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Tag: Tata Sky

  • Why Tata Sky’s Harit Nagpal is pained about the MPEG-4 STB rollout

    Why Tata Sky’s Harit Nagpal is pained about the MPEG-4 STB rollout

    MUMBAI: A press release hit indiantelevision.com yesterday disclosing how US chip company Broadcom had got a massive order to supply standard definition MPEG-4 set top boxes (STBs) to Tata Sky. A simple release right. But it surely got the goose of Tata Sky managing director Harit Nagpal.

    Tata Sky MD Harit Nagpal is still awaiting a response from ISRO officials
    “This entire exercise is costing Tata Sky about Rs 1000 crore,” was Nagpal’s admission, when indiantelevision.com called him up. “We are replacing close to 5-6 million MPEG-2 SD STBs at no cost to consumers over the next year. All of this is coming in from internal accruals.” Nagpal says the DTH operator normally supplies about three million STBs a year for new acquisitions and churn. “This year we will be doing about 9-10 million STBs,” says he.

     

    The volumes have forced him to bring in emergency teams to make sure they install 500,000 STBs a month (made by Huawei and Humax apart from other international STB makers). This is apart from the regular service teams, which handle regular installation and problems.

    “For us even at Tata Sky it is a massive exercise and we have been working on it for the past three months and have just started the rollout,” he reveals.

    But isn’t that good? “Upgrading the boxes will give me more capacity for 12-14 channels,” he admits. “But I am being forced to do this because Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) has yet to give me my transponders. I could have put this money elsewhere on expanding my digitisation plans.”

    Tata Sky’s signals are being beamed off Insat 4A; but it had signed a contract to lease 12 transponders on ISRO’s GSAT-10 satellite around five years ago which have not been delivered to Tata Sky yet, even after the satellite launched in to space in September 2012.

    “It is sad that after national publications and a medium such as yours have carried my complaint against ISRO, I have not got a single revert from it about our transponders. We intend to take legal action since all our attempts to reach ISRO have failed. The courts are on vacation now, when they open again, we will move them,” added Nagpal.

    The transponders would have allowed Tata Sky to increase its channel offerings to consumers. However, now the new STBs will allow Tata Sky to add more channels to its bouquet. “We have been adding channels in a phased manner; the process will now be accelerated with the MPEG-4 STB. By June-July next year we should be able to revise our channel offerings to consumers,” said Nagpal.

  • Satellite woes bog down Tata Sky’s Harit Nagpal

    Satellite woes bog down Tata Sky’s Harit Nagpal

    MUMBAI: Tata Sky Managing director Harit Nagpal is extremely irate. The reason: he has not been able to expand his DTH service’s offerings for sometime now. And for no fault of his or his company’s, he says.

    Eight years ago, his company had contracted to use the government owned Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) satellite Insat 4A, with a proviso thrown in that if he needed more capacity, the satellite organisation would make the transponders available to him within two years of his request.

    In 2007, his organisation wrote in asking for more capacity. By then, Tata Sky was having about two million subscribers with dishes pointing in the sky towards where the Insat 4A satellite is located in orbit.

    Isro was slated to launch its Gsat-10 satellite with communications capabilities and Tata Sky had booked 12 transponders on it. The launch was delayed on account of something or the other. It finally, got into space in September 2012 off an Arianespace launch vehicle from Kourou in French Guiana.

    The launch gave him some relief, but what has dumbfounded him, is the fact that the transponders have not been made available to him almost eight months since launch.

    Since then, it has been a constant to and fro for his company. “We have been in touch with ISRO for a long time. We have written 100 emails to the ISRO chairman, met at least three to four times in the past six months. I know he wants to move things,” says Nagpal. “But despite his wanting nothing is.”

    Nagpal has been told Tata Sky’s allocation is stuck with the Space Commission currently. Prior to that, it was held up with the Insat Coordination Committee for a few months. He has even written to the Prime Minister’s Office which has then forwarded his request to ISRO. And the yo-yoing has been going on since.

    “It’s extremely frustrating,” says Nagpal. “I am a customer with a contract that entails me to pay Rs 50-60 lakh a month per transponder to the government as a rental. And I don’t have the government sticking to its contractual obligations.”

