Haunted Castle Could Bring You Riches (Xbox, Ipods!)

For those of you who aren’t aware, "Haunted Castle" is a game offered in the “Actve Games” package on the Tata Sky platform. It’s a fun game, and to add to the fun it has fantastic opportunities to earn prizes, through the Haunted Castle Contest (open for all Tata Sky subscribers)!

There are daily contests (contest starts at 00:00 hrs and closes at 23:59 hrs each day) from Dec 22^nd 2008 to Jan 4^th 2009. To participate you need to play the Haunted Castle game on Tata Sky and send your score as an SMS to 56633 (you may send in as many entries as you wish!). You also have the option of participating in one or all of daily contests up to 4^th Jan 2009.

The results for the daily contests would be announced in the ‘Game Guru’ section on the Actve Games service by 12 noon, on the day following the closing date of the daily contest.

The winner of the daily contest (the person with the highest score for the day) gets an Ipod shuffle (1 GB)! And the Bumper Prize winner (the participant whose score consistently features as the highest score on the Game Guru- leader board during the contest period) gets an Xbox!!!

If you’re excited enough Go Play!…If you need more information, check out this link...

http://www.tatasky.com/offers-actve-games.html

Films of Shahrukh Khan on Tata Sky!

Here’s your chance to catch up with some of the all time blockbuster SRK movies. These movies are available as Films of Shahrukh Khan Add on pack (comprising of 8 movies and 2 documentaries of Shahrukh Khan). It’s an exclusive pack for the Tata Sky subscribers.

The movie schedule could be checked out below...

Fri 26-Dec
Swades

Sat 27-Dec
Main Hoon Na

Sun 28-Dec
Inner/Outer World

Mon 29-Dec
Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa

Tue 30-Dec
Paheli

Wed 31-Dec
Asoka

Thu 01-Jan
Don

Fri 02-Jan
Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani

Sat 03-Jan
Paheli

Sun 04-Jan
Swades

Mon 05-Jan
Anjaam

Tue 06-Jan
Don

Wed 07-Jan
Inner/Outer World

Thu 08-Jan
Main Hoon Na

Fri 09-Jan
Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa

Sat 10-Jan
Asoka

Sun 11-Jan
Don

Mon 12-Jan
Main Hoon Na

Tue 13-Jan
Swades

Wed 14-Jan
Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani

Thu 15-Jan
Anjaam

For getting more details about the film pack, pricing and other stuff kindly follow this link:

http://www.tatasky.com/offer-films-of-shahrukh-khan.html

Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! Meet Neetu Chandra Contest

Meet Neetu Chandra of Oye Lucky Lucky Oye! through this exciting contest brought to you exclusively by Tata Sky.

Here’s what you’ve got to do to crack this one

• You must order the movie Oye Lucky Lucky Oye between 19 December 2008 to 15 January 2009. Post ordering the movie, You shall receive the contest question via sms within 3 working days from the date You have ordered the movie.
• You must answer the question correctly and send in your Valid entry to 56633.
• From the pool of Valid entries, only one winner will be chosen via a random computer generated process under the supervision of a special panel & this person would be declared the winner.
• The results generated will be final and binding.
• The exact date & venue to meet the star Neetu Chandra shall be communicated to the winner via phone (as registered in Tata Sky records)!

To checkout the nuts and bolts of the contest follow this link

http://www.tatasky.com/offer-oye-lucky-lucky-oye.html

Tata Sky Ghajini contest!

Interesting bit of information for those who aren’t aware...there’s this Ghajini contest running on Tata Sky.

It is a daily contest from 11 Dec 2008 to 25 Dec 2008 which begins at 00:00 hours every day and closes at 23:59 everyday within this period. Here are some of the points describing the contest.

• The contest features 3 questions everyday
• Each question will have three answer options and you need to select the correct answer by pressing the corresponding number button on the Tata Sky remote
• Once you select the answer, the next question screen will appear automatically.
• After answering the third question a code will be generated on your TV screen
• Please SMS this code to 56633 to win 10 Ghajini audio CDs daily and
• Your Tata Sky account will be charged at Rs 5 everytime you participate in this contest. Telecom service provider charges extra
• You may send as many entries as you wish
• The contest winners would be announced on www.tatasky.com the day after the contest closes
• Press the help button on your Tata Sky remote to read the instructions and rules of the contest

You could visit this link for more information on the contest, its terms etc

http://www.tatasky.com/ghajini-contest.html

All Aamir khan fans, cine buffs and music connoisseurs, this is your chance. Take it!

Oye Lucky Lucky Oye on Tata Sky!

Hey TS guys you could catch the latest hit flick, OLLO (Oye Lucky Lucky Oye) on your Tata Sky Showcase. Don’t mind my penchant for short forms!

