ITV

Tag: Tata Sky

  • TDSAT to hear all six DTH ops plea on licence fee on 6 May

    TDSAT to hear all six DTH ops plea on licence fee on 6 May

    NEW DELHI: The government has assured the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) that it will not pressurise the private direct-to-home (DTH) operators with regard to its demand for payment of licence fee until the next date of hearing, which is on 6 May.

     

    This assurance was given to the Tribunal, which had yesterday morning given directions to the government to respond to petitions by Tata Sky, Reliance Big TV and Sun Direct to respond within three weeks,

     

    However, the Tribunal decided to hear the matter again today when the other private DTH operators – Dish TV, Videocon d2h and Airtel Digital TV – mentioned the issue before the Tribunal yesterday afternoon and also pointed out that Clause 3.1.1 in Reliance’s licence was different from the corresponding clause in the licence granted to Tata Sky. 

     

    Following this, the Tribunal had recalled its order with regard to Reliance and said ‘we regret this material difference was not pointed out to us when the case was taken up for preliminary hearing.’

     

    But counsel for Reliance Big TV today assured the Tribunal that the relevant clause had been subsequently changed and that the DTH operator stood on the same footing as other operators.  

     

    Although the government opposed the petitions when they came up for hearing, the Tribunal stood by its earlier order of hearing the matter on 6 May and said the private operators could file rejoinders, if any, within one week of the government’s reply.

     

    Even as the petitioners have alleged that the demand by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry is contempt of court as a matter in this regard is pending in the Supreme Court, I and B Secretary Bimal Julka had told indiantelevision.com that the apex court had not issued any stay order.

     

    However, conscious that the TDSAT or the Supreme Court may be moved in the matter, a caveat had been filed by the Ministry in this regard.

     

    The Ministry had recently sent a notice to the six private DTH Operators with regard to licence fee dues amounting to Rs 2,066 crore. 

     

    According to the notice sent early last week, the six private operators have been asked to pay the amount within fifteen days. 

     

    However, most of the operators contacted by indiantelevision.com said they had cleared the dues of licence fee. 

     

    The operators say the licence fee as demanded under the rules is on gross revenue (GR) whereas they have been asked to pay the fee on the basis of Actual Gross Revenue (AGR). The operators have said the fee should be only on subscription revenue and not on allied earnings such as dividend and interest income. 

  • TDSAT to hear DTH ops plea on licence fee on 6 May

    TDSAT to hear DTH ops plea on licence fee on 6 May

    NEW DELHI: The petition by the three major direct-to-home (DTH) operators challenging the notice of the government for clearing arrears of licence fees will be heard on 6 May by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT).

     

    When counsel for the petitioners mentioned the petition before the Tribunal, counsel for the government said the DTH operators will not be pressurised in this regard till the case is taken up for hearing.

     

    The government has been asked to file a reply within three weeks and the three petitioners – Tata Sky, Sun Direct TV and Reliance Big TV – will file rejoinders, if any, within one week of that.

     

    Even as the petitioners have alleged that the demand by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry is contempt of court as the matter in this regard is pending in the Supreme Court, I and B Secretary Bimal Julka had earlier told indiantelevision.com that the apex court had not issued any stay order.

     

    However, conscious that the TDSAT or the Supreme Court may be moved in the matter, a caveat had been filed by the Ministry in this regard.

     

    The Ministry had recently sent a notice to the six private DTH operators with regard to licence fee dues amounting to Rs 2,066 crore.

     

     According to the notice sent early last week, the six private operators had been asked to pay the amount within fifteen days.

     

     However, most of the operators contacted by indiantelevision.com said they had cleared the dues of licence fee.

     

     The operators say the licence fee as demanded under the rules is on gross revenue (GR) whereas they have been asked to pay the fee on the basis of Actual Gross Revenue (AGR). The operators have said the fee should be only on subscription revenue and not on allied earnings such as dividend and interest income.

  • Nick Jr. and Sonic now on Tata Sky

    Nick Jr. and Sonic now on Tata Sky

    MUMBAI:  Viacom18 Media’s kids cluster, Nickelodeon, is now expanding its reach by adding Nick Jr. and Sonic on Tata Sky. Nick Jr., targeted at toddlers and young mothers can be viewed on channel no. 623 and Sonic, the action-adventure channel, on 619 in various language feeds.

