The Hindu Business Line : DTH makes merry

Taking advantage of the shortage of set top boxes faced by cable users, DTH players are luring potential CAS (conditional access system) customers with fancy offers to go for their satellite brands. The CAS markets of Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai are specifically being targeted with special schemes and offers.

While Essel Group's Dish TV has announced a special pricing for the CAS cities, Tata Sky offered six months' free subscription between December 28 and January 10, timing its offering with the introduction of CAS.

Vikram Mehra, Head - Consumer Marketing Tata Sky, says, "We have timed our offer with the CAS roll-out realising that it will be impossible to meet the demand for the set top boxes."

In the past few days since CAS came into being, Tata Sky claims it has been getting 25,000 customer calls at its call centres every day.

"We believe we have garnered 30 to 50 per cent of the CAS market so far," says Mehra.

Outlining the advantages of DTH over CAS, Tata Sky contends one does not have to import its boxes unlike the CAS Set Top boxes, which are being imported by the MSO (multi service operators). "We realised there would be a sudden demand for the boxes and in our case we have the advantage of manufacturing the boxes at our own facilities in the country," says Mehra.

Essel Group's Dish TV has also been taking advantage of the demand-supply mismatch of set top boxes by announcing a special pricing for the CAS markets.

With `flexible' pricing, DTH players are expecting its subscriber base to jump five to 10 times over the current base of 1.7 million subscribers.

Says Anjali M. Nanda, Vice-President (Marketing), Dish TV,"We have eased the entry cost for our services. We are targeting those consumers who have yet to covert to CAS."

Dish TV claims to have added 1-1.5 lakh subscribers. With a one-time pay out offer of Rs 1,300, Dish TV offered its scheme during the last two days of 2006, when the transition to CAS was expected. "Since the government has made it mandatory for consumers to go digital, we see this as an opportunity for DTH players who can add a new experience to television viewing," says Nanda.

As DTH encroaches on the CAS markets, media planners and audience measurement bodies have to take into account new audiences, which will again affect the rates of the broadcasters. There will be a spill-over of the CAS effect, forcing channel owners, advertisers and media planners to re-think their strategies in a dynamic market place.

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