OLLO, as I believe is a story of Lucky Singh who plays a smart thief, someone who even the Delhi police are in awe of. His modus operandi is to outsmart the people, chowkidars and policemen with his sharp mind and wit. Lucky's journey from a middle class boy to a popular thief turns him into a flamboyant playboy who now wants more than just the riches. Now he needs the respect, the social standing of a city gentleman without sacrificing that reckless freedom he cherishes.

If you’ve not ordered the movie, go for it now. Follow this link to refresh your understanding of ordering showcase movies.

http://www.tatasky.com/showcase-howtoorder.html

Tata Sky DTH December Promo!

Get into the new year with a Tata Sky! Here’s a fantastic promotional offer from Tata Sky for this December!

Purchase a Tata Sky connection comprising of Tata Sky Digicomp + Standard Installation at a special concessional price. The special concessional price shall be Rs 1,999 as the Standard Installation charges of Rs 1,000 on activation of Primary Digicomp have been reduced to Rs 500!!!

Go for it guys if you’ve don’t already have Tata Sky in your life.

Check out the offer here.
http://www.tatasky.com/offer-50discount-installation-fee.html

Tata Sky DTH Customer Service!

I am a regular on most forums on DTH and Tata Sky on the internet. One of the questions that has been doing the rounds lately is that of the pricing of the sports package...of Tata Sky v/s the others. I wasn’t really sure of how the others had priced their sports package. I thought lets bounce this off Tata Sky’s Customer care. Frankly wasn’t expecting too much of information from them about competition, but thought lets give it a try.

Hence I called up the western India customer service, a certain Pooja took the call. After the courteous opening statements, I asked her if she could help me with a comparison of Tata Sky pricing vis-a-vis Dish TV, Big TV and Airtel Digital TV. She could have very conveniently said that she would be able to help me out with TS pricing but not others.

However she didn’t. In fact she asked me a counter question “Sir are you referring to any particular package, or the Set top box price or the base pack?” I wasn’t expecting this. If she’s asking this question, means she’s obviously going to provide some answers here. I went on to say, “The sports pack”...”How do other service providers compare on the Tata Sky Sports platinum pack?”.

Quite to my delight, she actually gave me an elaborate run down of each of the competition packages and their pricing, channels bundled, taxes, everything (in reference to Tata Sky). And also quite expectedly drove home the point that TS’s pricing was the most flexible. I didn’t mind that, In fact I somewhere knew that. What impressed me was that she was armed with all the information required for the call.

This is in quite contrast to most customer service reps across brands, who are themselves unware (most of the times) about their own product, leave aside competition. They keep you on hold (while they gather information from their Supervisors/colleagues) or keep transferring you until you reach “nowhere”. End of it the customer who’s called gets frustrated and ends the call. Haven’t all of us experienced this?

And here is Tata Sky, whose execs are not just prompt but are also equipped with sufficient information to finish a call entirely to the satisfaction of the calling customer. No transfers/ no holding of line nothing. This girl didn’t just give me TS information but also provided a perspective of how it compares with competition and in detail. Great Job Pooja. Great Job Tata Sky!

Post Script

If you’re interested in knowing the sports channel package comparison, see it below:

Tata Sky
ESS Channels
Add on Package: ESPN Star Sports Monthly Pay Pack
Channels offered: ESPN, Star Sports
Price: INR 40
Add on package: Star Cricket Monthly Pay pack
Channels Offered: Star Cricket
Price: INR 25
Lock In Period for ESS Channels: 30 days
Neo Channels
Add on Package: Sports Gold
Channels Offered: Neo Cricket, Neo Sports
Price: INR 30
Lock in Period for Neo Channels: 30 days

BIG TV
ESS Channels
Add on Package: Sports 1 Plus
Channels offered: ESPN, Star Sports
Price: INR 40
Add on package: Uni Plus (alacarte channel)
Channels Offered: Star Cricket
Price: INR 25
Lock In Period for ESS Channels: 180 days
Neo Channels
Add on Package: Sports 2 Plus
Channels Offered: Neo Cricket, Neo Sports
Price: INR 30
Lock in Period for Neo Channels: 180 days

Airtel Digital TV
ESS Channels
Add on Package: ESPN Plus
Channels offered: ESPN, Star Sports, Star Cricket
Price: INR 45
Lock In Period for ESS Channels: None
Neo Channels
Add on Package: Neo Plus
Channels Offered: Neo Cricket, Neo Sports
Price: INR 30
Lock in Period for Neo Channels: 6 months

Dish TV
ESS Channels
Add on Package: Sports 1
Channels offered: ESPN, Star Sports
Price: INR 39.33
Add on package: Star Cricket Alacarte Channel
Channels Offered: Star Cricket
Price: INR 28.09
Lock In Period for ESS Channels: 1 month
Neo Channels
Not Offered

