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