BIG TV LAUNCHED

Reliance has entered the DTH market. A formal launch yesterday is expected to intensify the competition among the four existing DTH operators- DD, Sun, Dish and Tata sky.

Big TV will initially roll out in 6,500 towns. A price war is imminent. In direct war with SUN DTH Reliance is offering one year subscription for 1990 in all southern states with many additional features. As of now this the best offer. It has 147channels plus a regional pack consisting of three to four channels any language. This is inclusive of 10 audio channels and 32 movie channels. There are 32 movie channels of which 20 are monthly subscription, 9 are pay by view[ Rs 60/- per movie] and one exclusive regional. There will be a new movie every Fortnight. Unlike Sun DTH it has all major news channels like CNN_IBN, Timesnow, Headlines today and of course NDTV. but charges 200 more for sports channels like ESPN, Star and Star Cricket. All popular Tamil Channels like Sun, Vijay, Jaya, Kalaignar, Raj are available. Movies monthly will be free for fist 3 months as Launch offer after which it will cost 50/- per month. No Tamil movies are listed in the first month. Many Telugu, Kannada movies are there.

Installation is free for south India. the 1999 Smart south package includes 1490 starter kit price plus 500 recharge coupon. For kids Disney and Jetix are there. No Pogo is in the list. pogo, cartoon network and hungama can be obtained by paying Rs75/- every three months. There are 8 top up options available.

The customer care was not able to clarify whether Rs 500/- can be used for additional packages or top ups or whether it is towards the cost for free one year? However in print in looks like Rs 1490 for one year free south starter plus one regional plus 3 month movies plus Rs 500 available for further packages or top ups- which if true is an unbeatable offer.

After one year monthy south starter will be at 175 per month. one regional pack will continue to be free.

The movies for the first month are as follows
1. Hindi – Goal, Dil dosti etc, speed,Border, cash, s6th july at barista, Mumbai salsa, its breaking news, yeh dil, uthhan,Jodha akbar, johny gaddar, chorpe mor, Jeena yahan, Say salam india, Brahma vishnu mahesh, refugee, khoon ka ristha, Hatrick, dil diya dard liya, Aap ka suror, Koya koya chand, naiduniya naye log, kahani ek chor ki, meet mera man ka, naina, inteha pyarki, delhi heights, pakandi and phir kab milogi Total- Thirty
2. Regional
Telugu- Simahadri, anandham, lahiuri lahiri lahirilo, bhartiyudu,SAMARASIMHA REDDY, VASANTHAM and CHITRAM Total- Seven

Kannada- CHANDU, MAHALAXMI, PREETU MAADOO HUDU GARIGELLA and SHRI MANJUNATAHA Total- Four

Bengali- JAMAI BABU ZINDABAD,BIDHATAR KHELA, STRI ER MARJDA and ANNADATA Total- Four

Bhojpuri – GANGA GHAT, BHATOHIYA and Bahuriya Total- Three

Gujarathi – MAANIGHAR MANIYARU, LAGYO KASUMBINO RANGMANE LAGIYO, RAJ TARI MEHENDI NO RANG and BHADAR NE KANTHE Total- Four

Marathi- ZAPATLELA and GRIHA PRAVESH Total- Two

Malayalam- VALYEATTAN and UNCLE BEN Total- Two

Total 56 in the plate

Pay by view movies- Rs 60 per movie
STOMP THE YARD, THE RUNDOWN, THE NET, PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED, STUART LITTLE 2, LEGENDS OF THE FALL, 13 GHOSTS, ON THE WATER, FRONTMEN IN BLACK II, ANACONDA, JAGGED EDGE, THE CABLE GUY, LOOK WHO’S TALKING TOO, ABSENCE OF MALICE, SHORT CIRCUIT 2, THE DEEP, CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON, BAD BOYS, KRULL, THE BIG CHILL, THE KARATE KID, PHILADELPHIA, MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN and CACTUS FLOWER

Total – 24

There will be new movies and Friday Premiere. There are also ten Audio channels.

ANOTHER VERY EXCLUSIVE OFFER WHICH NO OTHER OPERATOR OFFERS IS FOR MULTIPLE TV’s. THE OTHER OPERATORS DO NOT DISCOUNT FOR MULTIPLE TV”S TILL NOW. BUT BIG TV IS OFFERING 50% Discount in Installation[ not applicable for south] and also 50% discount on monthly charges or Rs 125 which ever is higher for the second, 3rd or 4th Tv in home. Maximum of 4 can be installed in one house. Should be good for flats.

