Dileep Kumar
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In a country ruled by cable, there is one pocket where direct-to-home (DTH) has grown like a monster. Feeding off a thriving middle class, the legacy of higher monthly bills for watching television at home and the real-estate boom, DTH has dethroned cable in Pune.
According to estimates, DTH commands 61.9 per cent of the market in Pune with 853,463 subscribers. Cable trails behind with 525,000 subscribers while the city has a total of 1,378, 463 connections.
One healthy sign is that the Pune market is structured on a high ARPU (average revenue per user) model. This is evident from the fact that Tata Sky, considered a premium DTH brand, leads the pack. According to data sourced from the Department of Entertainment Tax till May-end, Tata Sky has more than twice the number of subscribers of its closest rival Dish TV. Tata Sky had a total of 383,312 subscribers compared to Dish TV’s 190,839 connections.
Thus, the growth of DTH cannot be called an aftermath of a price war. Consumers have opted for DTH not because the service has come cheap, but because they have been won over by the quality of service. Even in the case of cable TV subscribers, it is Intermedia Cable Communication (ICC), known for its high ARPU and quality-driven service, which scores over other MSOs in Pune city. However, taking the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) area into consideration, Hathway Cable & Datacom stands out as the dominant MSO among the cable TV service providers.
So, what is it that conquered the Pune market for DTH? DTH broke through in a big way when the ESPN Star Sports (ESS) channels went dark on ICC during the Fifa World Cup 2010. ESS was the rights holder for the telecast of the soccer World Cup matches in India. With viewers of ICC unable to watch the matches, they migrated to DTH.
Coincidentally, that was the time when the two DTH operators, Tata Sky and Dish TV, were advertising heavily to convert cable customers into DTH. While Tata Sky had Aamir Khan, Dish TV had Shah Rukh Khan as brand ambassadors.
“DTH companies were advertising big time and were using the two Bollywood superstars to draw in subscribers. With ICC not showing the football World Cup due to commercial disputes with ESS, there was big scale migration from cable to DTH in Pune. People were also getting exposed to the digital quality and were comparing it with their analogue signals,” a local cable operator (LCO) affiliated to ICC told TelevisionPost.c om’s research team.
Interestingly, the LCO, who did not want his name to be revealed, said that he himself installed a DTH connection at home to watch the World Cup matches.
The DTH juggernaut has since not stopped from moving. ARPU was not a major wall blocking cable TV consumers from moving over to DTH. ICC, in any case, was charging Rs 400 from its cable TV subscribers in those days. In fact, the Pune market was used to higher ARPUs as MSOs had an understanding among themselves and the LCO unionism was all but absent.
Besides, the DTH operators tapped builders and pocketed subscribers from new apartments that mushroomed in and around Pune. A migrant population also took a fancy to DTH, according to several respondents
Read More:-http://www.televisionpost.com/cable/dth-rules-in-pune-2/
According to estimates, DTH commands 61.9 per cent of the market in Pune with 853,463 subscribers. Cable trails behind with 525,000 subscribers while the city has a total of 1,378, 463 connections.
One healthy sign is that the Pune market is structured on a high ARPU (average revenue per user) model. This is evident from the fact that Tata Sky, considered a premium DTH brand, leads the pack. According to data sourced from the Department of Entertainment Tax till May-end, Tata Sky has more than twice the number of subscribers of its closest rival Dish TV. Tata Sky had a total of 383,312 subscribers compared to Dish TV’s 190,839 connections.
Thus, the growth of DTH cannot be called an aftermath of a price war. Consumers have opted for DTH not because the service has come cheap, but because they have been won over by the quality of service. Even in the case of cable TV subscribers, it is Intermedia Cable Communication (ICC), known for its high ARPU and quality-driven service, which scores over other MSOs in Pune city. However, taking the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) area into consideration, Hathway Cable & Datacom stands out as the dominant MSO among the cable TV service providers.
So, what is it that conquered the Pune market for DTH? DTH broke through in a big way when the ESPN Star Sports (ESS) channels went dark on ICC during the Fifa World Cup 2010. ESS was the rights holder for the telecast of the soccer World Cup matches in India. With viewers of ICC unable to watch the matches, they migrated to DTH.
Coincidentally, that was the time when the two DTH operators, Tata Sky and Dish TV, were advertising heavily to convert cable customers into DTH. While Tata Sky had Aamir Khan, Dish TV had Shah Rukh Khan as brand ambassadors.
“DTH companies were advertising big time and were using the two Bollywood superstars to draw in subscribers. With ICC not showing the football World Cup due to commercial disputes with ESS, there was big scale migration from cable to DTH in Pune. People were also getting exposed to the digital quality and were comparing it with their analogue signals,” a local cable operator (LCO) affiliated to ICC told TelevisionPost.c om’s research team.
Interestingly, the LCO, who did not want his name to be revealed, said that he himself installed a DTH connection at home to watch the World Cup matches.
The DTH juggernaut has since not stopped from moving. ARPU was not a major wall blocking cable TV consumers from moving over to DTH. ICC, in any case, was charging Rs 400 from its cable TV subscribers in those days. In fact, the Pune market was used to higher ARPUs as MSOs had an understanding among themselves and the LCO unionism was all but absent.
Besides, the DTH operators tapped builders and pocketed subscribers from new apartments that mushroomed in and around Pune. A migrant population also took a fancy to DTH, according to several respondents
Read More:-http://www.televisionpost.com/cable/dth-rules-in-pune-2/