    But why is this happening? “I guess it is inertia,” says Nagpal. “Like everything has been stuck in bureaucracy. Even on this front no one is taking a decision as yet. Our contract is stuck in bureaucratic limbo.”

    Each of the 12 Ku-band transponders on GSat-10 have 36 MHz usable bandwidth with a footprint covering the Indian mainland with a power of 51.5 dBW. It is located at 83.0 degrees east in the same orbital location as Insat 4A and another Isro satellite GSAT-12.

    “I am open to other options. If officials are worried, then let them throw Insat GSAT-10 open for tender,” highlights Nagpal. “There will be no takers for it. Tata Sky is the only DTH provider, which has 10 million dishes nationally pointing towards the same zone in the sky that GSat-10 is at currently. Imagine you have an expensive bird in the sky costing $300-400 million and it is not being used productively.”

    Nagpal says he is days away from approaching the law of the land to force the government to stick to its commitments. “It’s not the ideal way,” he says. “I have been waiting for six years for my satellite transponders to be given to me. It has gone on long enough. There are no problems with my application; everything is sorted out. I am one of their main customers; so why such an extended delay?” he asks.

    Is somebody in government listening? Or in Isro?

    Indiantelevision.com called Isro chairman K. Radhakrishnan. And at that the time of writing was still awaiting a response from him. Keep watching this space for updates!

  • Airtel Digital TV DTH adds Freemium PPV movie service in its kitty

    Airtel Digital TV DTH adds Freemium PPV movie service in its kitty

    MUMBAI: Though the concept of pay per view (PPV) isn‘t new to direct to home (DTH) operators in India, Airtel has tweaked that idea further. The service, known as Freemium PPV is essentially the ad-supported version of the PPV, while giving the customers the option of viewing the content without paying for it, or to pay for it and remove the advertisements.

    The free movie viewing will be available on 3/4 screen space, while L-shaped advertisements will be placed on the remaining 1/4th part. Anyone who wants to view the movie in full screen can do so, by paying the particular fee applicable for that particular movie. Airtel has timed the launch of this service to coincide with the celebrations for 100 years of cinema, and is the first DTH operator in India to launch such a service.

    The Freemium PPV service is available on channel no 155 on the Airtel Digital TV DTH platform, on standard, high definition and high definition recorder set top boxes.

    This is the first of its kind service, which gives customers the flexibility of either viewing the movie for free, or paying for it and getting an ad-free experience. If a consumer does watch it for free, the broadcaster still gets revenue for the advertisement, and the brand that is advertising gets its placement.

    At the moment, other operators like Tata Sky offer PPV movie channels, where you pay for a movie, or the viewing is blocked. Videocon d2h, on its part, runs three movie channels at a flat monthly subscription price, including d2h Cinema that shows relatively recent Bollywood releases.

  • Indian pay TV operators making their mark globally: researcher SNL Kagan

    Indian pay TV operators making their mark globally: researcher SNL Kagan

    MUMBAI:India‘s pay TV operators are coming of age. And they are bursting on to the global pay TV scene, if one goes by data released by researcher SN L Kagan for 2012. Almost four of them feature in the top 10 list for Asia Pacific. Amongst these figure: Dish TV, DEN Networks, Siti Cable and Tata Sky.

    According to the SNL Kagan report, DishTV with 14.7 milllion subscribers is the largest pay TV operator (fourth placed in the Asia-Pac rankings), Den Networks wih 11.2 million subs, Siti Cable with 10.5 million subs and Tata Sky with 10.2 million subs are at the No 8, 9, and 10 positions. Chinese operator Jiangsu Broadcasting with 20.9 million subs leads the Asia Pac table, while China Telecom with 19.9 million subs is at No 2.

    The numbers can only go up for Indian pay TV ops, says an industry observer, as the government mandated digitisation spreads further into smaller and smaller towns forcing consolidation on the industry. Some MSOs are likely to expand even as DTH will attempt to garner new subscribers.