     

    The Nickelodeon kids cluster consists of Nick that caters to kids seeking comedy, Sonic that caters to the action and adventure loving boys, Nick Junior that entertains pre-schoolers and young moms with edutainment focussed shows and Teen Nick that talks to the whimsical tweens with its cutting edge international shows. The entire Nickelodeon cluster is now available on Tata Sky with Nick on channel no. 611, Sonic on 619 and Nick Jr./ Teen Nick on 623.

     

    Viacom18 Media EVP & business head, kids cluster Nina Elavia Jaipuria said, “Nickelodeon has a diverse bouquet of differentiated channels each catering to a very specific age and genre. With the aim of taking our engaging and entertaining content to more audiences, we are delighted to expand our reach further with the addition of Nick Jr. and Sonic on Tata Sky.”

  • Express TV to launch in Andhra Pradesh

    Express TV to launch in Andhra Pradesh

    MUMBAI: As the country gears itself for what is being called the ‘Election of the Century’ by many existing news channels, another new News channel is set to make space for itself in Andhra Pradesh.  Backed by industrialist Jayaram Chigrupati, Express TV will see the light of the day on 31 March that coincides with the Telugu New Year.

     

    With 280 employees on board, the channel will have Bhaskar Nemani as the editorial head and Sai Ramakrishna as the business head. Headquartered in Hyderabad, the channel will operate out of Vijayawada, Vishakhapatnam, Tirupati and Warangal with two journalists and two camerapersons in each office. With its launch coinciding with the election season, the channel is looking at providing detailed election coverage through its election related programmes along with Nemani, who will be anchoring the primetime news at 9:00 pm.

     

    The TG is men and women between 23 to 45 years of age. However, Nemani says that the channel will focus on women stories for at least two hours a day.

     

    Broadcasting from Intelsat 17, Express TV has three OB vans and 10 backpack gears on 2mbps 3G for its journalists in the various bureaus and one in Delhi.

     

    “There are nearly 16 news channels in Andhra Pradesh and most of them owned by political parties which is not the case with us. Our goal is development and responsible journalism,” says Nemani.

     

    The marketing campaign has begun across the states on outdoor buses and hoardings. The creative has been done by an in-house team. With an investment of above Rs 20 crore, the channel is looking at breaking even in the next two years.

     

    Currently, the channel has no advertisers on board but it is looking at gaining a decent viewership through elections. The channel will be available on Tata Sky and Hathway for the start and will soon get on board other platforms as well. However, it says that distribution may take a little while.

  • DTH operators to challenge I&B Ministry’s notice on arrears

    DTH operators to challenge I&B Ministry’s notice on arrears

    NEW DELHI: Operators of private direct-to-home (DTH) platforms, who recently received a notice from the government with regard to licence fee dues amounting to Rs 2,066 crore, plan to challenge the notice on the ground that the matter is subjudice and is pending in the Supreme Court.

     

    However, the DTH Operators Association of India is yet to decide whether the challenge will be in the form of a reply to the Ministry or an application in Court.

     

    According to the notice sent earlier this week, the six private operators have been asked to pay the amount within fifteen days.

     

    However, most of the operators contacted by indiantelevision.com said they had cleared the dues of licence fee.

     

    The operators say the licence fee as demanded under the rules is on gross revenue (GR) whereas they have been asked to pay the fee on the basis of actual gross revenue (AGR). The operators have said the fee should be only on subscription revenue and not on allied earnings such as dividend and interest income.

     

    When the operators insisted that they had been paying the licence fee on the GR, the government went to the Supreme Court on the issue and the matter has been pending for the past four years and is now expected to come up early next month.

     

    However, Information and Broadcasting Ministry secretary Bimal Julka told indiantelevision.com that the Ministry was justified in sending the notices since the apex court had not levied a stay order in the matter. Asked about possible action after 15 days, he said this would be done according to the provisions of the licensing rules.

     

    Tata Sky MD & CEO Harit Nagpal said that the demand of Rs 2,066 crore is the differential between the GR and the AGR.

