The whine-whine game!

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And this war is getting more intense with every passing minute! The reason for this is very simple – in most developed countries, including America, DTH competition is mostly into providing niche content; that is, all the big networks either have their own DTH services or they form exclusive agreements with specific DTH providers, encouraging customer to choose which channels they would want to watch and which they would rather give a skip.

However, this is not the case in the Indian market as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has clearly mandated that no broadcaster can offer content exclusively to a specific DTH player or have their own channels that would not be available on the other platform. The logic given by TRAI is that right now, the market is in too early a state and it is only when there would exist perfect competition that one can look at allowing content differentiation. Admittedly, some players in the industry do not agree with this point of view. Vikram Kaushik, Managing Director and CEO, Tata Sky, firmly states, “With so many players already in the market, I see no logic as to why we should not be allowed to offer content differentiation.” Justifiable? Perchance, as it is true that in the entertainment industry, it is the content that reigns supreme; not so in the Indian context. Leave alone channels, even the movies that are available on the pay-per-view option of various DTH operators is most of the times exactly the same.

Technology, what could have been the other differentiator in this industry, also does not hold its weight in water, as most operators are operating on the same technology platform. If one considers market dynamics, Tata Sky logically has been in an advantaged position to cater to the la-crème of India as it is the only DTH provider to offer a separate set-top box that enables consumers to pause/rewind live TV, apart from even allowing them to record their favourite programmes. But even this so called ‘differentiation’ is quite temporary. It is reported that BIG TV and Sun Direct are planning to offer similar set top boxes by the end of this fiscal. To that effect, Sun Direct is still quite tight lipped about its venture in this field, but insiders at BIG TV have already revealed that their pricing for a similar service would be around half the cost of Tata Sky! Applying similar strategic think, with competitive rivalries expected to go astoundingly high, most players in this sector have chalked out large advertising budgets, and even cornered many celebrities as brand ambassadors. As a matter of fact, Airtel Digital had as many as 10 celebrities in their launch ads; and the company has set an ambitious target of grabbing a market share of 20% in their first year of operations.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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