Shining bright

Strong leadership in the southern markets, foray in related businesses and traction in the DTH segment augur well for Sun TV.
The adoption of DTH platform has seen the industry notch up around 4,50,000 subscribers on a monthly basis, which according to a report by FICCI and PricewaterhouseCoopers will expand at a CARG of 44 per cent over 2008-2012 to 25 million. One of the major beneficiaries of this phenomenon is expected to be broadcasting companies. And among them, which is profitable, diversified and has a strong foothold in its territory, is Sun TV Network (Sun).

The company’s revenues and profits have grown at a CAGR of 44 per cent and 68 per cent, respectively in the last three years. While increasing competition in the south Indian TV industry and projected cuts in ad budgets could reduce Sun’s revenue in the broadcasting business, the company is diversifying into radio and film production segments and banking on the DTH-driven subscriptions to provide itself, the next leg of growth.

Taming the lion

Sun dominates the south Indian television broadcasting market with 20 channels in four different languages. Besides, the company owns two newspapers and four magazines in Tamil and has license to operate in 44 radio stations (42 of which are operational). It has also acquired a 48.9 per cent stake in Red FM, one of the leading radio players in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. In broadcasting, Sun is a leading player in the Tamil, Telugu and Kannada markets, and is a close second to Asianet in Kerala (See table: Leading the pack).

With the Hindi space getting extremely crowded, the focus is shifting towards regional markets. Zee News has already made some inroads through ‘Zee Kannada’ and ‘Zee Telugu’ and will hope a similar performance from its Tamil initiative too. Recently, STAR Jupiter (a JV between Star TV and Jupiter Entertainment) acquired a majority stake in Asianet, which also has a relatively smaller presence in Kannada and Telugu markets. Reliance ADAG is also planning a foray in the regional markets. So, will the competition have the better of Sun?

Sound model

Sun TV has an agreement with content providers for prime-time serials, under the time-slot model. Unlike the usual arrangement, it is the content provider who has to pay Sun a fixed fee (Rs 1.5-2.1 lakh as per analyst’s estimates) for a half-hour slot of broadcasting. In return, the content provider receives the right to sell advertising time for four out of six or seven minutes per slot.

Sun TV retains the right to the revenue from the sale of advertising time for the balance two or three minutes. This model enables Sun to limit production costs and the associated risks. Given that content providers need to sell airtime, they would look for channels with high viewership, which Sun offers.

Sun has exclusive contracts with the likes of UTV and Balaji Telefilms, which restricts them from selling content to competing channels. For the other time slots (non-prime time), Sun produces the content in-house, which again helps it keep costs under control.

Sun’s presence across genres like GECs, music, movies, news and a library of over 8,500 movies has resulted in a large viewer-base, which in turn provides strong pricing power in comparison to its peers. The company had increased the ad rate of its premier channels across markets, in the range of 10-20 per cent effective from February, 2008.

But, despite having the maximum number of programmes in the list of Top 100, analysts feel that Sun will find it difficult to hike advertisement rates substantially in the near-term, on account of increasing competition and a slowdown in the economy.

Changing revenue mix

Apart from the existing subscription-based revenues stream (about a fourth of total revenues), the increasing DTH-led subscription revenues could act as a silver lining for the broadcasting business. There has been a strong ramp-up in DTH subscriber additions in the south Indian market with Sun Direct (a DTH venture owned by Sun’s promoters) capturing 1.3 million subscribers in the first nine months of its operations.

Dish TV, Tata Sky and, the recently launched, Big TV have seen similar traction in numbers. Sun TV receives Rs 25 per month per subscriber for its entire bouquet of channels and has a DTH-subscriber base of close to two million. With regards to new channel launches, the company plans to replicate the success of its Tamil-based kid’s channel - Chutti TV, in the other three languages as well.