SUN Direct
ESS Channels
Alacarte ESPN
Price: INR 42.70
Lock in period: 30 days
Alacarte Star Sports
Price: INR 42.70
Lock in period: 30 days
Alacarte Star Cricket
Price: INR 35.96
Lock in period: 30 days Neo Channels
Not Offered

In summary
Objectively if one has to evaluate these prices across sports packages along with their availability with a given DTH provider, it’s quite obvious that the price difference is clearly a function of the channel/ channel combination and duration of association with that channel(s) that a particular user is looking at. Also when evaluated along with the lock in period associated with a particular package, along with the channels bundled in a given add on pack and whether a given channel is available on a particular platform (as you would have noticed Sun Direct, Dish TV do not carry Neo channels in add on packages), the comparison actually tends towards a relative parity across providers (Despite the sports package recent price increase by TS)!

Hence I think DTH not about the channel packages and their pricing (as it’s more or less subjective based on the user’s requirement), it’s more about the complete experience that a DTH service provider delivers!

Tata Sky Plus User Guide

I was just flipping through the TS+ user guide, an thought it definitely merited a mention on my Tata Sky blog. And hence this little post.

It’s a neat booklet. Good quality high GSM paper, styled well. The selection of the background and foreground colours complements readability and the brand’s color pallete both, adequately well.

Interesting use of visuals to depict the various function that TS+ offers. What I also liked was, were required, there was modest acceptance of certain things that cannot be done with TS+. For e.g. In the “Recording Section” amongst other things, they have clearly identified that with the Tata Sky + Digicomp, you cannot record 2 programs parallel and also watch the third one simultaneously.

The booklet is exhaustive. Every functionality (from the most intricate one to the most basic) has been nicely covered using support graphics and understandable text. Overall it’s very Understand-it-yourself!

The best way to use it, if you are new to TS/TS+, is to put on your TV/Digicomp, grab the remote, get the guide in your hand and Go! Experiment all the functionalities as explained in the guide, using your remote on your Digicomp. That’s the best way to quickly grasp the entire functionality that is offered by TS+ and covered in the booklet. Also it’s the easiest way!

Recording Conflicts Resolved!

This is another hackneyed issue, discussed in various forums and bulletin boards on TS/TS+ and DTH in general. Let me put it to rest here. The issue is people are not exactly clear of what they can record and what they cannot and so on (on TS+).

I’ll demystify the recording possibilities in Tata Sky Plus here.

The Tata Sky + Digicomp has 2 tuners, that enable the following situations to be possible/not possible:

1.Watch one channel and record another channel
Possible
2. Record 2 channels and watch a previously recorded programme
Possible
3.Record two channels and watch one of the channels being recorded
Possible
4.Record three programmes simultaneously
Not Possible
5.Record two channels and watch the third channel live
Not Possible

When you select a programme for recording, Tata Sky+ automatically checks to see whether it clashes with other programmes you have previously set for recording. If there is a clash, it’ll present you with clear instructions on how to proceed.

Hope this clarifies all possible questions on recoding conflicts!

Tata Sky DTH Installation!

Let me share my experience with the Tata Sky installation process.

This was long time back. But it’s very relevant in the context of this blog. We had bought “Tata Sky” through a dealer. After the purchase, within the stipulated time committed by the dealer, we received a call from the TS installation team, confirming our purchase, address etc.

The team was prompt, they landed up within the time committed. I was at my place when they arrived. They identified themselves through their official TS ids. They came across a professional set of guys, absolutely clear of their tasks in the implementation process. They started with the assessment of the installation site (the place where the Tata Sky Digicomp (Set Top Box) needs to be placed (which is in my house close to the TV) and the place where the dish needs to be installed (the terrace of our building).

I accompanied them to the installation site along with the security personnel of our building. We had also taken the necessary permissions (from the secretary of the building etc) to plant the dish. The TS team was accurate in their analysis in terms of how high the dish needs to be from the ground, what direction it needs to face and so on. The process was on track.

Not for long though. The secretary of our building (he is one whimsical character) turned up. He likes to exploit his power in such situations where residents need his permission (read blessings) to install dish antennas, park an extra car in the compound etc. True to his character, he intervened here and told us that we would not be able to put the dish at the identified spot. This is because according to him there was too much of “crowding of signals” in that area, he had some convoluted logic to explain that, I’ll not get into it. I have my doubts about the educational qualifications of this man. I actually wonder if he has even been to a primary school. Crowding of signals?!...the logic he gave vindicated my assumptions about his educational qualifications. But the obstinate being that he is, you dare not argue. You might just insult your intellect in the process. You just have to find a way around him. I was contemplating just that.

