Cable challenge keeps DTH players on toes
Monday , February 2 , 2009
● Gautam Dey switched back to cable television within weeks of subscribing to Tata Sky. He was not getting the package he had opted for and didn’t like paying for a bouquet to watch a particular channel.
● Swarup Roy, who was a Dish TV dealer in the Patipukur-Bangur area, received a flood of complaints from subscribers. “If someone forgot to recharge his account within the due date, the connection snapped. Even if he recharged the account immediately, he had to wait three days for the connection to be restored,” said Roy, who like many of his customers have returned to cable television.
Exodus of customers to cable television and competition from new players are keeping direct to home (DTH) service providers on the edge despite growth in the market.
Quality of service is the pet peeve of DTH subscribers.
“Customers have to run up a bill waiting for the company’s call centre executives to book a complaint, wait for days for the technician to show up and finally pay a hefty service charge. This is in sharp contrast to the service provided by local cable operators,” said Roy.
The other common complaints are absence of regional channels from the bouquets and higher fees than cable. “It doesn’t make sense for a consumer to opt for DTH if the quality of the cable service is good,” said a subscriber.
The recent entry of Sun Direct in the eastern market, with subscription rates as low as Rs 290 for the first four months and add-on packages starting from Rs 6, has created a flutter among existing DTH players. Airtel digital TV, Reliance Big TV and Tata Sky+ are the other new DTH services in the city market. Videocon is expected to join the fray in the next few months.
Dish TV recently announced a “recharge free” offer, under which subscribers get back the entire recharge amount through movies on demand and pay channel subscription. “We have come up with this offer for existing customers as it is important for us to retain them. There is competition from cable TV and digital cable, and IPTV is on the way,” said Salil Kapoor, the chief operating officer of Dish TV.
Vikram Mehra, the chief marketing officer of Tata Sky acknowledged “a slight drainage” of customers and stressed innovations to hold on to them. “Quality of service matters to our target group and we are improving our offering. Tata Sky+, for example, allows subscribers to pause and rewind live TV and record programmes.”
According to industry estimates, there are 9.5 to 10 million DTH homes in the country. Dish TV put its subscriber base at 5 million and Tata Sky at 3 million.
The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Metro | Cable challenge keeps DTH players on toes
Monday , February 2 , 2009
● Gautam Dey switched back to cable television within weeks of subscribing to Tata Sky. He was not getting the package he had opted for and didn’t like paying for a bouquet to watch a particular channel.
● Swarup Roy, who was a Dish TV dealer in the Patipukur-Bangur area, received a flood of complaints from subscribers. “If someone forgot to recharge his account within the due date, the connection snapped. Even if he recharged the account immediately, he had to wait three days for the connection to be restored,” said Roy, who like many of his customers have returned to cable television.
Exodus of customers to cable television and competition from new players are keeping direct to home (DTH) service providers on the edge despite growth in the market.
Quality of service is the pet peeve of DTH subscribers.
“Customers have to run up a bill waiting for the company’s call centre executives to book a complaint, wait for days for the technician to show up and finally pay a hefty service charge. This is in sharp contrast to the service provided by local cable operators,” said Roy.
The other common complaints are absence of regional channels from the bouquets and higher fees than cable. “It doesn’t make sense for a consumer to opt for DTH if the quality of the cable service is good,” said a subscriber.
The recent entry of Sun Direct in the eastern market, with subscription rates as low as Rs 290 for the first four months and add-on packages starting from Rs 6, has created a flutter among existing DTH players. Airtel digital TV, Reliance Big TV and Tata Sky+ are the other new DTH services in the city market. Videocon is expected to join the fray in the next few months.
Dish TV recently announced a “recharge free” offer, under which subscribers get back the entire recharge amount through movies on demand and pay channel subscription. “We have come up with this offer for existing customers as it is important for us to retain them. There is competition from cable TV and digital cable, and IPTV is on the way,” said Salil Kapoor, the chief operating officer of Dish TV.
Vikram Mehra, the chief marketing officer of Tata Sky acknowledged “a slight drainage” of customers and stressed innovations to hold on to them. “Quality of service matters to our target group and we are improving our offering. Tata Sky+, for example, allows subscribers to pause and rewind live TV and record programmes.”
According to industry estimates, there are 9.5 to 10 million DTH homes in the country. Dish TV put its subscriber base at 5 million and Tata Sky at 3 million.
The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Metro | Cable challenge keeps DTH players on toes
I was such a stupid in investing so much in changing from one technology to other :wall:
