ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

There are many forces who work together in a cohesive and coordinating manner, when we are
accomplishing some work. It is our endeavor to appreciate and thank all these forces who
influenced our work directly or indirectly. It’s a matter of great pleasure and proud privilege for
us to acknowledge and express our sincere gratitude to Prof. Ajeet Sharma for giving his valuable
time and efforts on our project. We also express our sincere thanks to IGSM, for giving us an
opportunity to do our research project in their concern and for the facilities provided to us during
our project.
Above all there is an invisible power of Almighty that unquestionably enlightens the path and
help in accomplishing work to its prerogative end.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page no
TOPIC
1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
2 INTRODUCTION 3
3 HISTORY OF DTH 3
4 CURRENT PLAYERS OF DTH 4
5 FACTORS AFFECTING CONSUMER BEHAVIOR 6
6 MARKET SHARE:SURVEY 7
7 MARKET SEGMENTATION 8
8 PRODUCT LINES 10
9 INNOVATION 11
10 THREATS TO DTH SERVICES 12
11 LATEST HAPPENINGS IN DTH WORLD 14
12 CONCLUSION 16
13 BIBLIOGRAPHY 17
14 APPENDIX 1 : QUESTIONNAIRE 18

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Introduction

Listen, can you hear that?

Those are the winds of change slowly blowing over India’s Television Industry
and they seem to be saying – DTH (Direct To Home) Television. Over the last
five years, the direct-to-home (DTH) satellite industry has come on strongly. It
has grown from a niche delivery mechanism into a mainstream business. The
spread of subscription-based DTH satellite TV promises to enhance choices for
many households in India.

In the current context of the global financial meltdown, the Direct to Home (DTH)
industry in India is in the throes of multifarious challenges and opportunities.

The ‘big game’ is all about shaping up grandiose plans to master the winning
rules to garner as much portion of the Indian DTH pie as possible by a handful of
players.

History of DTH

Aug, 1996 – DTH Services was first proposed in India, but Was not approved
due to National security concerns

Aug 9, 1999 - India Hands Doordarshan Exclusive DTH License

Dec 16, 2004 - Dth Services In India Sterling Group Major DTH service Providers
in India launch DD Direct plus

August 2006 - Tata Sky is a JV between the TATA Group and STAR, It launched
its services pan-India.

Dec 2007 - sed Sun Direct, part of the Sun TV Group, has been using Irdeto's
world leading conditional access system to manage content and secure revenues
for its DTH satellite television service since its launch in December 2007

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Aug 19, 2008 - BIG TV DTH service, launched on August 19, 2008, was one of
India’s largest retail rollout of a Home Entertainment product and service

15th, April 2009 - Videocon

Apr 22, 2010 - India will become the largest direct-to-home (DTH) market in the
world in terms of subscribers by 2012, overtaking the US, according to a study by
Media Partners Asia (MPA). The number of Indian DTH subscribers will reach 58
million by 2020

Current Players

• Dish TV - Zee group

Dish TV is a venture by the Essel Group and was launched in 2004. Dish TV is
India’s first private player in DTH industry with a presence in 19 states. Recently
Dish TV has launched an entry-level subscription at Rs. 99 per month with the
largest offering of 110 channels

• TATA Sky – Joint venture between Tata Group and UK-based British Sky

Tata Sky was incorporated in 2004. TATA is one of India's largest and most
respected business conglomerates and the SKY brand, owned by the UK-based
British Sky Broadcasting Group has over 20 years of experience in satellite
broadcasting. It launched its services pan-India in August 2006. Tata Sky has
launched an entry-level subscription plan called ‘Super Hit Pack’ at Rs. 99 per
month with a bouquet of 53 channels. Tata Sky recently launched Tata Sky Plus
which uses the personal video recording (PVR) technology that allows
consumers to record live.

