The document provides an overview of the DTH (direct-to-home) services market in India. It discusses the major players (Dish TV, Tata Sky, Airtel Digital TV, Reliance Digital TV, Sun Direct), their respective market shares, launch years, owners and some of their key marketing strategies. These include using brand ambassadors, innovative ad campaigns, targeting rural customers through partnerships, and sponsoring popular events. The document also covers trends in pricing, competition between players, and potential future strategies around integrating internet access and online content.

1. SERVICE MARKETING ASSIGNMENT
ON
STUDY OF DTH SERVICES IN INDIA
SUBMITTED BY: Akanksha Gohil
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2. Introduction to DTH Service in India
In early 2000’s India saw its first Direct To Home (DTH) company emerge in the form of Essel
Group’s Dish TV Network. Tata Sky as an offering from the house of Tata’s came in 2006. Later
on five more payers joined the industry. By 2010 the industry was turning very aggressive & all
players fiercely fought competition. Not just market leader& challenger but all players in the
industry were playing with keen interest because of the size of this industry in India. The Indian
DTH market is projected to become the world’s largest DTH market in 2012 itself. The
regulations that necessitate digitization of television content & signals will also drive the sale of
this product in the time to come. The advantage over cable & satellite service providers that it
gives, rural & remote transmission because of wireless service, technological advances like
electronic program guide that it provides makes it an enticing product for consumers.
The competition in the mainstream is mainly between the Dish TV & Tata Sky, with Airtel Digital
TV, Reliance Big TV, Videocon D2H & Sun Direct Plus playing on a different platter. It becomes
very interesting to see how these players fight it out between themselves on different fronts of
positioning & differentiation; when the core offering of bouquets & prices are almost the same
everywhere.
Players & Competitive Scenario
Sr. No. Company Established Year Owner Market Share
1 Dish TV 2004 Essel Group 42%
2 Tata Sky 2006 Tata Sons 24%
3 Airtel Digital 2008 Bharti Airtel 22%
4 Relaince Digital TV 2008 Reliance 2%
5 Sun Direct 2008 Sun TV 10%
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3. Dish TV
The Essel Group with the Goyal family introduced the first Private Indian TV Channel with Zee
TV in 1992. The group was again first in bringing Dish TV as First DTH platform in India in 2004.
Dish TV holds the biggest market share in Indian Market & is soon to become the single largest
DTH operator in terms of subscribers worldwide. It has acquired Videocon D2H services in
2018.
It pioneered with another distinction of bringing DTH on wheels concept in India by offering
Satellite TV service on wheels compatible to traveling vehicles. The group claims to be having
the largest number of HD services in its HD bouquet called Dish Tru HD at 41 services.
Marketing Strategy:-
DishTV has got a 360 marketing strategy as a part of its advertising and marketing. Since the
pricing for majority players in the segment are similar, DishTV follows aggressive marketing to
maintain edge over competitors.
A. Brand Ambassador:
 It has roped in famous Indian Actor Shah Rukh Khan as its brand ambassador for 10
years.
 Recently they have appointed Ranveer Singh as their new Brand Ambassador.

B. Ad Campaigns:
 Over the past few years it has come up with various creative and interesting ad
campaigns like “Wish Karo, Dish Karo”, “Sab par Dish sawaar hai” and “Life Masala
Maar ke” which mean “Just wish and have Dish”, “Everyone is crazy about Dish” and
“Life with spice” respectively.

C. Positioning:
 The earlier DishTV ad campaigns were targeted at cable TV subscribers to encourage
users to have a DTH service owing to better quality of service for affordable prices
by pitching it as India’s first DTH service provider.

 The next set of ads focused on the competition while the latest ad commercial
focuses on the government’s recent mandate of cable TV digitization.
I.
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4. Tata Sky
Tata Sky Limited is a joint venture between the Tata Sons and 21st Century Fox. It was
incorporated in 2001 and launched services in 2006.It currently offers a total 601 channels (495
Standard definition channels and 99 High definition channels) and services, along with other
many active services. It provides 24x7 help support in 11 languages.
Physical Evidence :-
 Customers have to buy a Tata sky digicomp in order to avail Tata sky service Product.
 Along with this a dish antenna is also given.

