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It is a pleasure to record my thanks and gratitude to persons & organization whose
generous help and support enabled me to complete this study within the stipulated time
period.
At the outset, I am grateful to Reliance Communication (BIG TV Entertainment Ltd.) for
giving me the opportunity. My special thanks to Mr. Vivek Mishra (BIG TV, Sales and
Marketing Head, EAST ) who gave me the oppurtunity to work with the esteemed
organisation under his guidance. I would like to thank Mr. Vincent Biswas (Cluster Head,
Kolkata) along with his team who provided every possible guidance and support incompleting my project and a host of other officials for their active help and cooperation at
each stage of the Project.
Lastly, I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to my Project Guide Mr. N.
Ramadas Dasari (Faculty SSIM) who continuously acted like an anchor through out the
project duration.
However I take the responsibility of all my shortcomings.
This study is confined to the analysis of retailer’s and customers view on products and
services of Reliance BIG TV viz a viz competitors in Kolkata and near by places. The study
gave opputunity to understand the distribution channel of BIG. The study is conducted in 2
cities Kolkata and including the rural and semi urban areas of Kolkata. Special preference is
given to the study of customer, retailers and distributers problems and grievances. Study
also became a path way to the launch of new product from BIG TV the new advance
HD+DVR set top box with high definition picture quality and recording the first in India.
Significance of the Study
The project will help Reliance BIG TV to know their target segment and retailers satisfaction with
the company’s policies as compared to its competitors. The analysis done on the retailer’s surveypoints out the key features essential to improve their performance. This study will not only help to
analyze the various problems associated with the distribution channel and the distributors but also
helps to understand other factors that influence the buying decision of a retailer like income,
returns, risk, liquidity etc. It also helps to identify the retailer’s expectations from the company and
how the company can better enhance its services to meet the retailers needs best. Apart from this
the findings of the study can be further used for implementation so that the retailers is benefited
which will ultimately benefit the organization.
Objectives of the study
Objective of study is :
To find ratio of mode of entertainment used by kolkata population.
To find the satisfaction level of people with the services used by them.
Reasons of not using DTH services.
Spreading awareness of DTH services.
Finding prospective customers.
Conversion of prospective customers to BIG TV customers
To find the reasons of customer migration to other service provider/ Cable TV.
To find the view of consumers about the DTH services and persuading them to move to DTH
The history of Indian Television dates back to the launch of Doordarshan, the country’s
national television network in 1959 when the transmission was in black & white. The 9th
Asian games which were held in 1982 in the country’s capital New Delhi heralded the mark
of color television broadcast in India.
In 1991, Indian economy was liberalized from the license raj and major initiatives like
inviting FDI, deregulation of domestic businesses emerged. This led to the influx of foreign
channels like Star TV and creation of domestic satellite channels like Sun TV and Zee TV.
This virtually destroyed the monopoly held by Doordarshan.
In 1992, the cable TV industry started which changed the way the average Indian watches
the television. Every city in India had a new breed of entrepreneurs called as cablewallahs
or Local Cable Operators (LCO) taking in charge of distribution. Since this was a
disorganized sector carrying new channels on the existing infrastructure required new
investments which the operators were reluctant to make. This led to the emergence of a
new breed of firms called as Multi System Operators (MSO) who had heavy financialmuscles to make capital investments and liaised between the cable operators and the
channels. MSOs provide the feed to the local operators for a fee.
In 1995, government felt the need of regulation in Cable TV and passed the Cable TV
network (Regulation) Act. This was also the time when the state owned Doordarshan and
All India Radio came under a new holding called as Prasar Bharati to give them enough
autonomy. The LCOs reported a lower number of connections where as the broadcasters
demanded a higher rate. MSOs were finding it difficult to operate under these conditions.
This led to an amendment of the Cable TV networks (Regulation) Act in 2002 to provide
Conditional Access System (CAS). With CAS, the last mile distribution could be addressable
with accuracy and digitalization of 2 broadcast was also possible. CAS was rolled out in
The Five Competitive Forces as applied to Direct to Home industry are described as
follows:
Buyers: Bargaining power of buyers
With enough options to choose both from the point of alternate mediums like Cable, IPTV
and Terrestrial broadcast and from the point of increasing DTH operators, the consumer is
at his will to decide. Customers will continue to have a high bargaining power until DTH
platforms try to differentiate them as superior players with better content and clarity.
