Archive for the ‘entertainment’ Category

RCom set to launch DTH service Big TV

Friday, March 28th, 2008

The war to carry television to your home has started in earnest with the telecom giants Reliance Communications and Airtel ready with their DTH plans and expect to storm the market by May this year.

Reliance Communications, which is launching the service under the BIG TV brand has even started trial runs in Mumbai. The company says it will invest Rs 2000 crore in its DTH venture and is ready with its entry strategy.

The DTH market in India is already at 6 million with Tata sky and Dish TV being the major players but Reliance says its service will be cheaper and since its using MPEG 4 a new technology.

It will be able to provide almost 250 channels, the highest by any DTH player. The company is even talking to broadcasters on HDTV transmission and just like Airtel it will use the distribution network of its parent company.

Reliance is targetting a million subscribers in the first year of operation and will be concentrating on smaller cities to boost its subscriber numbers.

[source]

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

If you liked this post, buy me a beer. (Suggested: $2 a beer or $5 for a pitcher)

Tags: , , ,
Posted in entertainment | 1 Comment »

Trai to cap DTH charges? Bad idea

Friday, March 28th, 2008

The proposal by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to cap charges for channels shown on direct-to-home platforms at Rs 5 per month is in line with what has been allowed for those operating conditional access service networks.

Since both are addressing the same consumer, the proposal has inter se equity as a plus point. And the business of capping the CAS/DTH bill to the TV-watching home has a certain populist appeal. The problem is that the basic proposal on CAS was unfair to channel owners and removed the incentive for channels to produce superior/differentiated programming that might cost more money and/or which commands greater audience pull.

Extending this faulty logic to DTH now will compound the offence. Star TV, for instance, paid very large sums of money to, first, Amitabh Bachchan and later, Shah Rukh Khan, to host Kaun Banega Crore(Rs 10 million)pati. But
if it cannot charge more than a rival channel which does not have such expensive programming, how is it to meet its higher costs?

The same holds for sports broadcasters who bid hundreds of crore (Rs 10 million) for exclusive cricket broadcasting rights. One answer is that channels with superior programmes and, therefore, a larger audience will get their payback through higher advertising revenue. That is true, of course, but why should the channels be denied the right to ask more from the viewer as well?

MORE… 

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

If you liked this post, buy me a beer. (Suggested: $2 a beer or $5 for a pitcher)

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in entertainment | No Comments »

Shahrukh signs mega deal with Airtel

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

It is one of the biggest such deals and it is between two of the country’s two biggest brands Airtel and Sharukh Khan. The bollywood badshah is reportedly being paid Rs 40 crore to appear in a show sponsored by the telecom major.

Sharukh Khan wants to test your general knowledge and he is promising to reward you crore if you can answer right but what is he getting to ask those questions, a hefty sum of Rs 40 crore.

If the market grapevine is to be believed and it is Airtel the mobile giant who is footing the bill.

After all Sharukh is already their brand ambassador and Airtel feels the returns will be much bigger than what they are investing.

Shahrukh was apparently paid Rs 25 crore for KBC but this time the figure has almost doubled however many are asking whether Sharukh can give any brand the same recall as Amir who is more choosy about his endorsements.

Brand gurus say with Sharukh that is not a problem at all.

Most branding experts contend that Sharukh may be looking at something more than just money in this deal after all the new show will help him reach out to children as well a constituency in which Amir and Hrithik Roshan are already well entrenched.

[source]

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

If you liked this post, buy me a beer. (Suggested: $2 a beer or $5 for a pitcher)

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in entertainment | No Comments »