 The ISO accreditation- ISO 27001:2005; provides an evidence for customer’s comfort
and reliability.
Marketing Strategies: -
A. Different brand ambassador for different region of India :-
i) For Southern region – Tata sky have roped in actress Nayanthara to
attract the crowd of south India.
ii) For Northern, Western and Eastern region – Tata Sky has now taken up
Amitabh Bachchan from 2017, to be its brand ambassador, before him it
was Amir Khan.
B. First Mover Advantages:-
● First DTH provider to give customer the facilities of:
1. 'Personal Video Recorder' (PVR) technology,
2. Interactive services on the platform,
3. Hindi programming guide,
4. DIY video library,
5. Customized package
6. a-la-carte (pay as you view) channels options like “Make My
Pack”, “Super Saver Pack” and “TRUChoice”.
C. To reach Rural customers, Tata Sky have tied-up with with
● ITC’s e-choupal:
i. When a farmer sells his produce at an ITC e-choupal, he has cash
in hand and can use it to subscribe for DTH services.
● Godrej Aadhar:
i. the rural services and retail initiative of Godrej Agrovet
● Indian Oil corporation:
i. When a gas cylinder from Indian Oil is delivered at a home, the
delivery boy carries Tata Sky pre-paid vouchers, which can be
purchased by the user.
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5. D. Use of Local cable Operators:
● Local cable operators were made as the distributors for Tata Sky because of their
familiarity with people. This generated a feel of reliability for purchasing.
● All distributors be given a status of Tata Sky employees which generated a
feeling of belongingness amongst them for the company and they helped in
larger marketing and sales.
E. Host to a variety of interactive programs:
● Through its Active platform, the Active series is aimed at a varied audiences
including:
i. children between the ages of 3-12 years
ii. Housewives
iii. adults and senior citizens
● Through programs ranging from educational modules and cookery, dancing
classes, beauty classes and shopping.
● Some games are also present to attract the teens.
F. Sponsorship:
Tata Sky has sponsored popular events like IPL, award shows etc to show its ads
and promote the brand.
Airtel Digital
Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Bharti Airtel owned Airtel Digital TV came to DTH industry in 2008. It gives
more than 300 channels in its bouquets and has15 HD channels. It claims to be different in
offering up to 7 days EPG to its viewers. It also stands out in offering a universal remote that
works on both STB & television. The premium DVR that Airtel Digital offers has160 GB Hard disk
to store 150 hours of television content.
Marketing Strategies:-
Airtel’s focus for its marketing strategy is to provide superlative picture and sound clarity in
competitive pricing.
Following strategies have been adopted by Airtel for its DTH Services.
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6. 1. They have segmented the market according to various factors such as location, income
group, demographics, etc. In this, customers have options for choosing set top boxes
with different functionality for according to their needs. Standard Definition (Low level),
High Definition (Mid-level) and Xtream Box (Premium) are the three offering of products
to use Airtel DTH services.
2. Airtel is providing record feature, 30-day free subscription with new connection,
offering a bundle of 500+ SD & HD channels, single remote for TV and set top box, and
free DTH Installation. These features have become normal standards for the players in
DTH service.
3. To really differentiate its Xtream Box product, Airtel DTH is providing services like built-
in chromecast, Netflix and Prime & others, Voicesearch, and controlling box through
smartphone.
4. Apart from keeping the prices competitive, Airtel DTH gives the users offer of 10%
cashback on payment through Airtel Payments Bank.
5. Airtel DTH in some cities providing Xtream Box product with the name of Internet TV
with same features, but significantly lower price.
6. In case of customers facing predictable problem, the company has provided FAQ based
solution on its website that gives answers to common problems that a customer might
face.
7. The company previously roped in Said Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor as brand
ambassadors as part of their marketing strategy, but now they don’t have any contract.
8. The company is trying to build a solid digital layer using the strength around data,
payments, network and distribution.
Branding & Competitive Strategies by Players
The product differential with all the companies in DTH industry is meager. More than the
product part, the differential happens on the service or the price part of competition. Core
technologies & the assortment of channels is more or less common among all players. Tata Sky
enjoys a premium image on service, installation & quality of network. All major advancements
in technology to this industry in last six years have been introduced by Tata Sky to which all
