Tag: Videocon d2h

DTH licence fee case adjourned yet again

NEW DELHI: The petition by the private direct-to-home (DTH) operators challenging the notice of the government for clearing arrears of licence fees has been adjourned once again. Reason: the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) wants to first decide on a similar case relating to actual gross revenue with regard to telecom.

Earlier, chairman Aftab Alam and Kuldeep Singh had adjourned the matter from 23 May to 8 July as the operators had not filed their rejoinders to the reply by the government.

The adjournment was allowed on a mention by the counsel for the various DTH operators.

TDSAT also noted that the earlier assurance by the government that it will not pressurise the operators in this regard till the case is taken up for hearing will continue.

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.

However, Information and Broadcasting Ministry secretary Bimal Julka had earlier told indiantelevision.com that the apex court had not issued any stay order. However, the government had filed a caveat in this regard, conscious that the TDSAT or the Supreme Court may be moved in the matter.

The Ministry had earlier this year sent a notice to the six private DTH operators with regard to licence fee dues amounting to Rs 2,066 crore. The private operators are Tata Sky, Dish TV, Airtel Digital TV, Reliance Big TV, Sun Direct and Videocon d2h.

According to the notice, the six private operators had been asked to pay the amount within 15 days.

However, most of the operators contacted 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.

Even as the matter was pending, Tata Sky had in April made a payment of Rs 383 crore to the Ministry to cover its license fee and other dues. A demand draft of the amount was submitted to the Ministry, even as other operators had said that they would prefer to wait till the next hearing.

Tata Sky said the amount covered the license fee for the year 2013-14 according to the rate specified for license as well as past dues.

July 8, 2014
Videocon d2h plans Rs 700 crore IPO by Diwali

MUMBAI: It has been seeking to make a public offering over the past two years, but market conditions have forced it to delay it time and again. But with the new Modi government generating a bullish sentiment in both the economy and the stock markets, the Videocon group’s direct to home operation Videocon d2h has finally decided to take the public listing route once again.

Videocon Industries chairman &MD Venugopal Dhoot told a couple of business news channels late last week that the DTH operator’s IPO is planned for sometime during Diwali this year and it has filed a fresh prospectus with the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI), as the earlier one has lapsed.

Dhoot pointed out to one of the business news channels that “Videocon d2h has been No1 in customer acquisition since it began. We have around 11 million subscribers today and we are wanting to take that up to 20 million. Hence we require some Rs 600 crore to Rs 700 crore which we will raise from the public to fuel expansion, growth and deliver value added services to consumers.”

His view is that around 15 per cent or so of Videocon d2h’s equity might be diluted to raise the funds, though the premium for public offering has not yet been decided. He, however, expects the d2h IPO to do well, as organic demand for DTH is only going to grow with the government mandated digitisation gathering pace, especially in rural areas.

He emphasised that the DTH operator is on course to report a positive EBIDTA in Q1 2015, following planned losses over the past few years. “When you begin DTH you have losses in the beginning. But once you start generating positive EBIDTA, it continues,” he said.

Dhoot also spoke highly about the first mover advantage Videocon d2h has in announcing its 4K or ultra HD service for Indian customers which it hopes to launch by Diwali too. Tata Sky, too announced last week that it will roll out its 4K transmission by early 2015.

But Dhoot is confident about Videocon d2h’s success. Said he: “Our DTH quality has been very good, service is very prompt and people across India have liked it because our brand is very popular and at low cost we can distribute the same. In India and across the globe, DTH has been very successful and we are already getting a good response from the market for our IPO.”

July 7, 2014
TDSAT to hear appeals on cable tariff on 4 August

NEW DELHI: Eight cable operator associations from all over the country have intervened in the appeal challenging the legality of tariff orders allowing the increase of 27.5 per cent inflationary rise in the wholesale prices prevailing as on 31 March 2004.

Even as the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has listed the matter for further hearing on 4 August, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has also filed its response to the appeals and it is learnt that both Dish TV and Videocon d2h are filing interventions in the petition filed by Home Cable Network and the consumer organisation Centre for Transforming India.

Meanwhile, the broadcasters will retain a separate account for any payment received as tariff, as this would be subject to the final order of the Tribunal.

The appeals wanted TRAI to be directed to carry de-novo exercise in accordance with the statutory provision for price fixation for addressable system de-linking the same from the wholesale price of channels for non addressable system.