ROBUST MARGINS
Rs in crore FY08 FY09E FY10E
Net sales 870.0 1063.0 1230.4
Operating profit 597.5 733.4 849.7
Net profit 326.7 437.0 498.0
EPS (Rs) 8.3 11.1 12.6
P/E (x) 17.2 14.5 12.7
E: Analyst estimates

Sun TV has also forayed into film production under Sun Pictures-a division of Sun TV Network. The company released its first Tamil movie – Kadhalil Vazunthen in September 2008, which was well received by the audience. It plans to release four-five low-budget movies every year and is targeting revenues of about Rs 40 crore in FY09 from this segment.

Investment rationale

Sun’s Q2FY09 revenues grew by 22 per cent y-o-y to Rs 238 crore, driven by growth in advertising (30 per cent) and international revenues (45 per cent). The company’s net profit rose by 35.11 per cent at Rs 108.31 crore. However, given the slowing economy, Sun’s advertising revenues are expected to grow at an average rate of 15 per cent (annually) in FY09 and FY10.

The good thing though is, about 45 per cent of its ad revenues comes from the FMCG sector. The company’s strategy to change the revenue-mix in favour of stable,high-margin subscription revenues should help the company protect its margins. Analysts expect Sun’s radio business to pose losses to the tune of Rs 50 crore in FY09 (Rs 38 crore loss last year), and hope that it will breakeven in FY11.

Sun has negligible debt on its books, while its cash balance stood at Rs 400 crore as on September 30, 2008. This will hold the company in good stead, in successfully completing existing expansion plans in its core operations (niche TV channels, FM radio) and any potential acquisition opportunities.

Zee News, it’s nearest listed competitor, is trading at 14.2xFY09E, which is almost equal to Sun’s valuations. Although Zee News has been gaining traction in the southern markets, Sun is better leveraged to ad-revenue growth due to its strong leadership position. Huge content library, strong distribution and high return ratios are other positives.

Current valuations seem to factor in the concerns and look reasonable, considering that Sun has historically been traded in the one-year forward P/E of over 25. Those with an investment horizon of 12-18 months can enter this stock, which can deliver 18-20 per cent returns on an annualised basis.

Election commission gives nod to political ads on FM radio

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission clarified today that while it had ‘no objections’ to FM radio channels carrying political advertisements, this could only be done after relevant changes are made in the Broadcasting and Commercial Advertising Codes.

Though the Commission has already conveyed its view to the Information and Broadcasting ministry, the latter has not taken any steps so far to amend the Codes.

Deputy Election Commissioner R Bhattacharya said the Commission would issue further directions only after the Ministry makes the necessary changes.

The Ministry had earlier this month recommended that FM channels be permitted to carry political advertisements on the same lines as television channels.

The recommendation had been to the Election Commission on the eve of formal notification of elections to four states including the National Capital Territory of Delhi and a few months ahead of the next General Elections.

Confirming the move, Ministry Joint Secretary (Broadcasting) Zohra Chatterjee said the recommendation had been made as TV had been carrying such advertisements following a Supreme Court order. She said private FM broadcasters had for some time been urging the government to permit them to carry the ads since TV had been permitted.

It is expected that if the recommendation is accepted, the radio and particularly the FM radio industry, may rake in revenues to the extent of Rs 1.2 billion between now and the General Elections, expected in May next year, sources said.

Advertisements on radio had been banned on the Commission through a letter sent to Chief Electoral Officers on 8 November on the ground that "the Code for Commercial Advertising on the All India Radio prohibits advertisement of political nature."

Govt plans to hike FDI limit to 74% for DTH: Singh

NEW DELHI: The government feels the foreign investment for services and infrastructure in the television sector can be increased to 74 per cent while there are no plans to change the limit in the TV news and current affairs segment, Information and Broadcasting secretary Sushma Singh said.

Singh said the policy on Headend-In-The-Sky was being hurried since two-thirds of the viewers were still getting their TV through cable operators.

"We are of the opinion that the composite limits for FDI (foreign direct investment) can be kept at 74 per cent in case of DTH, HITS, teleport, and satellite radio (currently there is no FDI cap in case of satellite radio). No changes are proposed in the 26 per cent limit for news and current affairs channels. But to protect the interests of local cable operators perhaps one can think of retaining the FDI limits at 49 per cent for a local cable operator, while the limit may be raised to 74 per cent for MSOs," Singh said here today while addressing the second Assocham global summit on entertainment and media.