Quite interestingly the Tata Sky guys took over. They explained to him the consequences of putting the dish elsewhere in terms of conflicting with other mobile signals (emanating from the cell trans-receiver...which is basically one of those huge apparatus that you see atop buildings, to regulate and manage cell phone bandwidth in that area, there is one mounted on top of our building as well) and stuff like that. To cut the long story short, they overpowered him. Basically they managed to convince him. I didn’t see that as any lesser a task than getting Chandrayaan into orbit!

They installed the dish. They also plugged the wire against the walls (the wire that goes from the dish into the set top box), to avoid letting it hang loose and create nuisance. Overall the entire installation was a neat job.

Post that they demo-ed the product, which was self explanatory enough for a tech freak that I am, nonetheless they did their job. The installation was satisfactorily done. The TV was now Tata Sky powered. Life was going to be B-E-A-U-T-iful (as Jim carry says it in Bruce Almighty).

The point I am making in this post is that the way the installation process was managed by the TS team (with such sense of ownership and grit) goes a long way in realising the quality of training they would have received from Tata Sky. Continuing this thought, the quality of training is clearly the outcome of the way TS would want to deliver a complete positive brand experience to the end customer. This makes one realise that great brands are not just built by great technology or great communication, but they are built on how the complete consumer experience with the brand is managed.

Installation process management to me is an important element of the consumer experience of the brand “Tata Sky”, and I thought TS did a great job at that, reinforcing my belief in the brand and it’s promise of making your life jingalala!

Tata Sky Plus Advertising - the Aamir Gul Series 2!

This is the second ad which was released in this category. This time its the “pause” feature.

Brilliant setting again for this one. The same Aamir Gul couple. People have started liking them I guess. The ad opens interestingly enough. Aamir seated on the sofa watching a soccer match (through their Tata Sky Plus), Gul seated some distance away. Suddenly they receive a phone call, which happens to be from his Mother-in-law (Mummyji).

Surprisingly enough Aamir is very much available to talking to Mummyji over the phone. That too while watching a soccer match (which he is shown to be very passionate about).
He chats with his mother in law at length about day to day things in life, exuding an air of involvement and sentimental attachment to his in-laws. His mother-in-law even gets into sounding a little apologetic about Aamir having to miss the match for talking to her. To which Aamir very cordially comforts her by indicating that the match wasn’t really as important.

Guls expressions all through these moments were Aamir is completely fictitious in his demeanour, is very “all knowing” and apt. That is because she knows that Aamir has “paused the match” to talk to her mom, and is going to resume it from where he stopped, thereby not missing a single fraction of action in it. Again the utility of the feature – “Pause Live TV” has been very interestingly introduced in the context.

The ad ends nicely as well. Aamir finishes the call. Gul sarcastically asks him, what if her mother new the truth (implied...about Aamir’s fictitious behaviour). Aamir in a very tongue-and-cheek manner asks “Kya Papaji ke bare me?”. Pillow fight ensues.

Brilliant Ad. I think beyond effectively putting the product-feature message out, with a high humour quotient, the ad works on another powerful dimension. That of family relationships. It shows a very comfortable, jovial relationship between Aamir and Gul, thanks to not fights over TV, thanks to Tata Sky Plus. Better still it indicates that even Aamir’s relationship with his in-laws (which apparently is the tricky one ) is bettered because there is Tata Sky Plus in his life. I am sure his mother-in –law would have felt better as Aamir found time to talk to her at length. This dimension is lateral, but definitely conspicuous in the ad. It really adds a new meaning to the jingalala phrase!

Check out the ad here!

Tata Sky Plus Advertising - The Aamir Gul Series 1

Some of the finest ads doing the rounds in television in recent times is the Aamir Gul series for Tata Sky +.

What a fantastic way of “feature” advertising. We’ll talk about the first ad in this post. It’s about the highlighting “record” live TV as a feature of Tata Sky +. As we all know Tata Sky plus is about “Pause” “Record” and “Rewind” live TV.

The ad opens in the backdrop of an upper middle class (Sec A, A+) apartment. Enter the hero (quite literally!), Aamir khan, the husband in the Aamir – Gul couple. The opening shot of the ad shows Aamir doing the household chores (making tea and breakfast for his wife, before she wakes up), greatly catching her by surprise....quite an interesting opening for an ad to get instant attention. Aamir leaves for office. The ad moves on.

He returns in the evening, opens the door from outside, enters completely loaded with the laptop bag around his shoulder, hands stuffed with heavy bags containing vegetables, groceries etc. He looks tired and loaded, but Cheerful. Gul is watching him from the sofa. Its not over, he proceeds to make tea for both of them. Aamir comes across as somebody who’s kind of managing the house almost single handedly. Gul’s expressions all throughout are interesting. She seems perplexed, surprised, and inquisitive. Aamir doesn’t seem usual to her .

