Why Some Star Channels are not available on Base Packs

[Solid Snake]

Star is notorious since days 1

 

[dino29]

We have had good number of elaborate discussions on this topic many times in the past. Please refer to below thread for answers to the same

Why is Disney International HD kept out of broadcasters packs?

I was trying to buy Disney International HD. I couldn't find it anywhere on Disney Star's broadcaster's bouquets. Ironically, there are several Disney specific HD bouquets from Star. Disney International HD is missing which is quite strange as it's one of the best performing HD channels as it's...

dreamdth.com

Also search with keywords "Star Gold Select Star Value Prime" and "Disney International HD Star Premium Prime" to further get access to threads where i have explained reasons for these channels to have been kept in higher packs or made available only on A La Carte basis.



In short Disney International HD caters to a super niche audience and this channel hence does not generate any ad revenue thus it becomes important for it to have some revenue generated via subscription fee to if not completely absorb its operational costs but cover it some extent..... Similarly Star Gold Select caters to a very small section of audience who watch offbeat or meaningful cinema hence it generates extremely minute ad revenue thus again depending on subscription revenue to somehow maintain a viable business model.

Fox Life again is a premium channel though i agree it should be included in basic packs but what i see Disney-Star doing is they have included this channel in higher broadcaster bouquet to increase subscription revenue and also make premium bouquet look more attractive while at the same time pricing it at just Re. 1 on A La Carte mode thus even giving mass audience option to subscribe to it without putting any monetary burden on them thus trying to expand its viewer base as this channel provided content dubbed in Hindi and 2 other regional languages too.


@avipersistent bro u r wrong in saying that inclusion of channels in broadcaster bouquets is dependent upon mutual agreement between DPO and Broadcasters . DPO's do not have any role in how a broadcaster decides upon packaging its channels in various broadcaster bouquets , all DPO's can do is include broadcaster bouquets and A La Carte channels in their own curated DPO Bouquets like Airtel Digital TV provides A La Carte channel Disney International HD in its Mega Plan/Pack.
It is broadcaster which decides on whether to include a channel in basis or premium bouquet or just make it available on A La Carte Basis.... whichever option helps garner combination of both catering to relevant viewer base in most effective manner + max revenue generation is then finalised hence for mass channels it becomes important for it to be included in basic broadcaster bouquets for it to have wide reach among target audience thereby help generate more subscription revenue thru lower ARPU but higher volume as well as which then inturn helps scale up Ad Revenue while for Premium Channels subscription revenue plays more key role overall revenue generation hence these r kept either in higher broadcaster bouquets or provided just on A La Carte basis thereby catering to niche audience base.

MTV Beats HD not being available on Airtel Digital TV, Investigation Discovery HD not being available on Tata Play or And Xplor HD being unavailable on Dish TV has no relation to above topic....these r unavailable for separate reasons like bandwidth shortage or addition at concerned LCN slot causing violation in ongoing slab agreement as signed in RIO agreement with other broadcasters or various other reasons like operator itself deciding not to carry it

 

[dino29]

Star have only value and premium packs.
But they should add value lite and ultra premium packs too.
Value lite with 0 sports channels and ultra premium with all sports and English channels including disney international

Do u know the large number of channels which Disney-Star has under its portfolio...in total it has 77 channels......now channels in each genre have different business strategy to overall contribute to a viable business model for the company. They r combining sports channels with other GEC or Movie Channels so that reach of a latter gets further expanded when someone wants to watch sports channels or customer opts for A La Carte mode for watching Star Sports channels which ia extremely important bcoz running Sports TV Channels Business is very costly hence broadcaster needs strong subscription + ad revenue not only from sports channels but as expenses overweigh returns in sports TV channels business hence other popular channels of the broadcaster from different genres help absorb the losses generated from sports business.

If one tries to understand the inner functioning of a business then only it can help draw a proper / true conclusion else just passing a random glance and coming out with a perception on a thing just leads to wrong assumptions / conclusion

 

[dino29]

Don't know about others. But Disney International HD is excluded because they know most people unlike their employees don't have free time to go and get a single channel. They buy a select packaged offered to them by their operators. So it would be easier to convince Disney people to shutdown a Disney branded channel by stating low ratings. It's easier for Star people to shutdown their legacy channels like Star World and Channel V. But difficult to do same with something with a Disney brand.

Bhai u r a very senior member and we have had discussions on this topic many times earlier on in this forum but still again u always come up with this incorrect assessment about this topic.....Please bhai try to understand the actual reasoning behind decision taken by a broadcaster rather than simply saying that they want to shutdown a premium channel which is not true

 

[The Lonelier Island]

Bhai u r a very senior member and we have had discussions on this topic many times earlier on in this forum but still again u always come up with this incorrect assessment about this topic.....Please bhai try to understand the actual reasoning behind decision taken by a broadcaster rather than simply saying that they want to shutdown a premium channel which is not true

Bhai, tell me what happened to all niche Star channels? Than I will believe in your theories.