Those who have filed interventions are cable associations of Gujarat, Greater Guwahati, Uttar Pradesh, Chandigarh, All Delhi Cable Operators Association, Sai Cable Operators Association, Karnataka State Cable Operators Association, and Amritsar Cable Operators Sangharsh Samiti.

In the appeals, the legality of Tariff Order (Telecommunications (Broadcasting and Cable) Services (Second) Tariff (Eleventh Amendment) Order 2014 dated 31 March this year allowing the increase of 27.5 per cent inflationary rise in the wholesale prices prevailing as on 31 March 2004 has been challenged.

The Appellants have also challenged the impugned tariff order dated 31 March 2014 on the ground that the same has been passed in violation of Section 11(4) without affording any hearing opportunity to the stakeholders and without considering the relevant material and reports.

Furthermore, the impugned tariff order is without jurisdiction because it still provides for adhoc measure of price freeze as on 31 March 2014 even after 10 years of second tariff order dated 1 October 2004 while abdicating its regulatory duty to fix the tariff.

The impugned tariff order has adversely impacted the interest of the addressable platform because the wholesale pricing of the addressable system is based on the wholesale pricing of the non addressable platform; Fourthly that the impugned tariff is heavily tilted towards broadcasters and seriously prejudices the interest of the consumers, MSOs and stifles orderly growth of the cable and broadcasting sector.

It was earlier argued that TRAI ignored the fact that the wholesale pricing of non addressable system and addressable system are inter related. The wholesale price for addressable platform is derived from the wholesale price of non addressable system. By its order, TRAI indirectly and in substance increased the wholesale price for addressable platform / DAS notified area. The said increase in the wholesale price for addressable platform is affected in violation of section 11(4) of the Act.

TRAI completely disregarded the fact that by changing the content pricing and increasing the same by 27.5 per cent with reference to the price existed immediately prior to 31 March 2014, this will immediately increase the price of content for addressable platform. The authority did not provide any hearing opportunity to the stakeholders including the appellants to represent its view as a stakeholder in the consultation process.

It was stated that TRAI in disregard of the valuable rights of the stakeholders including the appellant and the consumers provided under Section 11(4) of the Act, rushed to issue the impugned order thereby increasing the wholesale price for addressable platform by 15 per cent with effect from 1 April 2014. Thus the impugned order failed to take into account the inputs from such stakeholders.

July 5, 2014
Videocon d2h innovates once again; announces 4K service

Updated – 08:46 PM

MUMBAI: It has built up its reputation as arguably the fastest growing DTH operator in India, apart from delivering snazzy features to subscribers. Now Videocon d2h has added another feather to its cap by becoming the first player in this space to announce its Ultra HD or 4K TV service. Readers should know that the TV picture gets more colour, more depth, and more details once viewed on a 4K TV set.

With nearly 11 million and growing subscribers, Videocon d2h MD Saurabh Dhoot is pretty proud of the company’s achievement when he says: “We wanted to be the first company to deliver 4k ultra HD service to India.”

He is quite sure that demand for its service is bound to increase in India, even though Indian TV viewers are just about beginning to take a fancy to plain old vanilla HD television services. This apart, he is not perturbed by the fact that Indian broadcasters and producers are not really thinking 4K as yet and are ill-equipped to produce even if they decide to do so. Says the Dhoot family scion: “You have to preempt, at times. We come with the thought process of surprising customers and delivering what they are about to ask for before they ask for it.”

Indeed, the Videocon group is involved in the entire pipeline of television – right from TV sets to self-made STBs to its own DTH service (Ok so it has left TV channels and content creation to other players). Hence, it has been able to price the Ultra HD box at Rs 10,000 when production starts at its factories. Discussions are on with Broadcom for chips and semiconductors while Cisco is likely to provide the conditional access. Dhoot expects the price of the box to fall to Rs 4000 or Rs 5000 depending on the demand and production scale.

The STB works on a technology called high efficiency video compression (HEVC) which is 50 per cent more efficient than the MPEG-4 technology used in HD boxes. “The main investment is in transponder space. To overcome this, we have HEVC technology or else it would be a criminal waste of satellite space,” points out Videocon d2h CEO Anil Khera.

Official roll out of the service will be around October or November 2014, during Diwali when the company expects sale of 4K TV sets to pick up. “Ultra HD TV sales have picked up sharply this year as compared to last year when they were negligible. Over Diwali, we expect ultra HD sales to pick up more,” explains Dhoot.

While travel and lifestyle, sports and movies are the expected first lot of genres to experiment with 4K technology, it will tie up its first market promotion with a good 4K event. Talks with broadcasters have already commenced for the same, one of the first being Travelxp.

Dhoot is quite clear that Ultra HD will be a ‘very very premium service’ constituting a single digit per cent of its entire subscriber base. The initial offering to customers will be a single Ultra HD channel, broadcast from its Noida headend, which will carry content from any producer or broadcaster which wants to show case its Ultra HD content.

Eight million pixels versus two million pixels of HD TV is the clarity that this service along with TV sets of size 65 inches and above will provide. 4K UHD TVs are capable of delivering four times the picture resolution of 1080p full HD. It will also provide a cloud based recording facility.

The first target audience will be in the metros and their own existing subscribers, even though Dhoot stresses that it isn’t necessary that only cities consume expensive TVs. As and when events come along, communication will be given to subscribers through its channel page. Khera says that 30 per cent of new acquisitions request for an HD box. These will be the likely target audiences.

Though raising average revenue per user (ARPU) plays a significant role in increased revenues, ultra HD service will take a while to give a significant contribution given that initially it will only be event based such as finals of key sporting events or big movies. “HD subscribers have played a big role in incrementing revenue and ARPUs. The investment in ultra HD is made for a very long time. Once it clicks, the recovery is very fast,” says Dhoot.

On the sideline, it has also undergone a re-christening. Bharat Business Channel is now officially Videocon d2h. The main prompt for this was that the company’s identification was its service and for better communication practices, the name needed a change.

Khera is aware that the biggest issue with recording in 4K is the storage space as well as post production. He is hopeful that broadcasters and producers will test the Ultra HD waters.

Click here to view the event pictures

July 3, 2014
Discovery Kids to air new season of ‘Sally Bollywood’

MUMBAI: In its endeavor tobring enduring characters and compelling stories, Discovery Kids presents a brand new season of its popularseries SALLY BOLLYWOOD. The series revolves around Sally Bollywood, a 12 year old young Indian girl who lives in the city of Cosmopolis. Little Sally is the smartest girl in school and knows how to solve a mystery because she’s learnt from her investigator dad Harry Bollywood. Watch SALLY BOLLYWOOD on July 1st, Monday to Saturday at 2pm only on Discovery Kids.

SALLY BOLLYWOOD advocates the power of imaginative minds through solvingchallenging cases. A unique India offering, the series has a distinct Bollywood flair that willappeal to kids across the country.Packed with exciting escapades, Sally and her team set out to investigate and solve mysteriesthat unfold right in the heart of her school or neighbourhood.

Inspired by her father, Harry Bollywood, who is a private detective, Sally started her own investigation service that is run with the assistance of her best friend and technology whiz, DoweeMcAdam. When she’s not helping her community out – whether it’s investigating how her classmate’s hair turned green or finding the culprit behind a tampered exhibit at the local museum – Sally loves to sing and dance in Bollywood style.

Rahul Johri, Executive Vice President and General Manager, South Asia and Head of Revenue, Pan-Regional Ad Sales and Southeast Asia, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific said, “Discovery Kids offers differentiated content that strikes an instant chord with kids and parents alike. Sally Bollywood is one of kids’ favourite television characters that combineshumourand intelligence.”

Discovery Kids covers a variety of programming ranging from iconic global content to multiple India-themed series. Committed to offer a comprehensive viewing experience and cater to diverse demands of Indian kids, Discovery Kids programming formats include highest-quality animation and engaging live action series under multiple genres such as adventure, mythology, nature and science.

Discovery Kids is available in Hindi, English and Tamil languages across India on both analogue and DTH platforms including Tata Sky, Dish TV, Reliance DTH, Airtel Digital and Videocon D2H.

June 21, 2014
DTH ops latch onto the FIFA juggernaut

MUMBAI: The world is in the grip of football fever and India isn’t far behind, though it is traditionally a cricket-crazy country where an Indian Premiere League would score any day higher than a FIFA in terms of fan frenzy.

As aficionados prepare to settle down in front of the idiot box, popcorn and coke in tow, DTH operators are doing all they can to woo customers with special services and what not during the World Cup.

A strategy adopted by almost all DTH operators is to offer Sony Six free for the entire duration of FIFA to all new subscribers taking a connection between June and the FIFA finale. While Tata Sky, Sun Direct and Airtel DTH are offering the channel free-of-charge to all their new subscribers, Dish TV is offering it only to its new subscribers and also to Zing subscribers. “FIFA viewing pockets are West Bengal, Odisha, Kerala and urban cities. So when compared to cricket, it isn’t as big an event in India,” says Dish TV CEO RC Venkateish.

Additionally, Tata Sky and Videocon d2h have timed the launch of two of their services to coincide with the beginning of FIFA. Tata Sky has launched its TV Everywhere application for desktops and laptops, which was hitherto only available on Android and iOS smartphones. Furthermore, Sony Six is the new addition to the list of channels available on the app that would be available to subscribers at the same cost of Rs 60 per month. Tata Sky COO Vikram Mehra says, “The service launch has been timed just before the football World Cup to ensure that the home laptop doubles as the second TV at home, thus allowing youngsters to watch late night football matches on their laptops and headphones without disturbing their entire family.”

Whereas, Videocon d2h has recently launched its earphone service through which, viewers can connect to radio frequency remotes and watch TV. “We have been working on this proposition for our consumers for quite some time. As per extensive research done by us, the typical Indian male consumer likes to watch content late night. Mostly consumption is of sports and movies. Given that in a typical Indian household, television is in the bedroom, volume becomes an issue. With a huge following for the World Cup in India and its late night timing, it coincided well with our plans,” says Videocon d2h CEO Anil Khera. Special product offerings will be provided for headphone remote-enabled set top boxes.

Even Sun Direct’s existing customers, who take a recharge of six months or more, can watch Sony Six free during the FIFA period. Those who don’t have Sony Six in their packs can avail the FIFA add-on for a special price of Rs 39 for the duration of the World Cup or buy Sony Six at Rs 30 per month. A mix of above the line (ATL), below the line (BTL), digital and PR activities have been planned close to the beginning of the World Cup. ATL is through radio, TV and focus on Kerala; BTL is through posters, leaflets and wobblers; while other activities are through SMS, OBD and blogs. The operator has already received nearly 40,000 requests for Sony Six.

Dish TV and its second brand Zing are banking not just on Sony Six but also on Sony Aath which will be providing commentary in Bangla. Says Dish TV VP marketing Anjali Malhotra, ”Zing caters to a larger language customer base. Sony Aath is already available in all base packs of Zing as well on Dish TV in the north. With Sony Six available to consumers free of any extra fee during FIFA, it will help people buy Zing and watch it.”

The operator has also rolled out an intense marketing campaign across West Bengal involving print, outdoor and radio mediums.

June 12, 2014
Videocon d2h’s new brand campaign to feature Parineeti Chopra

NEW DELHI: Top Bollywood actor and talented personality Parineeti Chopra is to be the new face of Videocon d2h and will feature in their upcoming brand campaign that focuses on Indian values.

Through the new campaign, the brand will showcase its innovative and technologically advanced Unlimited Asli HD Recorder and the new Radio Frequency Remote with earphones which assures convenience and comfort for television viewing.

Videocon director Saurabh Dhoot said, “Indian values epitomize our society. They are a part of our lifestyle and culture. Our new brand campaign featuring Parineeti captures some of these sentiments of Indian values and integrates it with our product deliverables. We believe Parineeti is the most appropriate choice to communicate our brand values. With all these unique features, one can attend to others, without missing the action on TV.”

Videocon d2h CEO Anil Khera added: “With Videocon d2h, now you can pause your TV, record unlimited content, which means you will not have a problem being interrupted anymore. We are happy to have Parineeti as a part of the Videocon d2h family. In addition to her acting talent, her connect with the Indian masses will definitely help us reach out to our customers. Our main focus is to enhance the customers’ television viewing experience.”

The campaign highlights the solution Videocon d2h will provide its customers with this new product that gives the option of Recording, Pause Live TV, rewind-forward.

“I am very excited and privileged to be part of the Videocon d2h family, India’s fastest growing DTH service. It is a great brand with awesome services like a recording service that they have brought to the Indian consumer at just Re.1 per day and innovations like a RF remote, which you can just plug earphones into and enjoy a private TV viewing experience. What I loved about this campaign is the way in which Indian values are portrayed; it’s quite different and fun. We are all brought up on strong values and so I think it is a nice message to keep Indian values intact. I myself have seen these values disappearing when we are glued to TV. It is a campaign I could really relate to and I think people will as well”, Parineeti Chopra said.

Videocon d2h currently offers 500 Channels and Services which includes 27 Asli “HD” channels & services and a host of regional channels.

June 6, 2014
Videocon d2h launches brand store on eBay India

MUMBAI: eBay India has announced the launch of a brand store by direct to home (DTH) operator Videocon d2h. Through this association, eBay India consumers across 4,306 cities, towns and villages in the country will be able to purchase Videocon d2h set top boxes with the added advantage of free installations even in remote areas.

To begin this association, Videocon d2h has announced the online release of region-wise standard, HD and HD DVR offers. Videocon d2h offers special online packages nationally and region-wise for consumers to access their 500 channels and services including 27 ‘Asli HD’ channels for a real-life viewing experience.

eBay India head strategy Ratul Ghosh said, “We are delighted to announce the Videocon d2h brand store on eBay India. This is the first time that the premier DTH provider has launched its online brand store in India. In our constant endeavour to have a wider range of products for our customers, we now have a plethora of brands selling through their official brand stores on our marketplace.”

“eCommerce in India is a mainstream phenomenon today, filling a wide availability gap for consumers in the country’s hinterland. eBay India, with 3,281 Bharat Hubs (tier II & III towns) and 1,015 Rural Hubs, offers an excellent platform for us to reach millions of untapped households in the country. We aim to optimise this large user base as part of our multi-channel strategy to offer consumers an unparalleled television viewing experience,” added Videocon d2h CEO Anil Khera.

eBay India provides an eCommerce ready store, popular deal properties and high internet shopper traffic for brands across categories. With over 1.1 million live listings at any given point, eBay India reaches out to over 2.1 million active consumers across 4,306 cities, towns and villages in India, making it an effective eCommerce platform for merchants of all sizes.

May 30, 2014
TDSAT again adjourns DTH licence fee case to 8 July on plea by operators

NEW DELHI: The petition by private direct-to-home (DTH) operators challenging the notice of the government for clearing arrears of licence fees has once again been adjourned – this time to 8 July – as the operators have still not filed their rejoinders to the reply by the government.

The adjournment was allowed by Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) chairman Aftab Alam and Kuldeep Singh on a mention by counsel for the various DTH operators.

TDSAT also noted that the earlier assurance by the government that it will not pressurise the operators in this regard till the case is taken up for hearing will continue.

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.

However, Information and Broadcasting Ministry secretary Bimal Julka had earlier told indiantelevision.com that the apex court had not issued any stay order. However, the government had filed a caveat in this regard, conscious that the TDSAT or the Supreme Court may be moved in the matter.

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. The private operators are Tata Sky, Dish TV, Airtel Digital TV, Reliance Big TV, Sun Direct and Videocon d2h.

According to the notice, the six private operators had been asked to pay the amount within 15 days.

However, most of the operators contacted 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.

Even as the matter was pending, Tata Sky had late last month made a payment of Rs 383 crore to the Ministry to cover its license fee and other dues. A demand draft of the amount was submitted to the Ministry. Even as other operators had said that they would prefer to wait till the next hearing.

Tata Sky had then said that the amount covered license fee for the year 2013-14 according to the rate specified for license as well as past dues.

May 23, 2014
TDSAT adjourns DTH licence fee case to 22 May

NEW DELHI: The petition by private direct-to-home (DTH) operators challenging the notice of the government for clearing arrears of licence fees was adjourned by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) to 22 May.

The DTH operators were given time by chairman Aftab Alam and Kuldeep Singh to file their rejoinders following the reply by the government.

TDSAT also noted that the earlier assurance by the government that it will not pressurise the operators in this regard till the case is taken up for hearing will continue.

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&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. The private operators are Tata Sky, Dish TV, Airtel Digital TV, Reliance Big TV, Sun Direct and Videocon d2h.

According to the notice, the six private operators had been asked to pay the amount within 15 days.

However, most of the operators contacted 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.

Meanwhile, Tata Sky late last month made a payment of Rs 383 crore to the Ministry to cover its license fee and other dues. A demand draft of the amount was submitted to the Ministry. Even as other operators had said that they would prefer to wait till the next hearing.

This amount covers license fee for the year 2013-14 according to the rate specified for license as well as past dues, for which the Ministry had raised a demand note recently.

TataSky MD and CEO Harit Nagpal had earlier said in a statement: “We hope that this will end the long standing dispute on the subject and pave the way forward for a constructive rationalisation of taxes with the support of our parent Ministry.”

May 6, 2014