Suppliers: Bargaining power of suppliers
DTH industry relies on three major supplies: Customer Premise Equipment (CPE)
comprising of the satellite dish, Set Top Box with the necessary Access card, the Ku band
transponders in the orbiting satellites and content. With India overtaking Japan as Asia’s
largest DTH, the bargaining power of Indian DTH operators with CPE supplies haveincreased. However, the availability of transponders is increasingly becoming difficult. The
Ku band transponder is generally provided by Astrix, the commercial wing of ISRO either
through its own satellites or by leasing transponders from suppliers. With only two
domestic satellite launches between 2007 and 2010 and increasing DTH players, Astrix is
in a better position to use DTH as its cash cow for the next 5 to 10 years. Also the crash of
INSAT 4C and NSS-8 has worsened the situation of
DTH players. As there is not much of regulation particularly in terms of channel pricing,
acquiring content from the broadcasters is also difficult. DTH vendors are at the mercy of
the broadcasters.
Potential Entrants: Threat of new entrants
With already 7 players in the DTH space, threat of new entrants is relatively low. There is
already enough competition which will discourage new firms to enter this business. While
getting a license is relatively easy, the barriers to entry are high when it comes to pricing of
CPE and getting the required transponders.
Substitutes: Threat of substitutes
DTH faces stiff competition from the terrestrial, cable and IPTV. As per the industry
estimates, there are 130 million TV homes of which 97 million are served by cable and
around 15 million by DTH with the remaining taken by terrestrial transmission.
With 7 operational players, the segment rivalry is quite high. The competition from state
owned DD-Direct to private players is negligible from the content point of view as the
number of channels offered by DD-Direct is very limited. However, DD-Direct does not
charge any monthly subscription fee which poses a threat to the private players. Between
Dish TV and Tata Sky there is an intense rivalry exhibited by price wars and discount
schemes offered to new connections. Being the first mover, Dish TV has price advantage in
both the STB as well as procuring the transponders. On the other hand, Tata Sky claims its
STB having superior DVD quality video. There is also a competition at acquiring the
content.
SWOT ANALYSIS
STRENGTH
Dishtv was the first entrant in the DTH category and has thus become synonymous with the
satellite TV broadcasting business in India. Leveraging its lineage with the Zee group,
dishtv has built a commendable brand and relevant product that answers the consumer
needs‘ for quality entertainment. Some of the inherent strengths stem from a strong
presence all across the geography of India, consumer friendly and pocket friendly multi-tiered and customizable regional packages, abundant transponder capacity to support its
widest content basket, a very strong and diversified content offering addressing consumers
with diverse needs of genres and languages, an extremely cost conscious structure and a
superior technology for the entire gamut of services. The technological edge and
differentiation with respect to other brands stands exemplified through its unique offerings
of mobile dish with presence in aircrafts (Kingfisher), navy war ships, mobile vans and
selected railway saloons.
WEAKNESS
The subscriber acquisition cost is still very high. However, compared to the current
industry benchmarks, it stands at the lowest by far. The cost towards acquiring consumers
is under constant scrutiny in an endeavour to bring it down. In a market trend of
consumers down sliding on the packaging tiers, due to more value being packaged at the
lowest packs, dish tv has exhibited a growth in ARPU. However, ARPU continues to be an
area of concern with the constant endeavour to monitor, upgrade and enhance the
revenues.
OPPORTUNITIES
India‘s 127 million television owning households, which define the potential depth for the
DTH category, will act as a low hanging fruit for adoption. The further roll out of CAS by the
new Government, into more towns will impact the growth rate of the DTH category and
trigger consumers to make a decision between digital cable and DTH, thereby aiding faster
expansion of the digital entertainment world. Enrichment of Value Added Services (VAS)basket with gaming and a host of active services, some going pay, will continue to be
opportunity areas for revenue enhancement. An eventful sporting calendar with the
ensuing Commonwealth games and a series of Cricketing tournaments will act as a catalyst
for this category too. The recent stabilization and a revived hope for bouncing back of the
economy as early as the second half of this year will facilitate faster adoption of the
category. Emergence and growth of traffic at the organized retail chains like Big bazaar,
Next, The mobile store, Reliance digital etc. will also add more visibility leading to better
acceptance of the product.
THREATS
DTH is currently a six player market. Price cuts and reduced margins, spurred by severe
competition, can pose a threat to revenue enhancement. Improved quality of services by
digital cable and IPTV players are potential threats. Churn management and retention cost
scan negatively impact bottom-lines unless constant attention and Strategy is deployed to
country like India is meeting customer demands—which are very dynamic— under the
regulatory purview of the country.