• DD-Direct + -Owned by parent company Doordarshan

DD Direct Plus was launched in December 2004 by Doordarshan. It was India’s

first DTH service offering about 59 TV channels and 21 radio stations

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 • Sun Direct - Indian DTH television network based in Chennai from Sun
group.

Sun Direct is a DTH service in India headquartered in Chennai, Tamil. Sun Direct
an joint venture between the Maran family and Astro Group of Malaysia. With
170+ TV channels and 31 Radio channels. Sun Direct has a basic pack of Rs
75 monthly subscriptions which is the lowest price-point compared to the other
service providers.

• Reliance BIG TV Limited – a part of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani

Group.

Reliance Communication a more recent entrant in the DTH space has the brand
name ‘Big TV’. It has aggressively priced packages as low as Rs. 1490 with an
offering of 64 channels and a three month free subscription in addition to 20
video-on-demand movie channels. BIG TV focuses on VAS and claims to have a
next generation user guide which is indexed.

• Airtel DTH - Bharti Airtel Limited

The recent and much talked about player in the market is Bharti- Airtel. A teaser
campaign ‘See you at home’ was followed up by a multi-starrer campaign with
celebrities like Saif Ali Khan and Kareena, Vidya Balan and Madhavan and
Indian cricketers Gautam Gambhir etc. Over 138 channels and world space
satellite radio to choose from. Airtel Digital has a basic pack of Rs 99 monthly
for South and Rs 125 monthly for north.

• Videocon D2H

The big Indian consumer durable player launched itself in the DTH market in
June 2009 through its media arm Bharat Business Channel (BBCL). Right now it
has offered services in Punjab, J&K, Chandigarh, Haryana and Himachal
Pradesh with packages as low as 150 per month. Advantage over other players

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is that Videocon already makes analog set top box hence they are likely to
manufacture Set Top Box for their DTH service as well.

Factors Affecting Consumer buying Behaviors

Price
Offering competitive pricing has been on the higher end and its due to
promotional campaigns it has added in incentives leading to increase in customer
base. In search of newer audiences in smaller towns, DTH operator Tata Sky is
introducing a new Rs 99 package.

Customer Services
Offering excellent website and dedicated customer line. They have the concept
of registered mobile number providing easy communication.

Reception
The reception is usually excellent in comparison to existing cable TV. But during
Monsoons and Cloudy days they are affected. The rate of signal distortion is
more for Community dishes in comparison to Individual dishes.

Program Choices
After litigations, Companies are able to offer huge bouquet of channels more
than the cable TV.

New Technology
Companies have initiative in this direction. Various services under Active are part
of this Technology game. Being a interactive and dynamic offering would
increase its appeal.

Technical Support

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Technical support system of most companies is well established. If a 24 hrs limit
can be provided for all complaints and work on ‘holidays’ when people are
generally home could be sold asa USP.

MARKET SHARE: SURVEY

The current Market Share according to the Questionnaire is

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Market segmentation

• Geographic Segmentation

Urban and Rural

In order to cater to the diverse taste and needs of both urban and rural people,
operators provide entirely different range of services and offerings. In rural areas,
fleet of vans for demos, installation as well as selling hardware and pre-paid
vouchers are being used. Most players are building up their subscriber base by
targeting viewers outside the big cities, which suggests that about 60 per cent of
DTH subscribers reside in rural areas and towns with a population under a
million.

• Demographic Segmentation

AGE and GENDER

As the market gets fragmented, niche channels will become more and more
desirable. The increased interest in unique content channels is in line with the
international trend, where once the market matures, consumer needs come into
focus. Thus channels on Education, Women, Gardening, a variety of Sports,
Wellness and Religion, etc. make their appearance.

Most of the players in DTH offer niche channels to create a unique and exciting
offering for its viewers of every age and gender segment. DTH industry mainly
concentrates on women who don’t like missing their daily soap and news more
ever women are able to learn English speaking which is a very special feature of
DTH. DTH also concentrates on children also by providing them games,
dictionary, some discovery videos specially inbuilt, maths, and science and social
knowledge. It also focuses on old people as it has updated videos of various holy
and religious places

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INCOME

Recognizing the vast differences in tastes and pocket sizes of different consumer
segments, content has been aggregated and classified into different packages.