Reliance Big TV draws up an ambitious plan to capture 40 per cent of the market share within 12 months.”The number of DTH TV homes is likely to grow by an additional 11-12 million in a year from now and we aim to have 40 per cent market share of that,” CEO Arun Kapoor said

The DTH subscriber base is likely to go up to 60 million by 2015, he added.The service will be available in over one lakh outlets across country’s 6,500 towns including over 2,000 exclusive Reliance branded stores. By March next year, the reach would be extended to 10,000 towns. “We are ready to provide the service to five million homes,” Kapoor said adding that STBs would be outsourced from various vendors including Hyundai and ZTB

Big TV is also likely to bundle offers like discounts on 26-inch LCD television sets along with its subscription. Big TV is expected to spend Rs 200 crore on marketing and promotions in the first year of its launch.

Big Tv was Launched in Mumbai on August 19th. Big TV DTH service will be available officially across India from August 21st onwards especially in small towns.

For areas other then south there will be Rs 1000 Installation charges. Inclusive of that the minimum package is 2490 which will fetch 6 months free popular pack or thrtee months free premium pack. For south indians in other than south they can get south pack for three months free for 2490 which includes a 1000 recharge voucher.

BIG TV will offer MPEG 4 technology[ SUN DTH also offers the same] to provide DVD like video and CD like audio quality TV viewing. BIG TV also has Functions such as Zapper Banner; Mosaic;Favourites; Search etc.

Rumours are that Reliance is in advanced talks with Toshiba to sign an agreement for about 15 million LCD TVs, to be given along with the DTH connection. The proposal deal stands like this: BIG DTH will offer its DTH connection for Rs 10,000-12,000 and
the consumer will get a Toshiba LCD TV free along with the DTH hardware.

Big TV will have a call centre capacity of more than 50,000 calls a day, in 11 languages, across two locations.

Mudra Radar, the advertising agency handles the creatives for all Reliance ADAG brands. The TV commercial has been directed by a European production house, Mad Productions. “The TVC will be like a 60 second blockbuster movie,” Behl states. Big TV’s logo, creative templates and retail signage have been designed by Bonsey Design, a Singapore based firm that has also worked with brands such as Paramount, BBC and CNBC. The mass media campaign includes outdoor (which will be launched today), print, online, cinema, advertising at retail touchpoints and points of sale and 15,000 spots on television in the first week of launch. The first phase will be a teaser ad. The main concept is, ‘It better be big’. Therefore, the campaign will revolve around the line, ‘Ho Toh Big Ho’.

Big TV is the official DTH partner of the Indian Premier League for the next four years

Big TV DTH service would be available at 11,711 outlets, including 24 Reliance World and 92 Reliance Stores across 452 cities in Tamil Nadu.

“Reliance is coming up with its own channels which will increase our portfolio,” Big TV DTH CEO Arun Kapoor said here. He said the plan is to come up with 20 channels of which two, three would be launched by the fourth quarter of this year.

Another four, five channels would be launched early next year,” he said at the launch of the DTH services in Delhi. Sources said Rel ADA group plans to launch mostly general entertainment channels along with regional ones in the line of Zee and Star.

Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Communications Ltd, may look at carriage fee as one of the revenue streams in future. Carriage fee is paid by television broadcasters to multi-system operators and direct-to-home (DTH) players to beam their channels on their network.

ITS TIME TO MAKE YOUR TV BIG.

The changing scenario of Tamilnadu Cable industry

The Arasu Cable TV corporation was launched yesterday by Chief minister M.Karunanidhi yesterday. The maiden service of this first of its kind, Government owned cable network started of in Thanjavur. Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Tiruchi, Nagapattinam, Perambalur and Ariyalur are the towns which will recieve signals from ACTC now. Nearly 50 out of 60 cable operators of Thanjavur town have switched allegiance from the only other MSO. Except for Surya and chutti Tv remaining of Sun network is not carried by ACTc as of now. While the government claimed yesterday that it will start beaming Sun network also in a week’s time Sun network afficials clain that Arasu cable is yet to apply for its service. Except Surya and chutti remaining channels of Sun Tv are pay channels. So nearly 84 % of Thanjavur cannot see Sun Tv today.

Sun Tv is the most popular channel in Tamilnadu today. Inspite of many new channels including Kalaignar tv coming in the past year, its hold over the prime time is still strong. In June RCV, a MSO started by Azhagiri son of the CM started operations in Madurai without Sun Network in its list of channels. This was initially a ploy by them to erase Sun from the viewer’s choice. However due to customer pressure they tried to rope in Sun network, which the network refused on technical grounds. This resulted in overwhelming customer ire and many switched to sun direct, a DTH service offered by Sun Tv. A similar scenario may erupt in Thanjavur also now, if Sun is blacked out for a month or so. Many cable operators may think twice in other areas to join ACTC if this present scenario is not rectified soon.