Next shot, she manages to see the news paper, sports page headlines indicating that there is India- finals cricket match on TV that evening.Realization dawns on her face. Inquisitiveness/surprise/perplexity are replaced by a serene sense of control and understanding. Truth has been revealed to her, by that headline. She retorts, its her first dialogue in the ad film. She asks Aamir that he is doing (all of what he’s been doing since morning) so that she allows him to watch the India finals match by sacrificing her serials for the evening. To which Aamir feigns ignorance of the match and its schedule. Good piece of acting here by Aamir.

Gul moves on to add that he actually need not take so much trouble, thanks to Tata Sky plus, while he watches the match, her serial would keep getting recorded (“Record Live TV” – feature being highlighted here beautifully in the context) hence nobody actually misses anything!

Aamir changes. Tea powder bottle still in hand, he confirms what Gul told him by talking charge of the Tata Sky remote. Voila its true!

Aamir hurls the tea powder bottle to Gul. In a sudden change in tone from the soft, accommodative one to a stern, authoritative one, he asks Gul to go and make some tea for him. Pillow fight ensues.

Ad closes. The feature “record live TV” is successfully deposited in the TG head, along with the loveliness of the ad.

See that ad here.

Tata Sky DTH – The first Aamir Ad

I would call this a new era of Tata Sky advertising; the introduction of Aamir khan in the brand.

The first of this era, the mono-act by Aamir – the man-woman – one act play is what I am talking about. I am sure most of us have seen this ad.

The ad stands out from 3 dimensions
1. It effectively brings out the Tata + Sky combination in the product through the man-woman execution (both being one)
2. It effectiveness of the combination, it also does a good job of highlighting the importance of “Tata” and “Sky” independently as well
3. Aamir does his bit well in terms of putting the message out interestingly enough

I think the pretext of this ad would have been the fact that somewhere people were not too conscious about the “Sky” in Tata Sky. I wasn’t myself. If fact we don’t seem to see it as Tata + Sky – we just seem to see it as Tata Sky. This ad did that quite effectively. It brought out individual perspectives on Tata and Sky, where the man Aamir is gung-ho about Tata whereas the woman Aamir is adamant about Sky...both highlighting the individual benefits quite creatively.

While Tata brings the “Trust” and “understanding of the Indian consumer” elements, Sky brings the “best in DTH technology” and global acceptance of it (sky is the most technologically evolved and widely accepted DTH platform in the world), to the Tata Sky brand.

In combination they form Tata Sky, an impeccable DTH service brand in India. That message is pretty interestingly delivered through this ad, where at the end both the man-woman Aamir’s converge on “Tata Sky” being the one that meet their expectations! Watch the ad below.

Actve Sports: Tata Sky for Us!

One of the powerful gravity spots in TV for men is Sports. Most people in India are very passionate about cricket, to generalize it. There are others who are equally passionate about football, formula one racing and such other sports.

When it comes to catching up a match or a championship on TV, we get pretty excited about it and hence also end up planning our regular life schedules around it. On a match day, all our other activities in life are organized in a way that helps us live our passion for the sport on TV, for the duration of that match.

For convenience lets talk about a cricket match, when we’re at it, we do not want to miss a single piece of action in it. We have our perspectives on almost everything like what should India do if we win the toss, who should open the innings given the oppositions bowling line up, who from our team should bowl first and from which end, what should be the field setting, what and when bowling changes are to be done and so on. All of these perspectives are based on a rational analysis of things like weather conditions, dew, direction of wind, shape of the ground, pitch report, opposite team combination, past performances on the ground etc etc etc.

All of these actually speaking, are validations of the core passion for the game in our hearts and minds.

This passion reflects in most sports consumption on TV. To reciprocate and acknowledge this, TS brings to us Actve Sports. In a manner of saying, it makes the TV capable of acknowledging the passion we bring to our sports viewing!

With Actve sports you get special facilities like on demand scorecard, choice of commentary language, team structures, match statistics, highlights etc. It’s really awesome!
Actve sports, to rephrase what I said earlier, is a boon for sports lovers. It delivers much more than the match/contest...a fitting response to our passion and excitement for the sport!

There was an interesting commercial that TS had come up with highlighting the fantastic utility in TV viewing that Actve sports is. It’s the “Grassman Oye Pappe” commercial that I am referring to here...There was this funny character who had covered himself with grass and was positioning himself at different places on the cricket ground (with the Grass outfit camouflaging him with respect to the ground) to see the match from different angles! I guess most of you would have seen it and would have probably liked it as well. It was very hilarious, at the same time very effective in putting the message across. Just in case you don’t recall it, or want to laugh at it again take a look at the commercial below.