     

    He also said that I&B Ministry had itself asked the Finance Ministry to reduce the fee from 10 per cent to six per cent but the latter had not taken a decision on this so far.

     

    According to the notices sent to the operators, Dish TV has to pay Rs 625 crore while Tata Sky has been told to pay Rs 620 crore. Airtel Digital TV has to pay Rs 298 crore, while Sun Direct has to clear Rs 230 crore. The Videocon-owned d2h has to pay Rs 157 crore while Reliance Digital TV has to pay Rs 136 crore.

     

    While DTH companies provide for 10 per cent licence fee on overall revenue in their profit and loss account, they pay less (only on subscription revenue net of content cost) at about five per cent of overall revenue. The rest is booked as a provision in the balance sheet, along with applicable interest.

     

    As of 31 March 2013, Dish TV’s closing provision pertaining to regulatory dues (including interest) stood at Rs 653.66 crore.

     

    Some of the DTH operators were hopeful that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India would bring down the licence fee from 10 per cent to six per cent, as proposed by the I&B Ministry to the Finance Ministry. TRAI itself had recommended last year that the actual gross revenue should be brought down to eight per cent.

     

    Meanwhile, the Parliament was told in April last year that the six private DTH operators paid Rs 307.8 crore as licence fee to the government for the year 2011-12, compared to Rs 177.8 crore in 2010-11 and Rs 126.2 crore in 2009-10.

     

    The revenue in 2008-09 was Rs 89.3 crore from four operators, since both Airtel Digital TV (Bharti Telemedia) as well as Videocon d2h (Bharat Business Channel) had not commenced services.

     

    The other DTH players are Dish TV, Tata Sky, Sun Direct TV, and Reliance Big TV.    

     

    Under the agreement with the government, the platforms pay a non-refundable entry fee of Rs 10 crore and an annual fee equivalent to 10 per cent of its gross revenue every financial year. Thus, the platforms have paid Rs 60 crore as one-time entry fee.

     

    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.

     

    DTH services are governed by the DTH guidelines and terms and conditions issued by the I&B Ministry on 15 March 2001 and amended from time to time.    

     

    The seven DTH players in the country including Doordarshan’s free-to-air Freedish cover around 3.5 crore TV homes. Freedish currently has 59 slots including 22 of its own and which it hopes to increase to 97 by the end of this year and ultimately to 250 slots over the next two years.

  • Disney junior reaches out to 26.5 million households across the nation

    Disney junior reaches out to 26.5 million households across the nation

    MUMBAI: Disney Junior, the globally acclaimed entertainment destination designed especially for the youngest members of the family, their parents and caregivers, will now be available on two of India’s leading Direct-to-Home (DTH) platforms – Tata Sky and Airtel digital TV. The channel which showcases both classic and new Disney characters, will now reach out to all the subscribers of Tata Sky and Airtel digital TV with the same magical storytelling with a heart that generations of Disney fans have come to know and love.

     

    “Disney Junior is an engaging, learning-focused and unique Disney destination with elements that encourage early childhood development, wrapped in strong emotionally connected storytelling. Over the past year, we have been committed to bringing wonderful stories through shows such as ‘Mickey Mouse Clubhouse’, ‘Jake and the Never Land Pirates’, along with recent additions such as “Sofia The First” and “Henry Hugglemonster”. These shows have not only been the hallmark of the Disney experience but have also served as a learning and development tool for our young viewers. We are very happy to bring Disney Junior to the Tata Sky and Airtel digital TV viewers”, said Nikhil Gandhi, Vice President and Head of Ad Sales, Media Networks, Disney India

     

    Disney Junior fulfills the parents’ expectations, blending unparalleled storytelling and beloved characters with learning components that encourage social and emotional development as well as cognitive skills. It’s globally acclaimed stories help develop skills such as early math and language as well as healthy eating and lifestyles along with building emotional connections with the iconic as well as new characters which form the most ‘fun’ aspect of growing up. The original series include ‘Jake and the Never Land Pirates’, ‘Doc McStuffins’, ‘Mickey Mouse Clubhouse’, ‘A Poem Is…’, ‘Handy Manny,’ ‘Little Einsteins’, “Special Agent Oso” and more.

