Dish TV introduces Dish Freedom pack monthly subscription at Rs 100
Existing DTH players are making sure their share of the subscriber pie will not shrink with the entry of new players such as Reliance ADAG’s Big TV.
Dish TV, the largest player, currently, has announced a Rs 100-pack for 125 channels, and an entry point of Rs 1,990.
At this price which includes hardware and a year’s subscription of the Rs 100-Happy Home Pack, Dish TV claims its the first to come under the Rs 2,000-barrier.
“The idea is to have as many people as possible, and target the opportunities that in converting analogue cable homes to DTH homes,” said Mr Salil Kapoor, COO, Dish TV.
“Affordability is the main plank here. However, at a monthly rental of Rs 100, the Happy Home pack covers all genres of programming,” he added. Thanks to its subscriber base of 3.76 million, the move would not increase its per subscriber acquisition cost, explained Mr Kapoor.
The package would include Zee, Nine X, NDTV Imagine, Zee Movies, Aaj Tak, and NDTV India. It also includes eight regional channels.
Both these DTH operators have dropped their monthly subscription prices significantly after Big TV from Reliance ADAG launched its services with one of the starting offers at Rs 100 (44 free-to-air channels) last month.
This means that any cable consumer can now shift to Dish TV’s DTH connection by paying Rs 2,190 one time (an average of Rs 182 per month) for the Dish TV hardware, set-top box and receive 12 months of subscription of 125 channels that include entertainment channels, movie channels, sports channels and others.
Similarly, to get a Tata Sky connection, a consumer needs to pay Rs 2,999 (monthly average of Rs 249) and will also get an annual subscription of 53 channels including pay channels like Star Plus, Sony TV and active services.
Tata Sky is aiming to enter more Hindi-speaking markets with its Rs 99 per month subscription offer. "Tata Sky stands for a premium DTH service. Perhaps, because of this impression, a number of potential subscribers were finding us a little expensive. Now the Rs 99 'super hit pack' will help us get these very subscribers," Vikram Mehra, chief marketing officer, Tata Sky, said.
Source : Business Standard
