The Hindu Business Line : Dish TV gadget to help switch DTH operator
New Delhi, March 17
If you are not happy with your Direct-To-Home (DTH) service provider, you could soon switch over to another without discarding your set-top box (STB) and the dish.
Dish TV, the country's largest DTH operator, proposes to launch Conditional Access Modules (CAM) in May that would help subscribers of other DTH players to switch over to the company's platform at a lower price.
Inter-operability
The proposed move by Dish TV, the first time in the country by any operator, could indirectly trigger inter-operability in the DTH sector. The company also proposes to launch High Definition TV (HDTV) services in the next three months.
CAM is a card-like gadget that can be inserted in the STB, which will enable the subscriber to shift from the current DTH provider to another. The licensing norms of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) mandate that the STBs offered by the DTH players should be CAM-compliant or have an empty space where the card could be inserted.
“We are planning to launch the CAM cards sometime in May,” said Mr Salil Kapoor, Chief Operating Officer, Dish TV. The company expects to finalise pricing for the CAM cards in about a fortnight.
Lower pricing
The CAM pricing would be much lesser than the current price for a new DTH connection, Mr Kapoor said.
Besides bringing in a new set of subscribers for Dish TV, the launch of CAM would also bring down the cost of subsidy. Like all other DTH operators, Dish TV also subsidises the cost of hardware to an extent of around Rs 2,500 for every new subscriber it adds and recovers this subsidy over a period of some three years through monthly charges.
Dish TV has a subscriber base of 6.5 million and the company is targeting to add about 2.5 million new users in the next financial year, exclusive of the CAM users, Mr Kapoor said.
“CAM is an inexpensive proposition to add subscribers. It will be a good strategy to tackle competition and activate the dormant set-top-boxes,” Mr Kapoor said. Though the company does not expect to add big numbers initially, Mr Kapoor said that low cost packages and the hardware price would be an attractive proposition for customers to switch.
It is estimated that the DTH industry faces a customer churn rate of over a per cent every month. The DTH subscriber base in India currently stands at around 20 million.
New Delhi, March 17
If you are not happy with your Direct-To-Home (DTH) service provider, you could soon switch over to another without discarding your set-top box (STB) and the dish.
Dish TV, the country's largest DTH operator, proposes to launch Conditional Access Modules (CAM) in May that would help subscribers of other DTH players to switch over to the company's platform at a lower price.
Inter-operability
The proposed move by Dish TV, the first time in the country by any operator, could indirectly trigger inter-operability in the DTH sector. The company also proposes to launch High Definition TV (HDTV) services in the next three months.
CAM is a card-like gadget that can be inserted in the STB, which will enable the subscriber to shift from the current DTH provider to another. The licensing norms of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) mandate that the STBs offered by the DTH players should be CAM-compliant or have an empty space where the card could be inserted.
“We are planning to launch the CAM cards sometime in May,” said Mr Salil Kapoor, Chief Operating Officer, Dish TV. The company expects to finalise pricing for the CAM cards in about a fortnight.
Lower pricing
The CAM pricing would be much lesser than the current price for a new DTH connection, Mr Kapoor said.
Besides bringing in a new set of subscribers for Dish TV, the launch of CAM would also bring down the cost of subsidy. Like all other DTH operators, Dish TV also subsidises the cost of hardware to an extent of around Rs 2,500 for every new subscriber it adds and recovers this subsidy over a period of some three years through monthly charges.
Dish TV has a subscriber base of 6.5 million and the company is targeting to add about 2.5 million new users in the next financial year, exclusive of the CAM users, Mr Kapoor said.
“CAM is an inexpensive proposition to add subscribers. It will be a good strategy to tackle competition and activate the dormant set-top-boxes,” Mr Kapoor said. Though the company does not expect to add big numbers initially, Mr Kapoor said that low cost packages and the hardware price would be an attractive proposition for customers to switch.
It is estimated that the DTH industry faces a customer churn rate of over a per cent every month. The DTH subscriber base in India currently stands at around 20 million.
