Nxthubs were electronically launched at an event in Hyderabad across 13 states including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Karnataka, amongst others.

    Each Nxthub is owned and operated by NDL and is equipped with the latest technology comprising an ADDS or advanced digital distribution system – to distribute over 650 digital TV services received via satellite to LMOs and their customers. The Nxthub plug-and-play model eliminates the need for LMOs to invest in head-end and related technology. Besides video and broadband, these Nxthubs are future-ready to offer a slew of additional digital services including OTT and WiFi.

    According to the company, each location has been strategically chosen to augment the company’s footprint across the country, which today stands at over 4,400 pin codes, as well as focus on markets where LMO growth is constrained by the ability to invest. For LMOs, this plug-and-play solution facilitates them to go ‘digital’ literally overnight, offering their customers over 650 digital television channels and other digital services including broadband.

    NDL has planned a total of 100 such Nxthubs for this financial year that will further strengthen the NDL footprint across the country.

    “One of the key principles of the Hinduja Group is ‘partnership for growth’. After 2.0 saw the launch of headend-in-the-sky (HITS) to connect LMOs in even the most remote locations through the only satellite-based cable TV platform in India; 3.0 focuses not just on strengthening the overall ecosystem we have built, but harnessing the convergence of technologies – to be delivered through a national network of Nxthubs,” said Nxtdigital Ltd MD and CEO Vynsley Fernandes. “Video and broadband are only the start of the digital highway of services that we have developed for roll-out, backed by a robust suite of innovative apps developed by service providers, exclusively for our LMOs and subscribers.”

    Nxtdigital regional head for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana SY Srikumar said the company is proud that 16 of the 40 Nxthubs are in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana alone. “This national launch from Hyderabad reflects our commitment to LMOs here and the subscribers who expect a high quality of service. We believe this unique model will help stimulate growth and we have already lined up not just new products but also many more Nxthubs across the region,” he added.

    NDL also announced the launch of its new APIs or application programme interfaces for its Nxtdigital HITS service as well as a pre-integrated mobile app solution from ‘Mobiezy’ – under its VAAP program or ‘value-added apps for partners’. These APIs are designed to provide LMOs a way to develop or integrate their own subscriber mobile applications to automate activation/deactivation of subscriber packages directly into NDL’s systems, thereby enhancing the user experience it announced on Thursday.

    “This initiative will empower subscribers to pay online and subscribe to the channels they want to watch and get it activated on their TV sets in real-time without any delay. Without needing to undertake any software development, LMOs can approach Mobiezy for their pre-built and pre-integrated solution that uses Nxtdigital’s new APIs and can be up and running with their own mobile apps within just a few days,” said Nxtdigital group chief technology officer Ru Ediriwira.

    NDL has also been working on an infrastructure sharing model which will help other MSOs reduce operating costs, improve quality of service and extend services to hitherto unviable markets, especially rural; by riding on the HITS platform that covers all of India.

  • NXTDigital revenue up 13.5% in Q1FY22

    NXTDigital revenue up 13.5% in Q1FY22

    Mumbai: NXTDigital Ltd, the media vertical of the global Hinduja Group and an integrated digital distribution platform delivering services through digital cable television, HITS (Headend-In-The-Sky) and broadband, continued to leverage innovation and strategy to combat the challenges of the second wave to post strong results for the quarter ending 30 June.

    On a consolidated basis, the company’s revenues grew by 13.5 per cent in the first quarter of the current financial year 2021-22 to Rs 266.6 crore against revenues of Rs 234.8 crore during the same period in the previous year. The broadband business continued to grow touching 6.7 lakh subscribers which amounts to 93 per cent growth over Q1 FY21.  

    Several contracts in the video and broadband segments of business which got delayed due to the second wave were signed by the company.

    “The Q1 performance exhibits the company’s agility and reflexes – being able to innovate and maintain its momentum through a quarter impacted by the second wave,” said NXTDigital Ltd, MD & CEO, Vynsley Fernandes. “With the situation easing up, we are confident that implementation of our PaaS platform and the roll-out of our 100 NXTHUB project will see traction. Whilst we look to commence our infra sharing model with Siti Networks and then extend it to other MSOs, our 100 NXTHUB launch later this month from Ranchi and then on to other geographies, will continue to keep us well on the growth track.”

  • Cable operators take steps to ease vaccination process for staff

    KOLKATA: Despite the imminent health risks, the cable industry employees have continued to work on the frontlines all through the pandemic. Now with vaccination drives in full swing across the country, leading cable operators, too, are taking a step ahead and getting their employees inoculated. Apart from organising special vaccination drives in some cities, they are also helping employees schedule slots wherever the camps could not be set-up.

    NXTDigital organised a three-day vaccination camp at its head office in Mumbai in conjunction with Hinduja Hospital last week for its workforce in the city. The company extended this drive to also include employees’ families.

    “The philosophy has always been to hold the good health and safety of its employees as a paramount endeavour, something that we strived hard for since the pandemic began. NXTDIGITAL, therefore, set up an Employee Health & Safety (EHS) team to help our personnel and their families across the country impacted by COVID, including organising hospital treatment, access to critical medication and the like,” NXTDigital MD & CEO Vynsley Fernandes said.

    The EHS team is working with NXTDigital employees all across the country, not just supporting personnel to get vaccinated, but also providing every possible assistance to enhance their health and safety.

    GTPL Hathway also arranged vaccination drives for 45+ employees in many of its offices, with the help of state governments, GTPL Hathway cable TV head and chief strategy officer Piyush Pankaj said. However, the company could not organise such drives for 18-45+ due to shortage of vaccines. The human resources are helping employees to get the vaccinations scheduled, especially for people on the frontline. Teams are also trying to get the employees slots through government centres.

    On the other hand, Siti Networks could not organise the vaccination drive in one or two places given its pan-Indian footprint. But the MSO encouraged all employees to get vaccinated and reimbursed the vaccination cost, said Siti Networks group chief executive officer Anil Malhotra.

    Along with vaccination, the company informed that it would help employees procure PPE kits, masks whenever needed. It also imported oxygen concentrators to provide to employees if needed.

  • SCTE India announces its new executive board for the term 2021-2024

    SCTE India announces its new executive board for the term 2021-2024

    New Delhi: The Society of Cable Telecommunication Engineers (SCTE), India has appointed NXTDIGITAL Limited MD and CEO, Vynsley Fernandes as the honorary chairman, Sandeep Bhargava as the president, and Rahul Nehra as the national secretary.

    The announcement was made at the recently held annual general meeting.

    The new executive has a very aggressive charter for the year 2021 with initiatives like SCTE Academy, SCTE Consulting, SCTE Innovation, and SCTE India Tech TV to help India get the correct technical knowledge and facilitate the impetus in the years to come.

    “I am delighted to join the SCTE family as the Chairman. SCTE India has a significant role to play in Digital India; especially on the back of the rapidly changing technology landscape,” said Fernandes.

    Sandeep Bhargava said, “With data being the new fuel, Skilling and Innovation would play a significant role, and SCTE is right in the center of both.”

    SCTE India is a part of SCTE UK which celebrates its 75th year of existence and defines standards, certification, and innovation in the digital cable and the broadband space.