Reliance Big TV



Well the wait is over and Big TV has been launched in India by
Reliance,

Big TV, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Communications and an new entrant in the direct-to-home (DTH) segment, is looking at charging carriage fees from small broadcasters.

Currently, Big TV is not charging the broadcasters any carriage fee, which would become a major source of revenue for the company in the near term.

"We will look at charging carriage fees from small broadcasters. We can't carry every channel on our platform, so we are considering charging carriage fees from the upcoming new channels as well as small broadcasters." a senior company official said to Televisionpoint.com.

Carriage fee is paid by television broadcasters to multi-system operators (MSO's) and DTH players to beam their channels on their network.

Big TV had launched its DTH services on August 19 and is looking to capture 40 per cent of the market share within one year. The DTH service would offer 202 channels at present, which would be increased to 300 by the middle of next year.

Big TV is available at Rs 1,490, which would include a three-month complimentary subscription. The service would be available at 1,00,000 retail outlets across 6,500 towns in the country.

At present, Reliance Big TV has eight transponders, which can support 230 channels. The company would acquire four more transponders in next three to four months, which would take its total channels capacity to 360.
Reliance Brings Momentum in DTH
Reliance-backed Big TV launched its digital DTH satellite pay-TV platform August 19, targeting a potential 40% share of the Indian DTH pay-TV market over the next 12 months.

Reliance’s entry into the capital intensive pay-TV sector is significant as it has the resources to fund long term losses and hefty sub acquisition costs (SAC). Dish TV continues to grow its top line aggressively but its SAC continues to climb along with losses while the cash burn at Tata Sky, a US$600 mil. JV between the Tatas, News Corp. and Temasek, is significant.

Making money in the mass market is the name of the game but between them, three cable MSOs - Hathway, DEN and Digicable - now lay claim to almost 25 mil. homes passed in aggregate, with Hathway in particular building a profitable franchises that could be emulated in time by DEN and Digicable. Hathway’s growing acquisition of primary points and its success with broadband is instructive and the company is on track to generate annualized EBITDA of US$40 mil. by FYE March 2009 on sales of US$160 mil. Hathway’s digital subs are likely to pass 1 mil. shortly. More funds and cash will be needed by cable however.

MPA’s latest analysis suggests approximately 6.3 mil. DTH pay-TV subs in India at present, based on net numbers from three platforms: Dish TV (~ 3 mil.), Tata Sky (2.3 mil.), and Sun Direct TV (1 mil.). MPA forecasts indicate that the DTH market could grow to 13.3 mil. net subs by end-2009 and 17.4 mil. by end-2010. Reliance reckons that another 10 – 11 mil. gross subs could be added over the next 12 – 18 months. Videocon will launch DTH services in Sept. 2008, followed swiftly by Bharti. Big TV offers 200 channels to customers, including more than 30 VOD movie channels and wide availability of all the pay-TV channel bouquets. The service is available across 6,500 towns in the country. The service is priced at Rs2,490 (Rs1,490 initial deposit plus Rs1,000 in total install fees) similar to offered by Dish TV and Tata Sky at present.

Leading Indian DTH pay-TV operator Dish (DSTV.BO) plans to acquire 5 mil. subs by FYE March 2009, adding 2 mil. new subs in the process. The company saw subscribers grow at record pace during its June 2008 quarter costs and losses also increased sharply. Encouragingly, Dish reported gross adds of 167,000 for last month, driven by offers targeting the South. Dish TV revenues grew 85% Y/Y to Rs1.6 bil./US$40 during its June 2008 quarter but EBITDA losses increased Y/Y to Rs666 mil. because of growing sub acquisition costs, averaged Rs3,000 for the quarter, up almost 100% Y/Y. Gross for the quarter reached Rs173. Dish TV hopes to fund future with a Rs12 bil. rights issue, which chairman Subhash Chandra says will complete later this year. The company has also added more capacity to launch new TV channels with nine transponders ProtoStar 1.

Features
-
More Channel Choice Pure Digital Experience Program at your
finger tips
Per View Movies
Mosaic Window
Parental Control
Reliable
After Sales Service

How is BIG TV so unique?

BIG TV will offer MPEG 4
technology for the first time in the country to provide DVD like video
and CD like audio quality TV viewing.

Now reagarding the details -

Big TV has the capacity of upto
250 TV channels which is much more than any current DTH opera
Big TV

View next photo
tor.
You
can enjoy upto 32 Pay - Per - View channels, never before seen in
India.
These channels will showcase Bollywood, Hollywood and Regional
films.
BIG TV also has Functions such as Zapper Banner; Mosaic;
Favourites; Search etc.
Bring the largest multiplex experience right
inside your home.

Some Faq’s posted for reference -

How many channels do I get to see on BIG TV ?


Currently you will be able to watch upto 150 channels & in the next
few months we will be adding more & more channels.

Which are the
channels I will be getting with monthly subscription of Rs. 325 /-?
You
will be getting ALL STAR / SONY / NDTV channels along with popular
Sports & News & Entertainment channels
Current Offer for Reliance Employees

Costing part for internal employees -

- Particulars BIG TV Employee
Offer
Upfront payment Rs. 1000 (No other charges)

Annual Subscription (paid monthly) Rs. 325 x 12 months = Rs. 3900

Free Pay Per View Movies Rs. 100/month x 12 = Rs. 1200

Net Annual Pay Out (Rs. 1000 + Rs. 3900) - Rs. 1200 = Rs. 3700

Advantages -

1. Mpeg 4 picture quality which will be the best , other providers like tata sky and dish offer mpeg 2
2. High definition content will also be beamed
3. Free movies worth Rs 100 every month
4. Ease of use, multiple features and access
5. Initial cost of ownership will be lower
6. Healthy competition which will force other DTH providers to improve service and reception quality

More
info will soon be available as soon as commercial launch take place next month.

I will update the review as and when i get more information -

Latest update --

Reliance is in advanced talks with Toshiba to sign an agreement for about
15 million LCD TVs, to be given along with the DTH connection. The proposal deal
stands like this: BIG DTH will offer its DTH connection for Rs 10,000-12,000 and
the consumer will get a Toshiba LCD TV free along with the DTH hardware. Also,
subscription will be free for the first six months or so.



Let’s see if this really happens ...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------

STB update - April 4

The STB is made in Taiwan and has the following outputs -

outputs on the back

Antenna In :
Input from terrestrial antenna. Connect to cable network or Active antenna

Loop Out & RF Out :
Terrestrial signal loop out & RF re-modulation out to Tv set. Connect to RF Terminal of Tv Set

Component :
Component Video (Y/Pb/Pr) output. Connect to Component video terminal of Tv set.

LNB Input :
Digital Satelite Signal input from dish antenna

DC Jack :
DC 12V input from power Adapter

Loop Out:
Loop through output from digital tuner

USB :

Connect USB Device

Audio L & R :

Left & Right output.

Video :

Composite output to video

2 comments:

Varun said...

Well I think this service is going to do wonders for the DTH space with the customer point of vie.However at the moment I am 'santusht' with my CAS box :D

Artstudio Sri Lanka said...

Designed for your convenience, TV Wall Brackets can be fitted to make efficient use of space in any room. TV Wall Brackets are the ideal solution to organise your home entertainment systems and to make a visual impact!