Tata Sky DTH for the Older folks!

Most of the spiritual intent in people’s lives is usually powered by their parents and their grand parents. The belief systems, the moral values that people operate out of are largely derived from their family. The older generation is the one which is instrumental in passing them on to their progenies and so on.

To address and acknowledge the coveted spiritual fabric of Indian households, Tata Sky brings to us this lovely interactive service called “Actve Darshan”. It’s primarily for the older folks in the family, but largely it’s meant for all in the family.

The reason why one imagines Actve darshan to be more for the old is because it brings home darshans from various famous temples across India, which could probably not be physically accessible for the old in the family.

Imagine somebody’s grandmom in Mumbai wanting to go to Lord Kashi Vishwanath’s Temple in the North, but is unable to do so because of her age and physiological restrictions. What boon it would be for her to participate in the darshan of Lord Kashi Vishwanath from her home, daily! With darshans from great temples across India through Actve Darshan, the old and the physically restricted in the family could participate in the spiritual sentiment from the convenience of their homes.

Through Actve Darshan, TS provides 24x7 darshan of the Shirdi Sai Baba, Mumbai’s Lord SiddhiVinayak, ISKCON and Lord Kashi Vishwanath.

With the Actve Darshan becoming a part of the TV viewing habit of a household, even the young in the family would be positively influenced, thereby going a long way in building strong moral values in them as they grow up. There was this TVC that ran briefly some time ago, that highlighted the importance of the Actve Darshan interactive service for the entire family. You could see it here.

Tata Sky DTH for Kids...2!

To continue my earlier thoughts on TS for kids, I’ll talk about the remaining part of the Actve kids series. Yes the Actve stories and the Actve Learning bits.

Actve Stories

Actve stories is TV based story delivery that children can read and listen to it at their own pace. The service features new stories from Jataka tales, Panchatantra, Hitopadesh and Indian mythology everyday in English and Hindi.
Actve stories also incorporates excitement through contests like “Tell – a – Tale” and also gives students the opportunity to read original stories authored by teachers across the country.

Actve stories help children hone their Hindi as well as English reading skills as well as enhance their vocabulary. The service features non animated sequential pictures depicting story with a text strip at the bottom. This strip has the story typed in legible font. Children can take as long as they want to read the text. Just like a page in a story book, the text strip and the picture will not change until children are ready to move ahead.
Further stories are supported by clear and audible voiceovers. Children can listen to audio as many times they wish. Thus helping them to read and pronounce every word on the screen.

Actve Learning

Actve learning is a quiz based educational service covering math, GK & science for children in age group of 7-12 years.

From Monday to Saturday, each day children would be presented with questions on Science, Maths or GK. Subjects are divided into 2 levels of complexity, level 1 broadly covers topics taught in class 1-3 and level 2 covers topics taught in class 4-5.

On Sundays children can participate in Actve genius contest and win Rs.2500 each week. The contest comprises of a mix of questions that are featured on actve learning through the week. Each level of actve learning needs to be completed in 30 mins. All question screens display question number, score and remaining time in which the quiz needs to be completed.
Actve learning ensures that the children learn as they proceed in the quiz. If the answer selected is incorrect the correct answer is highlighted, thus helping children learn on the go. At the close of each level, children are presented with scorecard. This allows them to evaluate their performance and identify areas which they could better

This concludes my perspectives on the interactive services for children. In summary one can consider these services as a great recreational aid to a child’s education process. Tata Sky has gone the distance to even get these interactive services for kids available in schools across the country, thereby adding to the kids learning experience in schools. It’s quite a corporate social responsibility lesson and hence merits a standalone post, which shall be created real soon!

Tata Sky DTH for Kids...1!

Let me start the drill down of the most popular Interactive services that TS offers. We could start from the interactive services tailored for the kids. Largely they include Actve Wizkids, Actve Learning, Actve stories.

The Actve kids series (Actve Wizkids, Actve Learning, Actve Stories) as I would like to refer to it...is quite an offering for the kids. I guess its the result of the insight that these fundamental questions deliver:

Q1. Do kids like to watch TV?
Ans. Yes
Q2. Do kids like to play games?
Ans. Yes
Q4. Do kids like stories?
Ans. Yes
Q5. Do kids like to study?
Ans. No!
Q5. Do kids need to study?
Ans. Yes!

Hence the Actve Kids series!

These interactive set of options for the kids really makes learning fun as they learn while they play. That too on TV! These Actve wizkids, learning, stories, games etc deliver a powerful mix of entertainment with learning, jointly proving to be an ideal TV dose for kids, and for these their parents don’t mind them spending time in front of the TV!

