“Comparative Study of Major DTH Service Provider in INDIA”

Introduction
Overview of the Industry

The history of Indian television dates back to the launch of doordarshan, India’s national TV
network in 1959. The transmission was in black & white. The 9th Asian games which were held in
1982 in the country’s capital New Delhi heralded the mark of color TV broadcasting in India. In
1991, Indian economy was liberalized from the License Raj and major initiatives like inviting
foreign direct investments, deregulation of domestic business emerged. This lead to the in flux of
foreign channels like Star TV and creation of domestic satellite channels like Sun TV and Zee TV.
This virtually destroyed the monopoly held by doordarshan. In 1992, the cable TV industry started
which lead to revolution.
Every city in the India had a complex web of co-axial cables running through the streets with a new
breed of entrepreneurs called as cablewallahs or Local Cable Operators (LCO) taking in charge of
distribution. The film industry was shocked by this sudden growth and there were even organized
protests for calling off the Cable TV industry. There were simply too many cable operators in the
country and the channels had a difficult time in getting its returns as the existing system was a non-
addressable and the operators could simply give a reduced number of subscribers to amass profit.
This lead to the emergency of a new breed of firms called as Multi System Operators (MSO) who
had heavy financial muscles to make capital investments. . The MSO industry became highly
monopolistic which warrants government participation to ensure competition.
Later on, the United Front Government had issued a ban on use of ku band transmission. After a
change of government, the ban got lifted finally in 2001 and TRAI issued the guidelines for
operating dth. Country’s first private dth license was awarded to Dish TV in 2003 which started
operations in 2004. Prasar Bharati also started its product DD-Direct+.
dth Digital TV system receives signals directly from satellite through the dish, decodes it with the
Set-Top Box and then sends stunningly clear picture and sound to TV which is the business under
taken by some companies by observing the rate of growth and scope for business & opportunity in
the Indian market which has 120 million viewers of TV.

With the Indian economy growing at a GDP growth rate of 7.4%, there is a sense of growth
prevailing every where. The average Indian’s disposable income and purchasing has risen to never
before levels. The Indian entertainment and media industry is not far behind. It is currently
estimated at a worth of Rs.450 billion with a CAGR of 18% over the next 5 years. Terms which
were alien to Indian’s like capital dth, digital cables, IPTV are suddenly finding presence in the
country’s journals.
In 2007, TRAI proposed a new initiative by name “Head end-In-The-Sky (HITS)” Model as an
alternative to the existing cable distribution. Instead of the MSO’s providing the bundle, there will
be a single HITS operator who will prepare the bundle of channels and beam it to the Headed in the
satellite. The LCO’s can receive this digitalized bundle and deliver to the individual homes. With
HITS, country wide implementation of CAS becomes instantaneous and cost-effective. This
benefits both the broadcasters and the customers by ensuring Addressability, Better quality of
service and increased number of channels. Another emerging trend is the IPTV which is yet to be
regulated and one can expect lot of action in this sector.
According to a report on Direct to home (dth) service, it predicts that India would overtake Japan as
Asia’s largest dth by 2010 and be the Asia’s leading cable market by 2010 and the most profitable
pay-TV market by 20015.

List of players in the industry

• Doordarshan – (DD-Direct +) of Prasar Bharati comprising of 33 FTA channels and 12 All
India Radio Channels.
• Dish TV of ZEE group.
• Tata Sky joined venture between Tata and Rupert Murdoch’s Sky TV.
• Sun direct of Sun Network.
• BIG TV of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group.
• Airtel digital TV of Bharati telemedia
• Videocon dth of videocon industries

Categorization of players in the industry

Government owned player: DD Direct+.

Private players: Dish TV, Tata Sky, Sun direct, Big TV, Airtel digital TV, Videocon dth.
OBJECTIVE OF STUDY

• To identify the Consumer Attitude towards various dth services providers.

• To identify the various Sales promotion activity by dth service providers.
• To identify the various facilities provided by dth service providers.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY/ DESIGN

The methodology adopted for eliciting the data required for the study was
survey method. It is the overall pattern or framework of the project that will
dictate as to what information is to be collected, from which sources and by
what procedures.

RESEARCH METHOD

Research methodology must be classified on the basis of the major purpose of

the investigation. In this problem, description studies have been undertaken, as
the objective of the project is to conduct the market survey about the
comparative analysis of major DTH service provider in India.

DATA COLLECTION

The information needed to further proceed in the project had been collected
through primary data and secondary data.