While the policy on HITS was on the anvil, the I&B Ministry was actively considering the policy on mobile television.

Singh also said that the regulatory format for digitalisation was being worked out. While the cost of converting analogue to digital all over the country could be as high as Rs 640 billion in India, HITS could help reduce this cost.

The ministry, she said, is also extending conditional access system (Cas) areas to the remaining parts of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. Currently, only the southern parts of these cities and the entire city of Chennai have this facility.

Piracy being a major problem for both TV and cinema, Singh said that the government was considering an Optic Disc law and had also approached the Human Resources Development Ministry for amending the Copyright Act and giving more penal powers for its implementation.

Direct to Home (DTH) TV was expected to rise to cover 115 million TV homes by 2012 at an annual CAGR of 48 per cent.

The government was hoping to increase the number of FM channels to 780 in 80 cities over the next few years.

She said the government had been taking several steps for providing a level playing field to all stakeholders and had succeeded in this. Committed to increasing broadband in the country, she said the expeditious clearance of the IPTV Policy was a step in this direction to give greater interactivity and create diverse business platforms.

Referring to cinema, she noted that the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) still preferred to give loans to corporates and, therefore, the film industry should come forward with greater corporatisation.

Though the number of people employed by the Indian film industry directly or indirectly was 5.1 million, the number of cinema houses had fallen to 12,548 which was very low for a country like India. She hoped the entertainment tax which was down to almost 50 per cent in most states would come down to just 25 per cent.

The participation of India on the foreign scene was expected to grow by 19 per cent to Rs 22 billion by 2012.

The Government was setting up a National Centre of Excellence in Animation and Gaming which was at the stage of project report. Nasscom had been asked to give a model for teaching institutions since there was a proliferation of such institutes.

The Film and Television Institute of India in Pune was being converted into a global film school.

Singh released a report by Ernst and Young on the future of entertainment in India titled ‘What’s Next’. Farokh Balsara, who is partner with E&Y, presented a report on the occasion. He referred to some clear trends like cross-media acquisitions, joint ventures between Indian and foreign companies, and easier access to capital for investment.

Motion Pictures Association of America President Mike Ellis listed several cases where Hollywood majors had collaborated with Indian filmmakers, and also of Anil Ambani’s Reliance which had invested in Hollywood. He referred to link-ups like that of Sony for Saawariya, Walt Disney for Roadside Romeo, Fox Searchlight with UTV for three films, Fox Star with Vipul Shah, Viacom and Network 18 for more than 20 films, Warner and Ramesh Sippy for From Chandni Chowk to China and some with filmmakers in south India.

Time Broadband Services Ltd MD & CEO Sujata Dev said the global meltdown and piracy had affected the entertainment industry and it was time for the government to wake up and act.

ESS to telecast Champions League T20 in HD

MUMBAI: ESPN Star Sports (ESS) is awarded the long-term global television production partner for the Champions League T20.

As part of the production set-up, ESS will telecast the tournament in High Definition (HD) format, making it the first HD telecast for any sporting event in the Indian subcontinent.

Earlier, ESS had won the exclusive global commercial rights of the league for 10 years at $975 million.

ESS will use 34 cameras at each venue to cover all the matches. It will include many angles like aerial views with Fly cameras, a boundary side field camera to showcase fielding and a new mid-wicket camera position to highlight running between the wickets that will deliver another new viewing dimension to viewers.

"This is the highest number of cameras used to cover any multi venue cricket tournament to date," ESS said in a statement.

To capture every moment of the fast paced action both on and off the field, ESS will use Super Slo Motion cameras at each match, player and umpire microphones as well as new dugout and crowd cameras to capture the reactions and emotions off the field, bringing fans closer to the action like never before.

In addition, ESS will be using a new suite of graphics for the broadcast, specially developed for the Champions League T20 by a Hollywood-based production house, and utilising a range of new statistics specifically tailored for the Twenty20 format to further enhance the viewing experience of audience.