     

    The channel recently announced the availability of Disney Junior’s most popular iOS apps, “Jake’s Never Land Pirate School,” developed internationally on Android devices in Google Play and for Kindle tablets in the Amazon Appstore. Using “Jake’s Never Land Pirate School” App, kids can become completely immersed in Never Land, completing pirate-themed challenges such as Sailing, Pirate Band, Map & Spyglasses and Pixie Dust. The app also enables fans to capture or import a photo to create a personalized pirate face, and the Pirate School Captain’s Log tracks class levels completed and Badges of Honor earned so that kids can earn their official Pirate Certificate. The “Jake’s Never Land Pirate School” App is $2.99.  

     

    Disney Junior continues to be available across other leading DTH and digital players in India.

     

  • There is no channel loyalty in the genre: Monica Tata

    There is no channel loyalty in the genre: Monica Tata

    With nearly 25 years of experience behind her, HBO South Asia MD Monica Tata brings expertise in the management of television networks’ operations to the table.

     

    Tata has worked as part of the leadership team at Turner and has had a consistent record of increasing sales, effective negotiations, profit and loss analysis and strategic implementation of business operations; her performance with Turner and prior to that, Star India, stand testimony to her path of excellence. 

     

    An ability to overcome obstacles and capture opportunities by closing exclusive deals and creating and implementing savvy marketing strategies has been her forte. Tata’s efforts have been validated in the past, when she was adjudged one of India’s hottest young executives in media in 2009 by Business Today; counted among the ‘Next 30’ most powerful women to look out for in 2010; and among the top 50 influential women in media, marketing and advertising by a leading industry magazine – IMPACT in 2012.

     

    Sidharth Iyer of Indiantelevision.com spoke to Tata, who was also the Guest Editor of the Day, about the progress made by HBO in the past decade and the traction received by HBO Defined and HBO Hits among other things. Excerpts…

     

    Currently, the market is cluttered with nearly 10 English movie channels. What is HBO’s strategy to stay ahead of competition? What is the impact that the new players have had on the genre? Has it really eaten into someone’s ad pie?

     

    HBO has been around for 13 years, but when we launched HBO Defined and HBO Hits, the whole integrated strategy was what we were working towards for sustaining all the three channels.

     

    The proposition in premium and basic is very different; the basic clearly runs on advertising revenues and the content mix that you will witness in the basic version is driven by genres that are well received, primarily action and comedy. And that is what drives ratings, viewership and ad revenues in the end.  

     

    For our premium channel, the main proposition is that it is 100 per cent ad-free, and it has HBO original content and allows us to take more risks as we don’t have the sword of ratings hanging over our head as we are creating and providing a proposition.

     

    So, the way the sharing of the content is structured, it brings about a viewership experience between the three which is quite unique by itself. There is competition in this space now compared to a decade back, when there were only three major players.

     

    I think there is clear fragmentation in the genre and the major point of concern is that if you compare it to the English news channels, where there was an advent of more channels and it helped in increasing the size of the advertising pie; the same can’t be said for the movie space.

     

    Even as more and more channels have come on-board, the pie hasn’t really grown and that is a cause for concern for the genre. The viewership pie has grown by about 5-6 per cent but the revenue generated from advertising still stands between Rs 450 – Rs 500 crore, which was around Rs 350 crore a decade back… so really not much has changed.

     

    Having said that, this is one of the few genres where the revenue index to ratings is very high because of the premium value it holds in the market and with genre-specific channels also coming out now, the opportunities are there to be harvested.

     

    Which studios do you have first output deals with? How big is the movie library of HBO?

     

    We have tie-ups with Warner Bros and Paramount for first output deals, and the concept in the category has been changing in recent history. And the other prevalent issue is that content flows from one studio to one broadcaster and then to others with first, second, third and fourth runs.

     

    So, if we take an example of any movie in the last five years, it would have been seen on five different channels. But, where we are different is in the fact that apart from the deals with bigger studios like Warner Bros and Paramount, we have deals with other smaller and independent studios and producers of content as well.