FAMILY SIZE

DTH came out with the various pack offering dth with 12 months aimed at
families where the number of viewers is less and watch only niche channels. This
pack caters to entertainment needs of all the members of the family in all age
groups.

• Behavioral Segmentation

OCCASIONS

DTH operators come out with new offers of channels or new buyer schemes at
relatively cheaper rates on occasions of festivals or major sports events. For
example It offers benefits to customers like: In a cricket match choosing the
language of the commentary, camera angles, know player statistics and watch
match highlights at our will. In the past DTH has come with schemes at the time
of Diwali, IPL and various other sporting events.

Benefits

DTH offers benefits to customers like:

• In a cricket match choosing the language of the commentary, camera angles

know player statistics and watch match highlights at our will.

• Surf through hundreds of channels using a mosaic screen showcasing all

channels of a single genre.

User Status

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Every product has its non users, ex-users, potential users, first time users and
regular users. In order to attract the non users and potential users DTH Service
providers with a finger on the consumer pulse has time and again brought
innovative and exciting consumer promotion offers into the market

PRODUCT LINES

Range of products

• Set-Top-Box.
• Head-Antenna.
• Cable
• DVD
• Remote
• LCD TV/PLASMA TV/CATHODE RAY TV/LED TV

Product description

SET-TOP-BOX: The set top box comprises of the MPEG-2 OR MPEG-4 with
DVB2 technology.

Head-antenna - Antenna which receives signals directly from satellites,

Cable - Cable connects antenna to the set up box

DVD - One of the recent entrants into DTH industry is vediocon. This came with
set top box with DVD

ACCESS CARD - The access card is another important thing in the set top box
setup. Where the access card will receive the signals directly from satellite trough
head top antenna

LCD TV - Some companies are offering the whole set of LCD TV with DTH
connection Ant in the case of cathode ray tubes and in case of PLASMA

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Remote - A compactable remote for both SET UP BOX and TV is used in
operating both TV and Set top box.

Complimentary Goods

LCD TV, DVD, CT TV, Cables, plus box, Ups, Home theaters, sound box, plastic
and paper which are used for recharge cards.

Innovation

The concept of innovation in DTH industry is INCREMENTAL innovation every

thing that is done is due to constant research of many marketing and analysts to
bring many innovations to the existing products in the DTH industry. Incremental
innovation is the apt innovation which is suitable and all the DTH players are
concentrating up on.

This innovation makes the business to grow continuously and brings advantages
to the customers using the products and the service.

In this days every company setups its own R&D in its own company with very
intelligent people for meeting the expectation op the customer.

Digital TV, the DTH service from Airtel, has announced India’s first skin
integration innovation on its EPG screen in partnership with Yahoo. Yahoo takes
forward its latest brand campaign “YOU” in this first of its kind partnership where
an online portal will use DTH as a medium to promote itself.

The ‘Electronic Programming Guide’ screen on Airtel digital TV is now

completely integrated with Yahoo India’s homepage. Customers will find a
message ‘Fill your home page with all the things that make YOU’ when they log
onto to the EPG screen.

Tata Teleservices Limited has announced a technological breakthrough—a first-

of-its-kind innovation in India with the launch of TATA Photon TV, a new

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application that allows Tata Photon Plus subscribers to watch live television
channels on their laptops while on the move, and on their personal computers at
home and in the office. Internet Browsing charges will be charged as per your
Photon+ tariff plan and it would be applicable while viewing Photon TV. These
charges would be over and above the subscription charges for the Photon TV.

THREATS TO DTH SERVICES

Terrestrial television
Doordarshan is the world’s largest terrestrial broadcaster.Doordarshan has
partnered with BBC resources-the consulting wing of BBC, in offering digital
terrestrial television. The transmission could be received using a low cost yagi
antenna.
Even with the wide reach and low cost approach that is possible with this
technology, due to the lack of attractive content, we do not see it as a formidable
threat.