Different versions of the anthem composed by AR Rahman will feature n the presentation including title sequence, music video and other on-air elements.

ESS MD Manu Sawhney said, "Our global production plan will create the most memorable, unique and engaging experience for audiences across the globe through a series of innovative production features and enhancements."

Champions League T20 chairman Lalit Modi said, "We are very pleased to award the global production rights to ESS. We are confident that with many new innovative and unique features that ESS had planned for the inaugural Champions League T20, fans across the globe can look forward to the most compelling and riveting action on television."

indiantelevision.com

Dish TV prices STBs at Rs 1490, charges service tax on subscriptions

Dish TV, which garnered 431,253 subscribers in the month of October to take its total customer base to 4.4 million customers, has introduced a host of pricing packages to keep up its growth momentum.

Dish TV is offering set-top box (STB) at Rs 1,490 along with which the consumer has a choice to select from multiple packs ranging from Rs 99 to Rs 275 per month.

The pack “Aapki Wish. Aapka Pack” allows freedom of choice to end users to customise their channel bouquet with maximum permutations and combinations.


Earlier in September, Dish TV had brought down the installation price from Rs 3,990 to Rs 1,990. Consumers had to pay Rs 1,990 and get a STB connection with 12 months subscription free.

In another value pack, Dish TV is offering a combo pack at Rs 2090 where the STB is bundled with the 'Platinum Pack' for three months with 165 channels and services.


Consumers have another option where they can select from a list of four tier packs – Silver, Gold, Diamond and Platinum. Silver pack offers 110 channels at Rs 111 while customers opting for the Gold pack get to watch 125 channels at Rs 180. The Diamond pack offers 140 channels at Rs 247 while Platinum pack comes for Rs 309 with 165 channels.

In another scheme, the direct-to-home service provider is offering more than 30 channels (a la carte packs) from Rs 15 to Rs 55.

Says Dish TV COO Salil Kapoor, “The new package offerings will offer our customers complete freedom of choice to customise channel packages."

Another departure from the current pricing model is the separate representation of service tax payable on monthly subscriptions. Reeling under intense pressure from multiple taxes by the Centre and the States, the tax element of DTH companies goes up as high as 40 per cent and includes service tax, entertainment tax, VAT and licence fee. Dish TV has decided to charge one component - the service tax directly from the subscribers and make the pricing transparent to that extent.

Says Dish TV managing director Jawahar Goel, “DTH industry is passing though a tough time due to burdensome multiple taxes by the Centre and the States and Dish TV has been providing considerable subsidies to consumer. Currently, the tax element of DTH companies includes service tax, entertainment tax, value added tax and license fee where as no other services are burdened with these many taxes. The subscribers are taxed entertainment tax on account of news content, that they are watching in the comfort of their home. The matter has been brought to the notice of I&B ministry and we hope that the government would rationalise the taxation structure on DTH and provide us some reprieve soon.”

Source : Indiantelevision.com

TDSAT issues notice to ESPN on Sun Direct petition

Broadcast tribunal Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has issued notice to sports broadcaster ESPN for allegedly not providing its channels to Sun Direct, the DTH venture of South India-based Sun TV group.

Admitting the petition filed by Sun Direct, the TDSAT has directed ESPN to file its reply within a week.

In its petition, the Maran family-owned direct-to-home company contended that despite several requests, ESPN failed to provide its signals.

The DTH operator further submitted that during the negotiations ESPN put restrictive conditions such as putting its channels on the basic tier of its packages, which was violative of laws laid down by the sectoral regulator TRAI.

It was also noted by the TDSAT bench, headed by Justice Kumar, that ESPN should share its signals. After that the TDSAT Chairman gave ESPN a week for filing its reply.

The tribunal also directed the operator to file its rejoinder to ESPN's reply within two weeks.

"Let the reply be filed within one week. A rejoinder, if any, (should) be filed two days before the next date of hearing," said the TDSAT Bench.