     

    On the acquisition front, we not only look at acquiring big titles, but also some niche movies which are high on brand value and content as well. We recently got on-board some of the best movies from the recently concluded Oscars and are proud to have exclusive rights to titles like ‘12 Years A Slave’, ‘Gravity’ and ‘The Great Gatsby’.

     

    We would be having anything between 700-800 movie titles and are certainly focused on building on this along with creating more engaging original content globally.

     

    How has the traction been for HBO Defined and HBO Hits? What are the challenges faced by the genre in today’s day and age? How can they be overcome?

     

    When HBO basic was launched, the lay of the land was only ad revenue supported and we have continued to grow in the space. And we were able to bring HBO Defined and HBO Hits into the country on the back of digitisation.

     

    The response for the ad-free service is really encouraging, after having executed it on key platforms. The challenge now lies in growing that base, as the transition on the DTH platforms has been really smooth but the hurdle comes with the cable services. I believe the cause for the issue is the fact that there are too many stakeholders coming into play with multi-system operators and then the local cable operators to funnel it down to the end consumer.

    In the end, the industry needs to come together and keep in mind the interest of all the stakeholders and come up with the right value chain for a healthy ecosystem.

     

    HBO GO – the online streaming service of HBO – was launched in the Philippines yesterday, any plans of bringing the service to India? 

     

    HBO GO is a versatile service enabling subscribers to maximise their HBO experience across multiple devices, whether at home or on the move. But, there are a lot of hurdles that we need to consider before getting such a service to India. HBO GO’s broadband streaming service allows users to enjoy uncut, award-winning HBO and Cinemax Original content on multiple devices including computers, tablets and smartphones (iOS and Android) anywhere, anytime. The service is currently available only in Hong Kong and now Philippines.

     

    In India the service can’t be launched currently because we want to ensure that when the consumer logs on to watch some of his/her favourite HBO originals, they should not have to wait for the video to buffer and should be able to enjoy seamless viewing. The opportunity is really a great proposition for subscribers, who will have unlimited access to an extensive library of original movies, concerts, documentaries, and series, including complete seasons of favorites like Sex and the City, Band of Brothers, The Pacific, The Sopranos, and Entourage, and thought-provoking titles like Angels in America and John Adams. Special behind-the-scenes content of HBO Originals such as Boardwalk Empire, True Blood and Banshee will also be available exclusively on HBO GO, if and when the service comes to India.  

     

    Social media is a platform that is really acting as a great catalyst for most channels in the English movie genre, what is HBO’s strategy in the space?

     

    Social media is certainly a great focus point for us. We make a lot of effort in keeping our fans engaged on our social platforms, with a fanbase of over 3.1 million on Facebook and nearly 36,500 followers on Twitter, I believe we have encouraged the fans to really voice their thoughts on the kind of programming that they would like to view on the channel and we do consider their views.

     

    Our digital media is handled by New Delhi based OMLogic, who really help in keeping our social audience engaged with continuous uploads and comments flowing in. DDB Mudramax helps us with the planning and execution of our creative campaigns and we are well represented by Madison PR, who do a great job in handling our public relations for us.

     

    What do you think works in today’s day and age, appointment viewing or brand loyalty; or a good mix of both? What is it that viewers expect from the English movie genre?

     

    If you cover the logo of any movie channel with your hand, you won’t really know which channel you are seeing and this will be the case even five years down the line. To me, this is the biggest problem with the genre as there is no loyalty; the consumer is not watching the channel but the titles.

     

    So, if they are aware that a certain movie is coming on one channel, they will go to that channel, so the question really is how to create brand loyalty. In today’s fragmented world, there is so much of choice; the consumer is spoilt for choice.

     

    So the added value that we believe in to promote the proposition of brand loyalty is the cinematic experience. We believe we are doing that with HBO Defined and HBO Hits, with no advertisements, there will be no breaks, there is an HD experience and add to that, the technologically advanced sound with Dolby Digital surround sound.

     

    And the future lies in adopting technology in a big way, to the extent that I would go on to state that in today’s day and age, technology is king. And the idea is to bring the technological experience to the audience. We have taken the first step with ‘HBO on Demand’ on Tata Sky and these are the kind of things that will be bringing a revolution in the genre.

