Storyboard18 | Tata Sky is now Tata Play. 'We have a job cut out for ourselves', says MD Harit Nagpal

Tata Sky (Tata Play from January 27, 2022) started out as a DTH operator in the world of television, but over the years, it has become a distributor of content for television and OTT both. (Illustration by Suneesh K.)

Tata Sky is rebranding as Tata Play starting January 27. With the new identity, Tata Play aims to become an inclusive and scalable identity that provides entertainment of choice at any budget, any screen, anytime, anywhere for its customers.

With rapid emergence of multiple distribution formats and technologies and the growth potential of the India market “we have a job cut out for ourselves”, says Harit Nagpal, MD and CEO of Tata Play, in an exclusive conversation with Storyboard18.

Nagpal tells us that there are various reasons for rebranding. “First we started as a DTH (direct to home) operator in the world of television. Over the years, we have evolved into being the distributor of content for television and OTT both. A part of the customer base was moving towards OTT in addition to watching TV. We made a platform called Binge which is an OTT aggregation platform."

The second is that "we have invested so much in our service that we are known for our service - our boxes are the best, our equipment is the best, we fail the least, we recover the fastest and we weren’t making any noise about it. Hence, we said ‘people need to play more and play longer, therefore the brand somewhere required a refresh to get ourselves also into the groove, when you groove at your end,” says Nagpal.

The new logo has been created by Venturethree, a London-based branding agency, and the campaign to spread awareness about the new identity has been conceptualised by Ogilvy India. The new brand campaign features Kareena Kapoor Khan and Saif Ali Khan for Hindi speaking markets and R Madhavan and Priyamani for the Southern markets. It has been directed by Shoojit Sircar.

Apart from the new identity for the core brand, Tata Sky Broadband has been renamed to Tata Play Fiber.

With the new branding, Tata Play will have Netflix as an add-on bundled service to its vast bouquet of offerings. Tata Play subscribers can now get Combo packs containing Netflix with TV channels.

The billing is routed via Tata Play’s wallet. Tata Play subscribers also get access to Tata Play Binge Combo Packs combining 12 popular OTT apps with TV channels. The 12 OTT apps are: Disney+Hotstar, SonyLIV, Zee5, Voot Select, Voot Kids, ShemarooMe, SunNxt, Hungama Play, Eros Now, CuriosityStream, EpicOn & Docubay. Subscribers of Tata Play can now choose from 90 combo packs that give them access to content from TV Channels, Netflix and OTT aggregator app Binge.

“The person who is watching OTT is not some new animal that has come from somewhere else. It is the same television viewer who is also watching OTT. So why should he buy one set of content from one operator or platform and another set of content from another one. What we are essentially doing is that we had the television, we added a layer on top of that and now what we are saying is you can buy it together,” says Nagpal.

Nagpal also says that when there are 13-15 apps, there are as many relationships and subscriptions and renewals on different dates. “We have created an interface that is common for all the apps supported at the back.”
De-active DTH customers can continue to recharge and get restarted on the platform with ‘No reconnection charges’.

In spite of the challenges such as the new tariff order, disparities in regulation and the licence fee,  Nagpal says that he sees the TV market being very large.

“There are only 130 million Pay TV homes in the country out of 300 million homes. So, television can only grow. And we also see OTT. And as aggregators and distributors of content, we have got a job cut out for ourselves.”

Watch the Storyboard18 - CNBC-TV18 exclusive conversation on Saturday at 8:30am and Sunday at 11.30am.