ESPN, having three channels, ESPN, Star Sports and Star Cricket, is facing action from various authorities for allegedly violating guidelines on the pricing plan for direct-to-home operators.

TRAI has already filed a criminal case against ESPN officials and has recommended to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting the cancellation of its uplinking licence for not giving its signals to DTH operators at 50 per cent of the rate cable operators are charged in non-CAS areas.

The TDSAT has fixed November 24 for the next hearing.

Tata Sky account shifts from Rediff to O&M

Direct-to home operator Tata Sky has consolidated its creative duties. Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) has bagged the account that includes brands like Tata Sky and Tata Sky Plus.

Prior to O&M bagging the account, the incumbent agency for the Tata Sky brand was Rediffusion Y&R.

Says Tata Sky CMO Vikram Mehra, “We are pleased to consolidate our creative duties to O&M, one of the leading creative agencies in the country today. Since our launch in 2006, our incumbent agency Rediffusion Y&R has partnered us in building the Tata Sky brand and creating awareness about the DTH category in India. Today, Tata Sky has made a mark for itself in the industry and is the fastest growing DTH company in the world.”

“It has been an eventful and mutually satisfying journey with Rediffusion Y&R. We now look forward at O&M to build on the great work done by Rediffusion and provide a fresh perspective to Tata Sky communication in an increasingly competitive category,” added Mehra.

Tata Sky is the joint venture between Tata Group and Star India.

Tata Sky sells close to 3-million set-top boxes

Mumbai (PTI): Tata Sky, on Tuesday said that it was just a 100 short of three-million set top boxes in sales since its launch about twenty months ago.

"In less than 30 months, we would have sold to more than 3-million subscribers, which is a record," Tata Sky Managing Director, Vikram Kaushik, said at a seminar here.

The DTH business is estimated to grow at 680 per cent in the next seven years.

Bharti Enterprises is a new company that has entered the DTH business. A couple of months ago, Anil Ambani's Reliance entered the DTH business while Dish TV is another player.

Tata Sky makes its set top boxes at its facilities in Pune and Noida.

Kaushik said the key imperatives hurting this industry were high taxes and licence fees. "We are overburdened with taxation and licence fees," he said. "If Tata Sky collects Rs 300 on subscription, about Rs 150 goes away in taxes," he said.

"We are left with only Rs 150 out of which we have to pay other taxes and take care of our overheads," he said.

DTH made its debut in India five years ago. Todaythere are about six-million subscribers to DTH, he said.

In India, a household spends about 1.5-2 per cent of its income on cable services.

SUN DIRECT REACHES 1.8 MILLION CUSTOMERS

According to SUN Direct's official website http://sundirect.in/ ,

SUN DIRECT REACHES 1.8 MILLION HAPPY CUSTOMERS

Will Zee's entry in Tamil Nadu challenge Sun TV?

It is the launch of yet another general entertainment channel in Tamil Nadu. This time it is from the Zee stable. Divya Rajagopal finds out if Zee Tamil can challenge market leader Sun Network's undisputed position in the state.

Here is a verbatim transcript of Divya Rajagopal’s comments on CNBC-TV18.

Zee Tamil is the latest entrant in the crowded satellite television space in Tamil Nadu. Launched a few weeks ago, Zee will be the twenty second general entertainment channel in the state. Zee says it is targeting viewers in tier-two cities.

V Chandrasekaar, Senior VP, Zee Tamil said, “We strongly believe Tamil Nadu does not mean Chennai and Coimbatore; the real Tamil Nadu lives in Salem, Tirunenveili, and Tiruchi. So we're going to appeal to that audience too. At this point of time if you look at the programming happening on any other GECs you will not find the rural element at all.”

Tamil Nadu is the most mature regional market in the country it is also the most competitive.

Sun TV has a whopping 40% market share followed by K TV also from the Sun Network. Kalaignar TV, launched last year, has managed to nibble at KTV's share to gain the third position. The rest - Star Vijay and Jaya TV are distant fourth and fifth.