     

  • We’re excited to make people’s lives more Jing-a-la-la with HBO: Vikram Mehra

    We’re excited to make people’s lives more Jing-a-la-la with HBO: Vikram Mehra

    Under her watch, the English movies channel has only grown from strength to strength. Before taking charge as MD, HBO India, Monica Tata worked with Turner International India, quitting as General Manager, Entertainment Networks, South Asia, in 2012. Tata has nearly two and a half decades’ experience in the media and entertainment industry, and spent most of her formative years at Star India before moving on to Turner.

     

    Indiantelevision.com was more than happy to have Tata over as Guest Editor for a day and play fly-on-the-wall even as she grilled Tata Sky chief commercial officer Vikram Mehra about the association with HBO and more…Excerpts of the conversation between the two:

     

    Monica: What is the business model for providing the ‘HBO On Demand’ service?

     

    Vikram: The way we are looking at it right now, which is also in sync with our philosophy at Tata Sky is that apart from offering television channels which customers are used to, providing those channels with great picture quality and better customer service is our lookout.

     

    We are also very keen to try out unconventional products and services, which customers haven’t tried out till now and give them a flavour of that. Whether it’s trying out varied services like Karaoke which nobody ever thought could be offered on a television-based platform, which is a global first for us. On our partnership with HBO, where customers are showing interest in watching premium content like HBO Defined and HBO Hits. Not only are they getting to watch 100 per cent ad-free content, but also older seasons that they would not have been exposed to otherwise.

     

    So, somebody who has never been exposed to say, a Game of Thrones, and is keen to watch season four, what with so much publicity around it, need not bother with downloading bad quality content from Torrentz or buying it from the pirated market. Our partnership with HBO is such that any customer subscribing to its premium offering would also get a free entitlement to watch back seasons of all leading shows on VOD.

     

    Monica: So will this be available to everybody or only to HBO premium subscribers?

     

    Vikram: This will be available only to HBO premium customers. This content is offered only as a free value-add to people who have decided to go out and subscribe to the HBO premium service. Conventionally, what used to happen; people would pay for a channel and just get that. But with HBO, for the first time in India, when you pay for the channel, you will not only get the channel but also the free VOD entitlements along with it.

     

    Monica: Please share your views on the genesis of this unique partnership. For the first time, ‘HBO On Demand’ has been brought into the country. Where did it begin and how was the experience?

     

    Vikram: Not only the ‘HBO On Demand’ part but also HBO channels are a complete breakthrough in this country. Nobody else has been able to come out with their high-profile channel which shows you great movies in great picture quality and ad-free. Nobody has that kind of service in the country today.

     

    For us, it is a very big experiment that we genuinely believe in. We have been getting fabulous response from customers about these two channels. And our constant endeavour is to keep thinking what more can we bring to customers.

     

    We have a very well established VOD service today with over 3,000 video titles that we typically sell on a transaction basis or a subscription basis. But you cannot get this content unless you go out and subscribe to the television channels of HBO premium.

     

    We are already getting a large number of calls at our call centres and people want to know more about it. If you check twitter, there are people tweeting about how Tata Sky has brought in a great initiative and we are extremely excited about it.

     

    Monica: What has the response been like and how excited is Tata Sky about the season 4 premiere of the HBO Original Series, Game of Thrones, on HBO Defined?

     

    Vikram: I am a huge fan of Game of Thrones and we are pretty excited about it. It will be an absolutely new audience that we can open up in this country for a Game of Thrones kind of high quality production. I am yet to see anything of this kind of production quality to be put on television. It’s mind-blowing and a new generation, a new kind of crowd is going to open up to this show.

     

    Hence, we are very clear that when we promote season four, it will not be limited to just larger towns but also mid-size and small-size ones. And our communication will say, “Don’t worry if you have missed the first three seasons, why don’t you download from VOD and check it out!”

     

    Monica: Do you think that the dual language proposition is an interesting one and is working well?

     

    Vikram: It is working quite well. Our endeavour is not only limited to people in Mumbai or Delhi. It’s a huge mental block for people in smaller towns who think they won’t be able to catch the accent. The moment they understand that there is a provision to shift to Hindi, it’s a huge comfort to them.

