Tata Sky pulls out new trick as DTH war heats up

The Direct-to-Home (DTH) war in India is seeing a new strategy emerge. Established players are latching on to television recording from television viewing.

 

Here is the verbatim transcript of Nachiket Kelkar and Sandeep Srikant's comments on CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying video.

 

When strong rats enter the race, change the rules. That's the mantra established DTH operator Tata Sky is chanting. With Reliance Big TV and Airtel entering the DTH space, Tata Sky is now going premium. And it is banking on Tata Sky Plus to do what VCRs did to VCPs.

 

Vikram Kaushik, CEO, Tata Sky, said, "What Tata Sky Plus does is apart from playing the role of a set-top box, it has the ability to pause live TV, to rewind or fast forward it. It also allows the user to record one programme while watching another."

 

The set-top box will be priced at about Rs 9,000, and Tata Sky hopes up to 50% of its new subscribers will choose this service. Existing customers will also be offered an upgrade.

 

Of the 125 million television households in the country, only 5 million are DTH customers and around 2 million of them are Tata Sky customers. And Tata Sky hopes its premium service will help it increase its reach.

 

But Tata Sky is not alone. Rival Dish TV is currently testing its own version of the TV recording service, and new entrant Reliance Big TV says it will buy upto 2.5 lakh set-top boxes with recording facility. Big TV also plans to better Tata Sky, pricing these boxes at around Rs 7,000 each. So get ready to sit back and keep your TV viewing schedule choc-a-bloc with your favourite shows.