Cable TV
Cable tv currently operates in two modes viz through CAS covering cities such as
Chennai, parts of Delhi, Mumbai & Kolkata and through non addressable system
in rest of the country.
Due to the phenomenal reach of the cable TV, it poses a serious threat to the
growth of the DTH industry.

Internet Protocol Television (IPTV)

IPTV is a service where television signals are digitally sent over the
telecommunications line. It is often presented as a bouquet of video, audio and
data services. Telecom companies such as BSNL and MTNL have spotted these
earning potential and have already started with trial implementation I cities like
Bangalore and Kolkata. Companies like Bharti Airtel and Reliance
communications are also trying to follow soon.

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IPTV takes the interactivity to a newer level. Even if strict regulation are enforced
on, we see IPTV as a considerable threat in urban and semi urban areas where
DTH has made its mark.

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Latest happenings in the DTH World

Broadcasters hit out at Trai tariff order for DTH, IPTV

3 Aug 2010, 2256 hrs IST,PTI

NEW DELHI: Accusing TRAI of almost endorsing "illegal activity" by cable

operators in its order, the broadcasters body IBF lashed out at the sectoral
regulator for capping wholesale fees at 35 per cent for DTH and IPTV players

Glitch in satellite affects DTH services

04 Aug 2010 04:27:38 AM IST

BANGALORE: It’s almost a month since a power supply glitch partially crippled
services provided by domestic communications satellite, Insat 4 B, affecting
some direct-to-home (DTH) players.Sun Direct and DD Direct, according to
subscribers, have not been able to mitigate the crisis.

Indian DTH Industry Remains Upbeat Amid Recession

Jul 02, 2010

The DTH service market in India has emerged as one of the most lucrative
markets which have successfully resisted the impacts of the current economic
slowdown. The slowdown has certainly proved a boon for the Indian DTH
industry as people have now started to cut on their entertainment expenditure
and instead of viewing movies at theatres, they are preferring to stay at home
with their television sets. The industry is anticipated to add nearly 5 Lakh
subscribers per month during 2009 and the numbers are forecasted to surge
further at a CAGR of around 30% through 2012, says our new report, "Indian
DTH Market Forecast to 2012".

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Dishtv to woo customers during onam

PTI

Kochi, Aug 3 (PTI) With DTH market opening up, Dishtv, India's largest direct-to-
home company, is aiming to establish 170 set up box hubs nationally, including
25 in South India, a top company official today said. In south India presently
there are only 3-4 such hubs and the plan is to set up 25 hubs this year.

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Conclusion

Market Development

DTH service providers can enter new markets by entering:

• Rural Markets
• Entering Neighboring Countries (provided license available)
• Enter Commercial Space – Offices, Coffee Shops, etc.
• Enter Travel Area
o Long Distance Buses –e.g. Tie up with Raj Travels
o Niche Car Segment

Product Development

The product can be further developed with evolving time:

• It is important to analyze a way out where:-

 DTH can be applicable to consumer who has more than one
television.
 Currently multiple user cannot afford DTH due high cost.
 So economical method should be worked out.

• Combined with TV
• Combined Dish for multiple Television (Society or Each Flat)
• Target at educational needs in Rural areas where it could be used.
• Stock Market Ticker and analysis can be included in Active

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Bibliography

• http://www.tamindia.com/tamindia
• http://www.dishtv.in/
• http://www.ibef.org/ “India Brand Equity foundation”
• http://www.financialexpress.com/news/big-tv-launch-to-intensify-
dthbattle/
• 351013/
• http://www.indianexpress.com/news/dth-space-hots-up-tata-
skylaunched/
• 10184/
• http://www.financialexpress.com/news/dth-subscribers-double-in-
7-
• mnths/379548/
• Google

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