    The researcher says that Videocon d2H leads the Indian pay TV operator pecking order if one looks at net subscriber additions with its number of 2.3 million. Dish TV is also doing well with 2.2 million net new subscriber adds. While Tata Sky follows with 1.98 million new additions.

    India‘s BSNL with 9.9 million broadband subsribers and Bharati Airtel with 1.38 million are the only Indian firms featuring in the broadband table.

    On the whole, SNL Kagan has crowned US cable TV service provider Comcast, as the world‘s largest pay-TV provider last year with nearly 22 million subscribers. However the next two are not far behind. China‘s Jiangsu Broadcasting has 20.9 million and DirecTV has 20.1 million.

    China Telecom was the top fixed broadband provider, reaching 90.1 million high-speed Internet customers. India, China and the US accounted for 50 or nearly half of the 106 top pay-TV operators, with 27 companies based in China and 12 in India. The US is third with 11 operators, followed by France, Germany, South Korea, Brazil and Mexico, each with five.
     
    In Asia, of the top 10 platforms by subscriber number, six were in China and the rest are in India led by Dish TV.

    Comcast is still the number one broadband provider in the US, with about 19.4 million subscribers ahead of AT&T with 16.4 million and Time Warner Cable with 11.4 million subscribers.

    For a list of the Global Top Multichannel Operators by Year-End 2012 Video Subscribers. Click Here

    For a list of the Global Top Multichannel Operators by Year-End 2012 Video Net Adds. Click Here

    For a list of the Global Top Broadband providers by Year-End 2012 Subscribers. Click Here

    For a list of the Global Top Broadband providers by Year-End 2012 Net Adds. Click Here

    Also Read:

    SNL Kagan‘s global media & entertainment heavyweights

    US multi-channel video subscriber universe sees small growth in 2012: SNL Kagan

  • Govt revenues from DTH licensing fees zoom

    Govt revenues from DTH licensing fees zoom

    New Delhi: The six private direct-to-home operators paid Rs 3.078 billion as licence fee to the government for the year 2011-12, compared to Rs 1.778 billion in 2010-11 and Rs 1.262 billion in 2009-10.

    The revenue in 2008-09 was Rs 893 million from four operators, since both Airtel Digital TV (Bharti Telemedia Ltd.) as well as Videocon d2h (Bharat Business Channel Ltd.) had not commenced services.

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

    Under DTH licensing norms, the platforms pay a non-refundable entry fee of Rs 100 million and an annual fee equivalent to 10 per cent of gross revenue every financial year. Thus, the platforms have paid Rs 600 million as one-time entry fee.

    Interestingly, Tata Sky paid a licence fee of Rs 793 million in 2011-12 as against Airtel Digital’s Rs 618.7 million and Dish TV’s Rs 300 million. Sun Direct paid Rs 360 million, Reliance Big TV paid Rs 95 million, and Videocon d2h paid Rs 50 million.

    DTH services are governed by the DTH Guidelines and terms and conditions issued by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry on 15 March 2001 and amended from time to time.

    The seven DTH players in the country including Doordarshan’s free-to-air DD Direct Plus cover around 35 million TV homes.

  • Supreme court gives entertainment tax relief to DTH operators

    Supreme court gives entertainment tax relief to DTH operators

    NEW DELHI: In a major relief to direct-to-home operators in the state, the Supreme Court last week held that the Madhya Pradesh government cannot demand entertainment tax on DTH services under the Madhya Pradesh Entertainment Duty and Advertisements Tax Act, 1936.

    Justice Aftab Alam and Justice R M Lodha said in a judgment that Act ‘cannot be extended to cover DTH operations.’

    Accepting appeals by Tata Sky against a judgment of the Madhya Pradesh High Court of August 2010, the apex court said: ‘Neither the provision of section 4(1) nor any of the modes provided under section 4(2) of the Act can be made applicable for collection of duty on DTH operations. Further, it is noted above that section 8 provides rule making powers. In exercise of the powers under that provision, the Madhya Pradesh Entertainment Duty and Advertisement Tax Rules 1942 were framed. A perusal of the Rules makes it absolutely clear that the collection mechanism under the 1936 Act is based on revenue stamps stuck to the tickets issued by the proprietor for entry to the specified place where entertainment is held.’