PRIMARY DATA

Primary data consists of information collected for the specific purpose at hand
for the purpose of collecting primary data, survey research was used and all the
retail outlets sellers using different brands and their competitors were contacted.
Survey research is the approach best suited gathering description.
SECONDARY DATA

The secondary data consists of information that already exists somewhere,

having been collected for another purpose. Any researcher begins the research
work by first going through the secondary data. Secondary data includes the
information available with the company. It may be the findings of research
previously done in the field. Secondary data can also be collected from
magazines, newspapers, other surveys conducted by known research agencies
etc.

The respondents are consumers of various DTH. The survey was carried in the
districts NCR with the sample size of 100 . The survey was
carried out with the help of a structured questionnaire, which helps in
accomplishing the research objectives. The respondents by means of personal
interview administer this structured ended questionnaire.

Research design:

Descriptive method is used in the research. A sufficient thought has been given
in framing the questionnaire and deciding the types of data to be collected and
the procedure to be used.

Sources of data:
Primary data:-
Questionnaire has been used to collect the data. It contains the open ended,
closed ended and scaling techniques.

Data collection method:

Survey method has been used for collecting the data.

Method of communication:
Indirect communication (questionnaire) has been used for collecting the
information.
Sample size:
100 Dealers have been surveyed.

Sampling technique:
Convenience area sampling has been used in the
research.

Area of survey:
Ghaziabad&Noida

LITERATURE REVIEW

Government Policies

TRAI Rules

The Direct to Home Broadcasting Services (Standards of Quality of Service and

Redressal of Grievances) Regulations, 2007, were issued on 3 1st August, 2007.
These regulations were issued to lay down the standards of quality of direct to
home services and to protect the interests of direct to home subscribers. At the
time of issue of these regulations, only two direct to home operators apart from
Doordarshan were providing direct to home services in the country. Since then,
three new direct to home operators have started commercial operations. With
the evolution of the direct to home segment and the increase in the number of
direct to home subscribers, new issues relating to quality of direct to home
service have arisen. In order to address these issues the Authority has decided to
amend the Direct to Home Broadcasting Services (Standards of Quality of
Service and Redressal of Grievances) Regulations, 2007
.

Rationale for making amendment to the Direct to Home Broadcasting

Services (Standards of Quality of Service and Redressal of Grievances)
Regulations, 2007:
The Authority noted that a large number of complaints have been received from
the Direct to Home subscribers regarding dropping of channels from
subscription packages offered by DTH operators. In case of subscription to
DTH services, a subscriber subscribes to the service on the basis of specific channels included in
the subscription package. If any channel is taken out of a
subscription package and it is replaced by another channel then the DTH
subscriber may be getting the same number of channels as earlier, but will be
deprived of viewing the particular channel which has been removed. In case the
channel which is removed is offered to the subscriber as an add-on package then
the subscriber ends up paying more for viewing that channel which was earlier
included in his subscription package. This subverts the tariff protection
provided to DTH subscribers by Regulation 9 of the Direct to Home
Broadcasting Services (Standards of Quality of Service and Redressal of
Grievances) Regulations, 2007. This calls for DTH subscribers to know about
the following new rules.
1. No visiting or repair and maintenance charges of DTH equipment during
warranty period.

TRAI:
The DTH operators have been prohibited from charging any fee
towards visiting charges or repair and maintenance charges of DTH
Consumer Premises Equipment during the period of warranty for such
DTH Consumer Premises Equipment acquired on outright purchase basis.

2. The DTH operators cannot alter the subscription package during the first
6 months, or till validity expiry, of a subscriber's enrollment.

TRAI:
The DTH operators have been prohibited from changing the
composition of their subscription packages during first six months of
enrolment to the subscription package or during the period of validity of a
prepaid subscription package, whichever is longer.

3. In case a channel is removed from a subscription package in the first 6

months of enrollment, the DTH operator must reduce the price
proportionately, or replace the removed channel with one of the same
genre and language.

TRAI:
The DTH operators have been mandated to proportionately
reduce the subscription charges for a package from which any channel i s
removed for first six months of enrolment or during the period of validity
of a prepaid subscription package, whichever is longer or to replace the
channel with a channel of same genre and language.

4 . The option of choosing the package with reduced charges or the package
with replaced channel has been given to the subscriber.

5. In case a removed channel needs to be replaced, the replacement option

will be in the hands of the DTH operator.

TRAI:
Option to select the channel of the same genre and language in a
subscription package to replace a channel which has become unavailable
on the DTH platform, has been given to the DTH operator.

6. Your DTH operator needs to give a prior notice of fifteen days to you
before changing the composition of any subscription package.

7. Subscribers are allowed to request their DTH operator to suspend their

services for up to 3 months. However, this suspension period should not
comprise the same calendar month.

TRAI:
DTH operators have been mandated to entertain requests of DTH
subscribers for suspension of services if requested period of suspension
does not exceed three calendar months and does not comprise part of a
calendar month.
The above rules are compulsory for DTH operators to adhere to