 

[Naturelife]

Bhai, tell me what happened to all niche Star channels? Than I will believe in your theories.

Good channels like nat Geo people, nat Geo music, channel v shut down.
You are right

 

[avipersistent]

@dino29 bro . So you are trying to say Airtel has bandwidth issues for adding MTV Beats HD and does not want to carry it but it had no bandwidth issues to add as many news channels it wants anywhere without LCN alignment issues or broadcaster does not want to give MTV Beats HD to Airtel so it is unavailable or it does not not have LCN alignment to add it being the only paid popular music channel against FTA music channels.Whats the reason for for cable operators carrying these niche channels in lower base packs too .Now that you can select broadcaster packs or curated packs DPO make it such that you can go for their curated packs and keeps broadcaster packs unavailable due to these missing niche channels.

 

[dino29]

@dino29 bro . So you are trying to say Airtel has bandwidth issues for adding MTV Beats HD and does not want to carry it but it had no bandwidth issues to add as many news channels it wants anywhere without LCN alignment issues or broadcaster does not want to give MTV Beats HD to Airtel so it is unavailable or it does not not have LCN alignment to add it being the only paid popular music channel against FTA music channels.Whats the reason for for cable operators carrying these niche channels in lower base packs too .Now that you can select broadcaster packs or curated packs DPO make it such that you can go for their curated packs and keeps broadcaster packs unavailable due to these missing niche channels.

Brother, i just mentioned possible reasons for unavailability of certain channels across various DTH or Cable TV Platforms.

Already explained many times the reason why certain channels like MTV Beats HD r still not available on Airtel Digital TV Platform.... Please search for the same....some other channels like Star Movies Select r not added maybe due to similar reason as applicable to Viacom18 HD channels missing on Airtel Digital TV Platform...... Bandwidth is not an issue at present..... 3 reasons what i mentioned in above posts is why certain channels have still not been added and yes always priority is given to important channels.

There is no issue or dispute between Airtel Digital TV and Indiacast (Viacom18) as Airtel infact has been at forefront in adding their SD as well as other HD channels

Regarding inclusion of channels/broadcaster bouquets in DPO bouquets, i have already explained operators decide upon the same themselves or maybe in some cases by discussing it with concerned broadcasters however operators have no role in deciding which channels r made part of Broadcaster Bouquets.

Certain channels from a broadcaster bouquet being missing on a platform is also an issue and incase reason is genuine then broadcasters discuss on this with operators and temporarily provide its SD feed in said HD Broadcaster Bouquet till the issue is resolved thus paving way for addition of those HD channels.... Like SD feed of MTV, MTV Beats, Vh1 r available in concerned HD broadcaster bouquets of Viacom18 on Airtel Digital TV Platform.

Also Sports18 channel is unavailable on Family Sports DPO Bouquets of Airtel Digital and so r some other channels like Disney Kids channels (except Hungama as same is part of basic disney-star broadcaster bouquet), NDTV Channels (barring hindi news channel as same is part of FTA Complimentary Bouquet as carriage fee is paid for it), BBC channels but all these r available in next higher Premium DPO bouquets of Airtel

 

[dino29]

Good channels like nat Geo people, nat Geo music, channel v shut down.
You are right

These channels were Asia Feeds and Disney-Star is shutting down many channels in South East Asia / South Asia Region hence these were discontinued in India.

However India is one of the only markets/regions in the world where Linear TV and OTT platforms both have huge scope to grow.... In India Disney-Star will continue to expand their Linear TV business while focusing on OTT growth. Recent Report by IBDF has also clearly highlighted that TV Channels viewership is showing good growth and even younger audience segment also has also contributed to it thereby proving it wrong that young people do not anymore watch TV Channels.....i have always said if broadcasters provide good curated content on TV Channels then audience base/ viewership will continue to grow

Now in US , UK too Disney is relaunching its Indian TV Channels on Cable / DTH platforms as they have realised that there too large section of South Asian Diaspora enjoys watching content on TV Channels

 

[Naturelife]

The Channels which I like are being shut down.
Nat Geo people, nat Geo music, Travel trendz, 9xo, m tunes,utv stars.
The list is big.
I miss those channels much

These channels were Asia Feeds and Disney-Star is shutting down many channels in South East Asia / South Asia Region hence these were discontinued in India.

However India is one of the only markets/regions in the world where Linear TV and OTT platforms both have huge scope to grow.... In India Disney-Star will continue to expand their Linear TV business while focusing on OTT growth. Recent Report by IBDF has also clearly highlighted that TV Channels viewership is showing good growth and even younger audience segment also has also contributed to it thereby proving it wrong that young people do not anymore watch TV Channels.....i have always said if broadcasters provide good curated content on TV Channels then audience base/ viewership will continue to grow

Now in US , UK too Disney is relaunching its Indian TV Channels on Cable / DTH platforms as they have realised that there too large section of South Asian Diaspora enjoys watching content on TV Channels