Sun TV Network Ltd reported 36.5 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 367 crore for the year ended March 31, 2008, against Rs 268 crore in the previous year. Revenues grew by 27.5 per cent to Rs 926 crore during the year from Rs 726 crore in the previous year. According to a press release from the company, the last quarter also saw sustained growth in subscription revenues from DTH platforms of Dish TV, Tata Sky and its own Sun Direct. Sun TV channels are viewed by more than a million DTH subscribers and it is expected that revenues from this platform will be an important growth driver in the years to come. Sun direct registered one million subscribers within 200 mdays of its operation. The present scenario is condusive of expontial growth for it especially in Tamilnadu. At present for Rs 2899, one can enjoy 75 channels of digital quality through Sun Direct for two years, while one will have to spend Rs 2400 for ACTC connection for the same period and that too in analague mode. With its impressive financial performance Sun dieect can afford to fine tune its offer even more and that will result in a landslide in its favour. However whether it is in a position to give quality service with such growing subscription base is a question. But going by SCv’s record it looks it is a dependable company.

At present a cable operator requires to pay Rs 500 as annual fees to postal and telegraph department and do his operation. TRAI , yesterday has suggested cable TV reforms by proposing Rs 10000 as license for district level and Rs one lakh as state level for operations in cable industry , valid for five years. It has proposed one lakh and Ten lakhs for MSO in district and State level [ 25 lakhs for National level.]

TRAI wants new local cable operators to digitise their networks in three years from the date of issue of licence as part of their performance obligations. Existing players will get five years from the date of notification of the new licensing regime, after which no licence for analogue will be granted. Multi-system operators starting digital operations will be given a 50 per cent reduction on the applicable entry fee for the first time. Existing MSOs will have five to seven years. According to the industry, with high volumes the basic analogue to digital conversion would cost Rs 500 per set-top box, while a CAS box would cost around Rs 1,500. Digitisation will also increase the number of channels offered. TRAI expects to complete digitalization by 2010 in time for common wealth games. However, this would involve huge capital investments in upgradation of cable network. The subscriber too would have to invest in set-top boxes or digital receivers.

Dish Tv has announced new Hattrick scheme. Sun Direct DTH is already very aggressive with multiple choices and low entry cost. Tata Sky has reduced its monthl fees and entry cost. Big Tv by Reliance and Bharti Airtel DTh and Videocon are also entering DTH with big ambitions. At present there are over 128 million television owners in India. Out of which 78 miliion are through cable. At present Dish Tv leads with 3.6 million subscribers. Tata has around 2 million and Sun direct one million plus. By 2010 it is estimated that around 15 million will have DTH in India. Reliance Big Tv is expected to start by August end. They have an agressive plan to rope 5 miilion at the start itself. They have ordered 5 million set top boxes to a korean and Taiwanese company. Big Tv is expected to offer connection at Rs 1000 including STB and also offer 20 movies a week. There will be more pice war in recent months.

IPTV is also catching up. Bharathi and Reliance are coming in here. The MTNL I-Control subscription is Rs 199 for Delhi with 120 channels including Sony Television, Star Television, Zee Television and so on. The subscription for Mumbai is Rs 100 which includes 100 channels and the company will soon increase the number. The company also plans to enter Northern India including Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana , Jammu and Kashmir and so on. Analysts feel that considering the low tariff plan that Aksh is offering, they may soon eat into the DTH business and not so much of the cable business. World over, while DTH has about 70-80 million subscribers, IPTV has a measly subscriber base of one million. IPTV will require cable connections.

So for a cable operator in Tamilnadu, his costs are going to rise thanks to TRAI and his income is going to be steady or reduce thanks to ACTC plus competition from rival technologies.

Another victim is perhaps the local channels. There are around 900 local channels in Tamilnadu. In Thanjavur, the spat between the MSO and Arasu Cable is making the local channels get gittery there. News is that there are six local channels in the region and the ACTC wants the MSO’S to retain only two so that the revenue for Satellite channels are not affected. Azhagiri, son of the CM also has a local Tv called Dayal Tv. In fact as per a local weekly RCv plans to start operation in coimbatore also eyeing local advertising revenue.

Arasu Cable is no competition to anyone. Being a government company it will have more influence and will always give service at lesser cost than competition, claims the CM. A very clear hint that the competition better close shops. That is why it was very wise of SUN network to go agressive in DTH market.

The cable opearators are facing multiple dangers. One they will be increasingly pulled by different quarters as most MSO’s in the state have political support. For the customer a large state supply of signals may mean poor service in long run and may be less problem solving mechanism as in many government departments of the day.

One thing is for sure, it would take a minimum of six months for a better clear picture and even then things will continue to be fluid. The customer may benefit on quality front but pricing may not fall drasitically in coming months.

In Chennai people who already have CAS connection have a question- what about their present STB?

ACTC should give more answers.