Zee Tamil is betting on its flagship reality show sa re ga ma pa and a daily soap by Kollywood star Khushboo in the lead. But will it rake in the moolah? Sun TV demands a whopping Rs 18000 for ten seconds for its prime time shows. So, Zee will have to price itself much lower to attract advertisers. But media buyers say more the merrier.

VR Padmanabhan, Chief Client Officer, Media Edge-CIA said, “As the market, the people start getting sophisticated you need to communicate with them in their culture, their lingo, in their rituals, in their visual symbols. And moreover the tier-two cities offer too much of retail spending which is key to these channels.”

Zee is likely to face a huge challenge on the distribution front as well since Sun TV has a well-entrenched distribution network that is unlikely to let a new entrant grow. But Zee hopes that Tamil viewers will be convinced of its offering.

Source : http://moneycontrol.com

TVR Ratings from 26/10/2008 to 01/11/2008

29 Sun TV 17 Star Plus 15 Zee Tv 11 Gemini TV 8 Colors 5 Sony Entertainment TV 3 Zee Cinema 3 MAX 3 Star One 2 Kalaignar 2 NDTV Imagine 1 Udaya TV 1 Zee Marathi

IRS Reports : Understanding Indian DTH Market from IRS Window

According to market estimates, the monthly number of subscribers added is continuously going up and is now touching five lakh. This makes the growth on a of 60-70 lakh subscriber base in the range of 90 per cent. If we take the annual growth rate, it may be smaller than this number, however, it is evident from these figures that the DTH market is rapidly expanding in India.

In all likelihood, the Indian DTH growth story seems to follow the mobile telephony market. Shortening of adoption rates for new technologies (for example, mobile, Internet, etc.), low initial investment, enhanced user experience, intense competition and high decibel promotions promises to make the transition from cable to DTH at a much faster rate. The current global financial meltdown may lower the growth rates for next 6-12 month, but may not alter the growth path substantially.

Understanding customers and tracking changes in such a dynamic market with a robust research and sample size for market prioritisation, penetration and awareness is a big challenge. Thats where the Indian Readership Survey (IRS), conducted jointly by MRUC and Hansa Research, comes to the rescue of the industry. This survey has successfully provided media buying and selling currency to the market continuously for the past 11 years. Continuous nature of the survey ensures that it is free from seasonal peaks and troughs.

On November 4, IRS 2008 R2 findings were released. These findings are based on fieldwork conducted between July 2007 and June 2008. The findings are projected to January 1, 2008 date. As a result, IRS estimate may show a slight underestimation compared to current market figures, particularly after June, during which period competition intensified.

According to IRS 2008 R2, the total number of TV owning households is 103.3 million. Of these, 64 per cent households have Cable & Satellite, whereas 36 per cent households use terrestrial antenna or use TV to view movies (small base, predominantly in rural areas of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar) on DVDs. At 6.5 million, DTH households account for 10 per cent of C&S households. Thus, there is plenty of opportunity for DTH to grow for next few years. With rising income levels and standard of living, C&S is growing at a rate of 19 per cent per annum, thus, providing additional base for DTH operators. The 0.7 million CAS households in metros is the ready market for DTH service providers.


Rural rich rural households were the first to grab the DTH opportunity when it was made available. Fed up with high cabling costs and erratic service by local cable operators, or complete absence of C&S service, rural households latched on to the DTH service. No doubt rural still accounts for 5.28 million households.

The adjacent chart provides DTH subscriber base for all major DTH service providers. DishTV is clearly the market leader with 3.1 million, followed by DD Direct, Tata Sky and Sun Direct. Sun Direct was fielded only in Southern states. The Others includes new/ other players and households which are not sure of the service provider.

Zone-wise analysis of DTH households shows that West zone is leading with 2.24 million households, followed closely by North at 2.16 million. South accounts for 1.16 million households and East, 0.91 million.

Profile of DTH subscribers by urban and rural suggests that apart from Tata Sky, most other players have more or less equal urban-rural split, with urban accounting for 15-19 per cent. Tata Sky is much more urban with 37 per cent subscribers from urban.