    The Court added: ‘Under section 3 read with section 2(d) and section 2(a), the charge or levy of tax is attracted only if an entertainment takes place in a specified place or locations and persons are admitted to the place on payment of a charge to the proprietor providing the entertainment. In the present case, as DTH operation is not a place-related entertainment, it is not covered by the charging section 3 read with section 2(a) and 2(b) of the 1936 Act. Consequently, the question of going to section 2(d)(iv) does not arise.’

    The revenue department had demanded 20 per cent entertainment duty on subscription payment from the DTH operator, which had commenced services in August 2006 all over the country including Madhya Pradesh.

    Tata Sky in their appeals had contended that DTH broadcast is a notified service under the Finance Act and it is chargeable to service tax. For the purpose of levy of service tax, “broadcasting” has been defined specifically under section 65(15) of the Finance Act. The broadcasting services were brought within the purview of the service tax under section 65(105)(zk) of the Finance Act 1994 as amended with effect from 16 July 2001. Later on, DTH service was brought within the purview of the service tax with effect from 16 June 2006.

    Tata Sky contended that it does not use any infrastructure from the State for its DTH broadcasts.

    On 5 May 2008, the State Government issued a gazette notification fixing 20 per cent entertainment duty in respect of every payment made for admission to an entertainment other than cinemas, videos cassette recorders and cable service.

    The State on 1 August 2009 passed the Madhya Pradesh Entertainment Duty and Advertisements Tax (Amendment) Act, 2009. By the Amendment Act, the failure to produce accounts and documents as required by the Excise Commissioner or any officer authorized by the State Government was made a penal offence.

    However, the apex court noted that this amendment ‘did not introduce any provision in the Parent Act with respect to levy of entertainment duty on DTH broadcasting.’

    Referring to the notification of 5 May 2008, the apex court said ‘it is elementary that a notification issued in exercise of powers under the Act cannot amend the Act. Moreover, the notification merely prescribes the rate of entertainment duty at 20 per cent in respect of every payment for admission to an entertainment other than cinema, video cassette recorder and cable service. The notification cannot enlarge either the charging section or amend the provision of collection under section 4 of the Act read with the 1942 Rules. It is therefore clear that the notification in no way improves the case of the State.’

    The Court also said that the controversy in all the three appeals relates to the demand and realization of entertainment tax under the 1936 Act, which means for the period between the commencement of operation by the appellant in the year 2006 and 31 March 2011, the day prior to the coming into force of the new Act, called the Madhya Pradesh Vilasita, Manoranjan, Amod Evam Vigyapan Kar Adiniyam 2011.

  • Tata Sky signs WPP’s Kantar Media to better understand subscribers

    MUMBAI: How much can you know about your subscribers? Well, India‘s leading DTH operator Tata Sky believes the more the better. In a first for India, Tata Sky has signed an audience measurement deal with WPP media research firm Kantar Media. The contract with Kantar, will deliver a service, which is expected to help Tata Sky understand its subscribers viewing habits and also measure their behaviour.

    Expected to launch later this year, the service will take full advantage of Kantar Media’s return path data technology RapidView to collect complex audience data directly from set top boxes (STBs) and provide insights into subscriber behaviours not easily captured elsewhere.

    Kantar will have overall responsibility for setting up and operating the service and will be closely supported in the local market by India’s leading market research agency IMRB. Data from the service will be made available to Tata Sky using Infosys+, the leading edge TV analysis software platform developed by Kantar Media.

    Data will be collected from an opt-in panel chosen from Tata Sky’s subscriber base. An additional panel will be used to monitor those homes with High Definition (HD) televisions. Viewing data will be captured across all the ways in which Tata Sky customers are able to view TV (including live, time shift, on demand and interactive).

    Tata Sky chief content & business development officer Nicola Bamford said, “We are excited about launching this service in India in collaboration with Kantar Media and IMRB. The insights that will be available to us will help us to stay at the forefront of the Pay TV business in India.”