SUN DIRECT
Sun Direct is the fastest growing DTH service provider having garnered over 1.9 million
subscribers since its launch in December 2007 and aims to become one of the leading
players in the DTH space. Sun Direct challenged the existing players by involving them in
the price war by acting as a discounted brand. It started offering subscriptions at as low as
Rs 99 to reach as much at the bottom of the market. The biggest differentiator for the brand
is the pricing point which is
lesser than the other brands. The other point of differentiation is with regard to their
distribution channels. It is being made available in most basic shops such as telephone
booths, cycle
repair shops and video parlors. Sun DTH was the first one to move into the MPEG4 league
and soon after the PAN India launch HD services will be launched. Another first from SUN
DTH is the launch of exclusive comedy channels for its subscribers.
Market followers:
RELIANCE BIG TV/ AIRTEL DIGITAL/VIDEOCON D2H
The approach being followed is of Market Follower (as they are late entrant and theirprimay objective is to attract max subscribers in shortest span of time.
Consumer Behaviour Pattern
Major Factors influencing the purchase decision of DTH are as below:
Strategies to sustain in competitive growth market
Advertising & Promotion:
Indian TV channel broadcast 15.7-mn advertisement every year, which totals to 362-mnseconds of TV advertisement every year. India currently has over 400 channels.TV viewer
ship has declined by 5% since 2001. TV broadcasters are expected to increase
advertisement rate this year by 16-18%. DTH industry uses different marketing strategies
for promotion and sales of its products. It gives advertisements with their brand
ambassadors which attract customers, door to door selling, on the phone selling, discount
and offer sales, packages, etc. Marketing practices is a continuous process as the
competition keeps increasing among the players in the industry. Each player is investing lot
of money in promoting there brands. Many players are making advertisement with movie
actor and actress as brand ambassadors for their products because DTH is mainly
considered with entertainment. Some of the companies like Tata sky is having Super Star
Aamir khan as brand ambassador and Airtel is having many film stars like Kareena Kapoor,
A.R. Rahman, Saif Ali khan, etc. Dish TV is also having Super Star Shahrukh khan as the
brand ambassador. Sun direct also use southern actress for their brand
promotion.Marketing practices are the decisions taken by the manufacturing company to
increase sales, expand themselves into many areas etc. Successful marketing practices
bring sale up, while unsuccessful marketing practices have no impact on sale or negatively
impact sale. Marketing concepts specific to the industry is primarily targeted at a niche
segment who buys the TV sets from the electronic retail chains.
Product Innovation
The concept of innovation in DTH industry is INCREMENTAL innovation; everything that is
done is due to constant research of many marketing and analysts to bring many
innovations to the existing products in the DTH industry. Incremental innovation is the apt
innovation which is suitable and all the DTH players are concentrating up on. This
innovation makes the business to grow continuously and brings advantages to the
customers using the products and the service. There are many sources of innovation for
this industry as mentioned in the above, the technology and the people are the main
sources for the innovation. Customer’s opinions and their needs can be served by providing
a service which is matching to their needs and requirements. Digital TV, the DTH service
from Airtel, has announced India’s first skin integration innovation on its EPG screen in
partnership with Yahoo. Yahoo takes forward its latest brand campaign “YOU” in this first
of its kind partnership where an online portal will use DTH as a medium to promote itself.
The ‘Electronic Programming Guide’ screen on Airtel digital TV is now completely
integrated with Yahoo India’s homepage. Customers will find a message ‘Fill your home
page with all the things that make YOU’ when they log onto to the EPG screen. A prompting
‘Red Button’ will take them to a dedicated landing page that elaborates the offerings on
Yahoo India’s new home page. The ‘YOU’ campaign enables users to customize the home
page as per their liking and empowers them with the choice to integrate social applicationssuch as Facebook with their Yahoo homepage. This whole idea was conceived by Network
Play, right from design elements to execution and thanks to Mindshare for buying into the
idea and flawlessly helping people execute it. Tata Teleservices Limited has announced a
technological breakthrough—a first-of-its kind innovation in India with the launch of TATA
Photon TV, a new application that allows Tata Photon Plus subscribers to watch live
television channels on their laptops while on the move, and on their personal computers at
home and in the office. The Photon TV service is exclusively available to Photon Plus users.
“With its growing popularity, Photon Plus has caught the admiration of millions of users
across the country, with its high-speed data access capabilities and the ease of mobility.
TATA Photon TV is a personal computer- and laptop-based video streaming application,
which allows Tata Photon Plus users to view live TV feed from various sports, news,
entertainment and regional channels, and to watch recorded TV shows from the library (viz
Coffee with Karan, Zoom, Pogo, etc), movies, music and videos on demand.