     

    So, ever since we have started promoting the dual-programming concept with HBO, we have seen absolutely fresh households opening up to the entire concept. We have seen a substantial increase in the subscription of the service.

     

    Monica: What do you expect further from this Tata Sky-HBO partnership?

     

    Vikram: Our endeavour is to keep on doing newer things. As a company, we take pride in the fact that we are not just a digital TV service provider. I think there has to be newer things brought to this market, which India has never seen and some of the things globally have never been out here. We believe that in HBO, we have a partner with whom we can go and try these things out. So, we are very excited about making the life of Tata Sky people more ‘Jinga Lala’ with HBO.

  • Tata Sky promotes Karaoke service

    Tata Sky promotes Karaoke service

    MUMBAI: Tata Sky had recently announced a new service to its customers- a karaoke service at home! Now, it has come up with an ad campaign to promote its new innovation.

     

    The direct to home (DTH) player has come up with a series of advertisements promoting the service. Of these, one film demonstrates a group of youngsters partying in their room and another shows a family having fun while singing songs on Karaoke. The ad ends with its tagline ‘Kum se kum lyrics toh sahi honge’ (at least the lyrics will be right).

     

    Tata Sky chief commercial officer Vikram Mehra said, “The love for singing and dancing is epitomized by Bollywood movies. Karaoke may be a new activity for a large part of India, but singing as an entertaining and collective activity was never an alien concept. Be it a family function or a night out with friends, singing our favorite Hindi songs in loud chorus adds tremendously to the fun factor of any evening. Capitalising on this sentiment, the Karaoke ads capture the simplicity of tuning into the service any time of the day for non-stop entertainment.”

     

    The concept has been created by agency Ogilvy & Mather(O&M). The professionals who have worked on it include national creative director Abhijit Avasthi and group creative director Sukesh Nayak under production house Curious Films.

     

    Says Avasthi: “Karaoke had to be pitched as a social activity in the realm of enjoyment. While the product was revolutionary we wanted people to see it as on obvious relevant product which seamlessly fits into, rather enhances an already existing moment in their life.  Essentially, all we had to do was to let people know the key features of Karaoke that will make fun moments over singing, even more fun.”

     

    Karaoke is available with an HD + set top box. A mic along with 12 month subscription will cost Rs 1990. One album will always be free to sample while new songs will be regularly added. 

  • HBO on Demand gets on board Tata Sky

    HBO on Demand gets on board Tata Sky

    MUMBAI: The Home of Box Office (HBO) just got cosier with ‘HBO on Demand’. The new and innovative service offered for free exclusively to subscribers of the HBO Premium Channels – HBO Hits HD and HBO Defined HD – will be available on the direct to home (DTH) platform starting today.  

     

    The service provides flexibility, choice, and convenience to subscribers giving them complete control of what they watch, when they watch and how they watch.  HBO Hits and HBO Defined are distributed by Turner International in India.

     

    “HBO and Turner have always been ahead of the curve with innovations on content delivery that are designed to entertain consumers like never before. We have received a very enthusiastic response from the discerning subscribers of HBO Defined HD and HBO Hits HD and are very happy to now extend their premium advertising-free television viewing experience with the additional feature of ‘HBO on Demand’ on Tata Sky,” said Turner International India, network and content distribution, senior director Kishan Cheranda in a press statement.

     

    Based on the Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) model, the service will give HBO Premium subscribers access to a wide selection of HBO original content. At launch, subscribers can catch all seasons of HBO shows such as Game of Thrones (Season 1-3), True Detective (Season 1) and Banshee (Season 1-2). Thereafter, additional content including HBO original series and movies will be added on an ongoing monthly basis thus allowing subscribers to view them at a time of their choice completely advertising free.

     

    Tata Sky chief content and business development officer Paolo Agostinelli stated, “At Tata Sky, we work towards providing our premium subscribers with world class television experience with best content to offer. Apart from just bringing entertainment to their homes, now our subscribers can enjoy the programs showcased on HBO premium channels at any time that is convenient to them. Moving with time, we are aware of the changing consumption patterns of our viewers, hence we are pleased to launch the first ever ‘HBO On Demand’ model in India.”