    Kantar Media Audiences global director for return path data Nick Burfitt said: “Pay-TV is showing incredible growth in India and Tata Sky is a leader there. We are delighted to have been chosen to develop and deploy this ground-breaking service, the first of its kind in this important market. The new service will provide real insights into the viewing habits of subscribers and we look forward to working with Tata Sky further as the service develops.”

    Kantar Media has been operating audience measurement services for set-top box operators around the world since 2005 and is the acknowledged thought leader in the successful deployment and research techniques using return path data.

    The partnership with Tata Sky is the latest addition to existing services operating in the USA, UK, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand with data being processed from many millions of set-top boxes each day. And that has helped operators there to service subscribers better and possibly offer solutions to potential partners and advertisers.

    Among the benefits clients such as BSkyB have got out of the service include: improved targeting of consumer marketing, increased advertising sales through more compelling audience insights, enhanced understanding of programming priorities, and increased revenues through possession of this valuable data.

    The fact is Tata Sky is taking cue from other markets to further up its service and business standards. Now one will have to wait and watch whether other DTH operators in India follow suit.

  • Tata Sky‘s record breaking TVC to go on-air this evening

    MUMBAI: It’s been a pioneer in the DTH broadcasting space. And now Tata Sky has gone in for another first which could well land it in the Limca Book of Records. The DTH operator has rolled out what is being pitched as the longest TV commercial in Indian advertising’s history. With a duration of 210 seconds, the TVC called Prison Break has been shot with the aesthetics of a Hollywood production.

    The slick shots and camera movement, along with tantalizing music make it an intensely gripping commercial. Tata Sky’s advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather worked with Vivek Kakkad, Director- Curious Films to shoot the commercial. The TVC was shot with an international cast and crew in an actual prison in Hungary.

    “Advertising is just not about selling stuff but it is also about telling story. The campaign idea was based on the insight that people these days do not find any time to watch television. Tata Sky+ HD, with its recording feature allows busy people to record their favorite programs and watch them at leisure. In other words, it’s ‘For those who don’t have time to watch TV’,” says Tata Sky CMO Vikram Mehra.

    In addition to TV channels, on which the TVC is breaking today, the commercial will also be screened in cinemas in a big fashion. Tata Sky officials were wary of revealing the media plan at the time of writing,excepting to say that it will be a “reach-frequency” campaign. It could run four to six weeks, and shorter versions ranging from 20 seconds to 30 seconds to 75 seconds have also been planned. To top this, the 360 degree campaign involves out-of-home activations and also product exhibition where people will get to see the features of the Tata Sky+HD and learn more about it.

    Mehra believes that it is the right time to launch such a campaign. “Digitisation is taking place in the 38 cities and people are looking at getting a set-top-box. Here we are telling them to buy Tata Sky+HD because that will also help them record your favorite programmes which they don’t get to watch because of their hectic schedule. Also, in April and May schools will be closing down and IPL is going on so especially in Mumbai and Delhi people will look at buying another TV set. Through this campaign we are also conveying to them that if they are thinking of buying any other STB or updating the current STB, why not Tata Sky+HD which is probably the best option for them?”

    The story revolves around a bunch of foreign convicts imprisoned in an Indian jail. These convicts conspire to escape when they realise that a cricket match is being played between India and Pakistan, assuming that the match would keep the Indian guards and the jailer occupied. But when the jailer and his men intercept their escape, the convicts are fumbled by what kind of Indian doesn’t watch such an epic match. That’s when the clincher kicks in – ‘a hard working Indian’, who with Tata Sky+ HD, can record it and watch it at his own time.

    The Tata Sky team has taken a big punt on the TV commercial. Production costs according to industry sources are supposed to be amongst the highest put behind a TVC in recent times. Additionally, the air time cost is likely to set back Tata Sky by many a dollar.But it could well end up to be worthwhile for the DTH operator if the subscribers sign up in the metros.

  • Indian DTH industry to benefit from digitisation, says MPA

    Indian DTH industry to benefit from digitisation, says MPA

    MUMBAI: India‘s move to digitise its fragmented and unorganised cable TV sector is going to give a fillip to the seven odd Indian DTH operators, according to Singapore based pay TV research firm Media Partners Asia (MPA).