IRS enables detailed profiling of DTH subscribers by service providers, demographics, product ownership and usage along with their media consumption. This helps prioritise markets and communicate with the right set of prospects. Future articles will elaborate on these aspects.

Sensing the need for frequent market updates in a rapidly growing market, IRS has created a separate DTH package which is released every six months. This should go a long way in helping the DTH service providers in market planning.

Now record, pause live TV

DTH operators introduce personal video recorders which allow viewers to rewind or record a programme while watching another.

Competition in the rapidly-growing seven-million direct-to-home (DTH) market is all set to take a new turn. Almost all the private DTH operators have decided to come out with personal video recorders (PVRs) which enable viewers to record a programme while watching another.

First off the block has been Tata Sky, which recently launched Tata Sky Plus priced at about Rs 10,000 per connection, complete with an ad campaign featuring Aamir Khan and Gul Panag.
Dish TV, the largest player in the DTH market, is conducting field trials of its own PVR boxes (also known as digital video recorders or DVRs). Others like Airtel, Sun Direct and Reliance Big TV may soon launch their own PVRs.

The PVR box is an upgraded version of the existing DTH set-top box with a built-in storage capacity that allows the consumers to record, pause or replay live television. All DTH players are likely to offer boxes that can record up to 140 hours of television shows.

This means that if you are watching a live cricket match then the PVR can simultaneously record your favourite movie playing on another channel. Also, while watching the cricket match, if a phone call comes, then all you need to do is press the 'pause' button on the remote control and the live match is paused. You can resume the match from where you left, after the call is over.

"Actually, the PVR starts recording the match from the point it was paused and when you push the 'play' button, the match starts from exactly the point where it was paused giving you a sense of continuity," an executive of Tata Sky Plus explained at the time of its commercial launch here.
According to Tata Sky CEO and Managing Director Vikram Kaushik, the Tata Sky Plus PVR service is doing "extremely well".

The PVR has been a big success in the developed market of the US, the UK and Europe. A recent study by NDS, the global digital pay and interactive TV technology provider, reveals that the PVR is considered to be the second most indispensable item of household technology by those who have access to it after the ubiquitous mobile phone.

The vast majority of people with access to a DVR internationally say that they could not live without it. "The US has the highest proportion of DVR users who find it indispensible (81 per cent), followed closely by the UK (78 per cent), Australia (75 per cent) and Italy (73 per cent)," says the NDS study.

The only issue in India at the moment could be its price. "It's expensive for sure but it’s for those who want it by choice. It’s for those consumers who are always short on time and often tend to miss their favourite movies, serials and much more," says Kaushik. Tata Sky Plus is priced almost four times the price of its normal DTH service Tata Sky. Experts say that even Dish TV and others are likely to price their PVR boxes at about the same price.

However, industry experts are of the view that as the DTH market is now buzzing with six DTH operators (including DD Direct Plus of Doordarshan), PVR is being offered as a key differentiator by the two well-entrenched DTH operators — Dish TV and Tata Sky.

Dish TV says that there is a huge need gap in the digital recorder space for television and that is why PVR will work. "Through the Dish TV PVR, we will introduce an offering called the Video-on-Demand service. Consumers will be able to download movies on their Dish TV PVR boxes and watch them as many times as they want possibly at a very nominal price," says Salil Kapoor, COO, Dish TV. Dish TV is likely to roll out its DVR boxes around Christmas, sources said.
However, the third-largest DTH player in the country, Sun Direct, which has over 1.5 million subscribers mainly in the southern states, says that PVR boxes will make sense to upwardly mobile consumers, while the basic DTH service will continue to dominate the DTH space. "Of course, there is a market for PVR too and we will also launch it but our main focus is on expanding our DTH footprint on the national level," Tony D’Silva, COO, Sun Direct told Business Standard recently.

Reliance ADA group's Big TV DTH service that recently said that it acquired over half-a-million subscribers plans to launch its own DVRs by the year end. According to sources, the company has ordered 250,000 PVR-enabled set-top boxes from Korean manufacturers, including Hyundai.

Source : Business-Standard