other have followed suit. May it be HD services, DVR, Mobile Applications, common remote;
Tata Sky has always maintained a lead over all others. Dish TV enjoys the largest market share,
being the first entrant in the industry had a leading edge which it has been able to maintain in
the long run also. Competes fiercely with all others, specially Tata Sky, which is not only the
second largest player & a challenger to its supremacy, but has a distinct edge in offering a
premium service. When Tata Sky tried to put down the weight & baggage of this premium
image with a campaign without Amir Khan, bringing commoners to say “Poochne mein kya jata
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7. hai?”, so to make consumers explore options before buying; Dish TV replied with its own satire
saying “pooch ke dekh lo” you will even then be convinced to go for Dish TV.
Product & Services
The DTH Operators by virtue of their negotiations & content sharing arrangements strike a deal
with the channels to bring out the largest bouquet of channel on offer & at better prices than
competitors. Tata Sky with 32 channels from Star TV‟s stable & Dish TV with 32 channels from
Zee TV’s stable, stand out at a better position in these negotiations.
The usual features accompanying DTH services like Electronic Program Guide (EPG), Language
options for some channels, the interactive services apart from the benefits of unhindered
access at any terrain, definite quality improvement over terrestrial networks stand as common
advantages with all service providers. The multi angle multi camera feed that DTH majors
support during sporting events provides to the viewers stadium like experience from the
comfort of their home in an economical & effective way. “This is a differential offering in a
country where cricketing is religion”, believes Vikram Mehra, CMO Tata Sky. Some time back
the advertisement of Tata Sky was centered around this feature of their services.
Pricing
The Industry players are all incurring heavy losses in this fierce race for the subscribers. But
they expect the numbers to swell before the revenues come up & comfort them. In present
spate of things the subscribers seem to be highly subsidized by the service providers. Service
providers are first interested in customer acquisition & market creation than profits at this
stage. Early players in the industry know it better & have seen how the industry has changed in
the span of six years. Initial prices stood around 5000 Rs in 2006 for STB & service activation,
from there it came down to 3500 Rs, 2000 Rs, 1000 Rs & went even below this when the
number of players increased in 2010. The Festive prices offer in 2009 & in 2010 brought down
the prices at Rs 999for this service with Dish TV & Tata Sky both.
All the companies had their price offers between Rs 890 to Rs 1200. Dish TV for example in
2010 was giving STB for Rs 990 + Rs 200 for installation extra, but giving recharge vouchers
worth Rs 990 absolutely free, thus an offer that puts STB for free. Companies have gone even
below this to acquire a customer. Sun Direct came with the most lucrative offer with STB at Rs
890 & offered the lowest base pack at Rs 99 which was most economical pack across board.
When they did so, the companies were virtually subsidizing the subscriber for about 2500 Rs,
the basic cost of STB & Antennae doled almost for free, in hope of future earnings & revenues.
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8. Advertising & Marketing Campaign Strategies
DTH Companies in India have widely utilized festive seasons & sporting events as an
opportunity to sell their product on the basis of inherent product benefits or because of the
sports special features that they have to offer to sports enthusiasts around major sporting
events. Competitively placing their products & specially war of words started in industry after
2009, when Dish TV, Tata Sky & Sun Direct was fiercely fighting out each other. Sun Direct
brought the service price down to which all had to react by corrective pricing. When Tata Sky
tried to down place itself with the help of “Poochne mein kya jata hai” campaign, Dish TV took a
dig at their attempts by saying “Poochte ke dekh lo” kind of campaigns. Some DTH Majors come
out to collaborate with television manufacturers to sell their DTH at subsidized prices or in
some other promotional offers. Airtel Digital tying up with Sony Bravia, Reliance Digital TV tying
up with Onida & Videocon D2H clubbed with or inbuilt with Videocon Televisions are prominent
examples of this.
Future Strategies
 Make set up box embedded TV, to provide better experience.

 Have the facility to access internet with the help of set up box, with the help of any
telecom company.

 Have the liberty to access online content after paying a certain premium. Tie ups can
be done with sites like Netflix and Amazon Prime.

 Tie up with PS2 and Xbox. To provide better gaming experience through their set up
box, thereby attracting more enthusiastic crowd.
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