    This is totally contrary to the behavior observed on the ground in the first two phases of digitisation wherein cable TV has held its ground and consumers have not really rushed out to buy DTH boxes even though analogue signals have been switched off.

    The MPA report says that revenues for DTH operators are expected to treble to over $5 billion by 2020 as mandatory cable TV digitisation would help the DTH players expand their subscriber base.

    It adds that DTH industry revenues will reach $3.9 billion by 2017 and $5.3 billion by 2020 on the back of a growth in subscriber numbers. Estimates are that the India™s DTH players raked in $1.5 billion last year.

    MPA says that active DTH subscribers will grow from 32.4 million in 2012 to 63.8 million by 2017 and 76.6 million by 2020. The figure for 2011 was at 28.7 million. The increase in active subscribers in 2012 over 2011 was a mere 3.7 million which is alarming, it says.

    The report points out that the content deals between operators and content aggregators such as IndiaCast, MediaPro and TheOneAlliance are likely to be on a cost per subscriber basis rather than a fixed rate as was the practice earlier.

    As it is DTH operators have been making efforts to improve their per subscriber economics over the past year by increasing the number of packages and entry level pricing. They have also tried to reduce churn levels by reducing trade margins and the window of free viewing by new subscribers, revealed MPA.

    The report warns that marketing and staff expenses will remain high with DTH operators as the rollout of digitisation makes further inroads into the remaining parts of India.

    MPA has also given the pecking order of the leading DTH players. Dish TV continues to lead with a market share of 27 per cent in terms of gross additions, while Videocon d2h leads in terms of incremental additions in 2012.

    Tata Sky and Airtel Digital TV have 19 and 18 per cent market share, respectively. These four players together accounted for 88 per cent of total gross additions last year, says MPA.

  • DTH players revise subscription packages upwards

    DTH players revise subscription packages upwards

    MUMBAI: Bogged down by multiple taxation and regular hikes in taxes like service and entertainment, Indian direct-to-home (DTH) service providers have decided to pass on the burden to their customers.

    DTH operators like Dish TV, Tata Sky, Airtel digital TV and Videocon d2h are raising base pack prices. In the case of Dish TV and Videocon d2h, the uptick is to the tune of 10 per cent for all their packages.

    They say an increase is inevitable as they have been absorbing taxes for far too long and the industry viability itself is coming into question because the players have been bleeding.

    Airtel digital TV has hiked its base pack price from Rs 158 to 175 per month effective 9 April. Videocon d2h’s price hike comes into effect from 10 April. Dish TV was the first to hike prices of monthly subscription packages by 10 per cent effective 4 April.

    Tata Sky has increased prices for individual plans unlike the uniform hike by Dish TV and Videocon d2h. Some like Reliance Digital TV are still adopting a wait and watch policy.

    However, the DTH operators have also provided price protection to their customers by giving them an option to save money by recharging for a longer duration.

    Under the regulation, existing customers are protected from a price hike which can only be implemented after six months from the day it comes into effect.

    Dish TV COO Salil Kapoor says that DTH operators were absorbing the burden of service tax till now and have decided to pass it on to the customers to reduce that burden.

    “We have hiked prices by 10 per cent across the board. We are just passing the burden of service tax on to the customers,” says Kapoor.

    Tata Sky MD and CEO Harit Nagpal is of the opinion that the price hike is not just about service and entertainment tax.

    “The input costs have gone up, the cost of content has also gone up plus there is inflation. The DTH operators have been dropping prices till now so this (price hike) is just one little step in the right direction by DTH operators,” explains Nagpal.

    Videocon d2h CEO Anil Khera elucidates: “Service tax has been increased and entertainment tax in many states has also been increased so we are gradually passing the burden on to the customers.”

    A Reliance Digital TV spokesperson said that the company is evaluating hiking prices, “Yes, we are at present evaluating different options. At this stage, it is difficult to say how much would it be and when,” the spokesperson states.

    The spokesperson adds, “Also, as an industry we are heavily burdened with statutory levies (to the extent of around 35 per cent) – the recent decision to increase the Customs Duty on STBs by 5 per cent has only added to this burden.”