Retail Dude

What has caught up television in the last few years is the advent of Direct To Home services from some big industrial firms in india. Spwaned with poor and unreliable cable television services, the DTH technology have notched up a major share of the indian television distribution network. With the launch of Airtel’s service today, the space is sure to hot up.

At retail dude we are not intrested to give you a snapshot of the war that is there but of the war yet to arrive and the potential it holds for its marketing. Lessons learnt at each step. Tata Sky played an ace of timing to this market to become the clear leader. When Doordarshan and Dish Tv did all the hard work of educating the customer and creating this base, Tata Sky with its better service and superb launch timing, snatched the pie. A master stroke indeed. With communication firms dropping into this zone, this space has a lot of untapped features that will open soon to the customers.

Content development for individual DTH operators is yet to pick up. Exclusive channels can be easily be pulled of the sleeve for these operators. Having own daily soaps, news and more to your own channel. Showcasing, localised sports club events to zonal events can be aired by the operator which hold the rights to showcase it. Most operators are communication giants and have legs dipped into the movie business as well (Dish TV with Ecity Ventures, Big Tv with Adlabs and Sun TV with its regional distribution) and can come out with exclusive showcase of its banners. We have Future Media and Times media which already have become common at our retail outlets featuring brand advertisements. An individual subscriber base of a single operator, gives any retailer the power to touch them every single day. Advertising through the DTH service will be a boon to them. Nevertheless for this, the operators will have to shift a bit of their focus to the content development as well.

Now imagine you playing, Counter Strike on your big screen without having to move an inch from your couch. On demand services will open the flood gates to personalisation related to entertainment (movies,songs,videos) as well as work (reminders, meetings, emails). Just being able to connect through to the internet through your set top boxes will add a new dimension all together. Internet Protocol TV will make all of them possible. Aksh Optifiber have already launched iControl in Jaipur with BSNL partnering it. Since broadband penetration is not that high, DTH services are still slatered to score more in the near future.

Having said that, they may also be able to sell merchandise by just a few clicks of your very own remote buttons.(Imagine Tata Trent bringing their whole store through iTata Sky!). Customer feedbacks lie in front of you while you keep track of every single purchase made. Retail at its best!

I am certain this is not a distant dream. Happy viewing everyone!

Sudip

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