The content is carefully crafted to sustain the kid’s interest. Also the frequency of change in this content ensures that the kids get something new everytime they are on it. As an icing the kids also get to compete with other kids and get opportunities to win while they participate in some of these contests provided within the Actve series. The series include Actve Wizkids, Actve Learning and Actve stories.

Actve Wizkids

Actve wizkids is a 24X7 based service that is designed specifically for children in the age group of 3-6 years. Founded on the principle that learning should be fun, the service aims to continue a child’s learning process at home through the method of simple yet entertaining games.

The learning games on Actve Wizkids are based on the concepts taught at the preschool level in Maths, the English language and General Knowledge (GK). Each day of the week covers one specific subject e.g. English on Monday, Maths on Tuesday, GK on Wednesday. These subjects are repeated on Thursday, Friday and Saturday respectively. Sundays are dedicated to fun games that help a child to improve accuracy and speed. Apart from Sunday a fun game is available everyday as well.

The four animated mascots on active wizkids – Jimbo (the baby elephant), Spikey (the teenage alligator), Bizzy (the wise rat) and Hee Haw (the playful donkey) encourage, appreciate and instruct children during games. This makes the learning experience extremely enjoyable to children.

This also reminds me of the lovely “Einstein” commercial to highlight the Actve Wizkids offering. The commercial had all kids look like the great Sir Albert Einstein (the kids looked really cute!), to get the message out that your kids could actually become Einstein (an obvious metaphor for intelligence) if they regularly participated in the Actve Wizkids interactive service that comes along with Tata Sky!

You could view the funny ad here

Actve stories and actve learning coming up!

Tata Sky DTH Interactive Services...Designed For The Family!

I must say, interactive television is the true value-add that a DTH provider can attempt to bring in for the consumer. And there is absolutely no doubt that Tata Sky had to pioneer it, being the market innovator that it is. Now of course all of them are following suite.

The Interactive services that I am referring to here (through the term Interactive TV) have been around for quite a while now. The reason why I am talking about them now is that somewhere in the DTH war, the focus has completely shifted to AV quality and channels and packages and stuff like that. Interactive services, which are one of TS’s strong points, are somewhere being missed out from most comparisons on the web across DTH service providers.
Therefore this and a few of the subsequent posts shall be dedicated to delve into the popular Interactive services that TS provides.
TS interactive services are classified under the label “Actve” (Choice of the word active again a great branding lesson, the use of the common noun “active” for branding as it captures the essence, but by dropping the “i” and almost replacing it again through the “dots” in the “Actve Logo” and hence trade marking and then marketing it! Good job.)

Interactive services actually help you get more out of the facility called “television” in your home. Most TV viewing is generally about consuming entertainment/information in schedules as prescribed by the television channels. With TS Interactive services, this passive viewing is witnessing a change (from official reports published by Tata Sky based on their research, which suggests that consumers are spending increasing amount of time on interactive services that Tata Sky offers). TS interactive services makes one realise that TV can actually impact your life in more ways than pure entertainment/information. It could facilitate your spiritual progress, it could help educate your kids, it could help you/your wife cook better, and it could help you find a spouse too amongst other benefits!

The marketing thought here is that the Interactive services are meticulously designed considering every individual in a household that watches television. The process quite evidently would have started off by fragmenting the target group into subgroups as finely as possible and delivering a strong value proposition to each subgroup that is therefore defined.
Hence you have the Actve Darshan primarily for the old in the family, the Actve Sports for the young men, Actve Cooking (get the choicest of recipes from the best chefs, on demand) for the wives/mothers in the family, Actve Learning, Actve Wizkids, Actve Stories etc for the children in the family, Showcase (movies on demand) for the teenagers, Actve Matrimony for those in that age and so on.

Other DTH players are attempting to catch up on the interactive services race, but where they have miles to cover is on customizability of these services and the frequency of content update to retain the target customer’s interest.

As I said in my subsequent posts I shall deliberate on some of the popular “Actve” services in detail, but at this juncture I would want to leave you with the thought that, who would have imagined that so much could have been gotten out of the idio* box (yes the asterisk is to maintain stringent sanctity of content on this blog!) that our TVs used to be. The interactive services are here to change our passive TV viewing into a more Act(i)ve one for sure!

Tata Sky+ = Aur Bhi Jingalala

I was thinking of writing about the jingalala feel but with Tata Sky Plus all over, let’s take a glimpse into the “Aur Bhi Jingalala” factor. Does it really exist? Or it is simply an extension? Yes, it does, with the revolutionary technology (in Satellite / DTH industry) offered by Tata Sky, “Äur Bhi Jingalala” is bound to prevail. To put it simply, it is a service that can change the way television is watched all over. It gives you the power, the authority, the supremacy to control television or I’d rather say Live Television.

