Education channel Topper TV plans to start paid interactive video content services of the learning system through the TV channel by 1 June.
\"This is a huge segment with 50 per cent of Indians being less than 20 years of age. For our target audience (classes IX to XII), we are talking of 50 to 60 million kids,\" says Greycells18 Media co-founder Sricharan Iyengar.
Topper TV targets 400,000 to half a million paying subscribers through the direct-to-home (DTH) route this year. Free transmission services of Topper TV started a couple of months back on the DTH platform.
“We are now available on the net and through DTH, because interaction is possible through these modes. We have been in talks with Hathway and Incablenet for offering our services on their digital cable. They need to add some middleware to allow for an interactive platform. We work on a revenue share model with the DTH service providers, and hence the question of paying carriage charges doesn’t arise. On analogue cable TV, interaction will not be possible,” Iyengar clarifies.
Topper TV has yet to fix the subscription charges. \"When you look at the size of the coaching class market, it’s huge. Even for coaching for regular school level classes, the fee is high. Though we have not yet determined the charges for our services, the price points will definitely be more attractive when compared to what parents have to pay towards coaching classes,” reveals Iyengar.
The company’s revenue model depends highly on subscription – Low ARPUs (average revenue per user) and high number of subscribers.
“At present, we are looking at just five per cent of the revenue coming in from advertisements. We should be able to break even in about three years,” informs Iyengar.
Topper TV has canned 300 hours of programming and is in the process of adding another 200 hours. Updating and keeping the content engaging and interesting is going to be a continuous challenge.
The curriculum-based education channel will use modern technological tools in the ICT space such as interactive TV, e-learning and mobile, to create an interactive ecosystem that students will be able to use and do better in their examinations. The system deals with curriculum related content specifically aimed at students of classes IX–XII. At the secondary level (classes IX- X), the content will initially be for science and mathematics and at the senior level (XI-XII), it will be for physics, chemistry and mathematics.
Greycells18, which owns Topper TV, is floated by Sunil Khanna and Iyengar and is co-promoted by Network18's private equity arm Capital18, Raghav Bahl in his personal capacity, and Shantanu Prakash of Educomp.
Indiantelevision.com's > Digital Edge > Topper TV to launch interactive video content services
\"This is a huge segment with 50 per cent of Indians being less than 20 years of age. For our target audience (classes IX to XII), we are talking of 50 to 60 million kids,\" says Greycells18 Media co-founder Sricharan Iyengar.
Topper TV targets 400,000 to half a million paying subscribers through the direct-to-home (DTH) route this year. Free transmission services of Topper TV started a couple of months back on the DTH platform.
“We are now available on the net and through DTH, because interaction is possible through these modes. We have been in talks with Hathway and Incablenet for offering our services on their digital cable. They need to add some middleware to allow for an interactive platform. We work on a revenue share model with the DTH service providers, and hence the question of paying carriage charges doesn’t arise. On analogue cable TV, interaction will not be possible,” Iyengar clarifies.
Topper TV has yet to fix the subscription charges. \"When you look at the size of the coaching class market, it’s huge. Even for coaching for regular school level classes, the fee is high. Though we have not yet determined the charges for our services, the price points will definitely be more attractive when compared to what parents have to pay towards coaching classes,” reveals Iyengar.
The company’s revenue model depends highly on subscription – Low ARPUs (average revenue per user) and high number of subscribers.
“At present, we are looking at just five per cent of the revenue coming in from advertisements. We should be able to break even in about three years,” informs Iyengar.
Topper TV has canned 300 hours of programming and is in the process of adding another 200 hours. Updating and keeping the content engaging and interesting is going to be a continuous challenge.
The curriculum-based education channel will use modern technological tools in the ICT space such as interactive TV, e-learning and mobile, to create an interactive ecosystem that students will be able to use and do better in their examinations. The system deals with curriculum related content specifically aimed at students of classes IX–XII. At the secondary level (classes IX- X), the content will initially be for science and mathematics and at the senior level (XI-XII), it will be for physics, chemistry and mathematics.
Greycells18, which owns Topper TV, is floated by Sunil Khanna and Iyengar and is co-promoted by Network18's private equity arm Capital18, Raghav Bahl in his personal capacity, and Shantanu Prakash of Educomp.
Indiantelevision.com's > Digital Edge > Topper TV to launch interactive video content services