DTH industry, at present, is undoubtedly experiencing a growth phase in India. We see many people switching to DTH service from the cable television. A recent study reported that the number of DTH subscribers in India, touched 27 million. DTH brands have tasted success in rural areas too especially in areas where there are no cable operators.
The pricing strategy of DTH brands has changed over the years. During the initial years of DTH in India, the Set Top Boxes attracted a price of about Rs.2000 approx. but came with free channel subscriptions for 6months or a year. This method of pricing was quite successful in attracting non-users to DTH service. However, now every DTH brand has reduced the price of set top boxes by about 50% but the channel subscription comes for a price.
However a large chunk of market is yet to be tapped considering that there are 150 million television sets in India. So all the DTH brands are going for it by rolling out various customer centric services and benefits.
DishTV is communicating about its emphasis on after sales services in its campaign. Its "Call Me" feature where a customer care executive calls the subscriber upon receiving a message, shows the brand's emphasis on customer service.
Airtel launched "lifetime free language pack" which offers free channels of one regional language when one subscribes for base pack. This can be a huge hit in the South where the regional channels rule the television.
Tata Sky since its entry into DTH has concentrated on providing innovative customer centric features. Its “Once a year Subscription Holiday”, allows a subscriber to temporarily disconnect Tata Sky services for a period of 5-15 days once a year. Its “TruChoice” package is a customer friendly initiative that gives its customers the option to view channels according to their taste, budget, and language or genre preferences. However the complexity that involves in choosing channels will benefit only the tech savvy customers.
All the DTH brands are betting on High Definition Channels too.
But there are bigger questions to be answered. To what extent these customer centric services can be successful in motivating a cable user to switch to DTH service? Are these services inline with the expected value from the DTH services?
The monthly channel subscription charges of DTH ranges between Rs250-Rs450, which is substantially higher than what the traditional dish operators charge. This, at times can act as a barrier for switching to DTH services. From the perspective of mass market, affordable prices are perceived as value offering. Hence, rather than concentrating on unique services, DTH brands should provide lower price points to attract non users to DTH services.
The communication efforts of DTH brands fail to communicate a strong reason to shift to DTH connection. A DishTv campaign "Don’t be Santusht, Dish karo, Wish Karo" had done the trick of attracting people to shift to DTH, when DTH was launched in India. Similar attempts are required as the DTH industry is not groomed completely and it becomes necessary for the brands to reinforce the benefits through a proper communication strategy.
So if the priority is to attract non users and target the mass market, DTH brands have to work out a proper pricing and communication strategy,well of course packaging it with customer centric services.