Tata Sky did a great job in staying ahead of the competition especially when everything (variety of service) seemed to move towards stagnation. What is launched is a new set-top-box (STB) which has a Personal Video Recorder (PVR) that allows you to record up to 45 hours of television viewing. This feature is well complimented by its Pause & Rewind options. Tata Sky plus is a new generation product which allows you to do the following –


1. Pause or Rewind and Play a channel
2. You can Record a show and watch at a later stage.
3. There is an inbuilt hard disk of 160 GB (that’s simply enormous!!!). You can actually record 45 hours of Live TV!
4. One can record channels like discovery, cartoon network which offers their service in different languages. Once you record a serial you can choose from languages (English or Hindi) supported.
5. It has some other features like space management, back to back recording, automatic serial series recording, parental lock and much more.

Out of all the features, I simply love the Pause function because I use it more :). In no way, the other two functions are lagging behind. Tata Sky+ has an intelligent recorder which automatically manages the preset recording reminders. And it’s wise enough to ignore repeat telecast. Now no more family fights over watching television. You can record one programme and watch another at the same time. Or simply record two programmes at a time if no one’s watching the television.

Yea, I was talking about the pause function. This feature is so interesting that generally no one realises its importance. We do feel but hardly realise the frustration while someone interrupts our television viewing. Isn’t that true? May be we are so used to it that we now just don’t bother. But when you have the power to pause live television, first of all you (or at least technology admirers like me) feel very excited to control live TV and secondly, when you actually do it, the feeling of comfort is simply out of this world. Five years down the line even PVR will no longer be exciting so why not participate in a product life cycle and enjoy the technology.

The last feature is the rewind one, which allows you to rewind up to the limit that the channel is On. So if you are watching a movie on Star World for half an hour without changing the channel, you can rewind up to 30 minutes. So you can catch a scene or a wicket or simply show off to your Tata Sky+ to your friends :)

At the present stage of its life cycle, it is a premium product and it is definitely not for masses. It is priced at Rs 8999 for non Tata Sky users and up to 50% discount for existing Tata Sky users. But I think its value for money as the features it provides compensate more than the price it comes at, and also considering that no other DTH player is currently offering this product/service.

Indeed Tata Sky + = “Aur Bhi Jingalala”.

Welcome to the Unofficial Tata Sky DTH Blog!

Hi Readers!

I am Rahul. My passions include music, technology and brands. I like observing brands, their marketing, their positioning very closely. This blog is based on my experiences and my evaluations of one of my favorite brands in the country, no prizes for guessing it, the masthead says it all. The reason for creating this blog is because I believe Tata Sky, in my perception, is one of the most powerful brands around!

Its quite amazing the way it was introduced a few years back, the way it has positioned itself and the way it has grown. Most importantly the way it has adapted to the changing needs of the Indian consumer and the way it has managed competitors. In my understanding a large part of urban India got to know about DTH and satellite television, as a category, largely because of Tata Sky.

Right from their first ad (where people where shown throwing their TVs and music systems out of their houses, as they had something even more powerful an AV device compared to what existed then) to today, with the launch of Tata Sky Plus and the way its put across to consumers (through the Aamir-Gul ad), its a really interesting trajectory of the brand.

Its not just about the progression in brand communication that I am referring to here, but its about the evolution of the "brand" itself. Evolution of technology (Tata Sky's the first one to launch PVR Technology in India, Also its MPEG4 etc), and evolution of understanding of the consumer (recognizing the fact that the Indian consumer is ready for the next level of satellite service, and hence providing Tata Sky +, the power to Pause, Record, and Rewind live TV), both of these outline the Tata Sky brand evolution. Also Tata Sky Plus would allow Tata Sky to gain the first mover advantage in the PVR space, while others keep crowding the base DTH/ satellite TV service space (which is also very much a Tata sky strong hold in terms of growth and market share, but it witnessing a lot of noise these days from Big TV DTH, Airtel Digital TV, Dish TV etc).

All of this makes me feel that here's a brand thats a true leader in terms of creating a product category that never really existed a few years back in India, heres a brand that understood the Indian consumer so well that it actually found acceptance much quicker than any other brand in the category. And here's a brand that has persevered its way through product innovations, technology innovations, brand innovations and communication innovations to help it get to where it deserves to be, yes in the top slot of the Indian satellite TV consumers mind space!

In my subsequent posts I would share my experiences with the brand, as a Tata Sky consumer, as a technology enthusiast, and as a completely objective Indian consumer.

If you've read this far, you might be interested in reading my continuing thoughts on this post. I would invite you to subscribe to the live blog feed, for some interesting follow up of what I have attempted to initiate here.

Thanks!

Rahul