Internet Browsing charges will be charged as per your Photon+ tariff plan and it would be
applicable while viewing Photon TV. These charges would be over and above the
subscription charges for the Photon TV. (Approximate data usage is 1-2MB per Min). Rate
of innovation in this sector is growing at a faster rate in the recent years where as it is not
very impressive before this period. The reason for this is the fair competition between the
to reach out to consumers and finally a good pricing-packaging strategy to attract the
subscriber.
Reliance BIG TV's launch in August was probably the biggest roll-out in home
entertainment ever. They deployed the most advanced MPEG4 technology that enabledthem to deliver best quality digital audio-video to the consumer. That apart, it also got
prepared for the future when Hi-Definition TV will be launched in India because only
MPEG4 technology can support HD TV and not MPEG2 which is used by the earlier entrants
in the DTH industry.
The MPEG4 technology also gave them advantage of broadcasting at least 50% more
channels compared to the competitors. The superior compression technology of MPEG4
helps them to broadcast up to 35 to 40 channels per transponder and with 12 transponders
in hand gave them the unique edge of being able to broadcast over 400 channels. They are
currently utilizing only 8 of their transponders to broadcast over 200 channels. They are
offering Channels in various packages like Value Pack, Bronze Pack, Silver Pack, Gold Pack,
Diamond Pack and Platinum Pack and Reliance BIG TV announces 3 New Packages w.e.f
from 16th Feb 2010 which are New Value Pack, Bronze Plus Pack and Silver Plus Pack.
On 5th May 31, 2010 Reliance BIG TV introduced revolutionary HD DVR (High Definition
Advanced Digital Video Recording) service with 16:9 aspect ratio, play, pause, and 200 hrs
of recording facility to its customer. Reliance BIG TV became the first DTH provider to
provide High Definition Video recording facility to its customers.
Reliance BIG TV's retailer network is spread across 100,000 outlets in 6,500 towns in India.
This was literally unheard of in the DTH industry. They had effectively out-stripped the
competition here. When it came to pricing – packaging, their introductory offer stood at Rs.
1,490/- with 3 to 6 months of free subscription. They also introduced 32 Pay-Per-View
Movie Channels, the highest by any DTH player. Not just that, while other players made
subscribers pay for each movie, Reliance BIG TV introduced the unique concept of
Subscriber-Video-On-Demand (SVOD) under which the subscriber paid a monthly
It has got various modes through which it delivers entertainment. BIG is not uni-
dimensional.
The BIG Values
BIG is multi-facetted. BIG aims to provide complete entertainment to individuals or groups
across all ages. To this effect, it adopts a multitude of formats and devices and is able to
reach its consumers, both inside and outside their homes.
BIG is about world-class. BIG has set high standards for itself and it constantly endeavors to
meet them. Whether it is pioneering multiplexes or revolutionizing the gaming industry,
through its world class technology, BIG is continuously transforming the face of the
entertainment industry across the country.
BIG is vibrant. BIG brims with an unrestrained enthusiasm and meets all its goals with an
unbridled passion and energy.
BIG is engaging. BIG innovates constantly, so that it is always fresh and engaging to its
consumers. It experiments fearlessly and continuously offers its consumers new
experiences.
Products & Services
BIG TV Basic Set top Box.
This product comes with advance high quality Digital Picture with MPEG 4technology, with 5.1 digital sound, more than 230 channels and exclusive 32 cinema
halls packs with lots of interactive services like icooking, igames, inews, istock etc.
BIG TV Advance HD DVR Set top Box.
This product comes with most advance India’s first Hi- definition Adavance Digital
Video recorder, upto 200 hrs of simultanious recording (maximum by any service
provider), play- pause –rewind feature. 1080i- 2 million pixels, 5 times more
sharper picture quality with 16:9 wide aspect ratio. It comes up with Universal
remote control to control all three TV, Settop box and video recorder. All other
features of basic set top box are also included in HD DVR settop box.
The project was to involve a detail study of the market based on the consumers. The
markets available for the study were the retail shops both organised and unorganised,distributers and apartments and houses. The methodology adopted for eliciting the data
required for the study was survey method.Reputed retail outlets/ distributers selling
different brands of DTH across region were contacted for primary data collection. For
estimating the market potential and our own brand’s market share different methods of
primary data collection were employed in the form of questionnaire, structured and
unstructured interviews.. An inter brand comparison as well as a brand awareness study to
limited extends was also carried away. A questionnaire with respect to retailers perception
was prepared to draw information about DTH services prevailing in market and
comparitive study between all prevailing brands.
Area covered included Ultadanga, Salkia, Chandani chawk, Metiabruz, Jadavpur, Garia,
Garia hat, Lake town, Esplanade, Park street, Howrah. Rural and semiurban region included
There is still a huge amount of untapped market available in the Kolkata
Region.68% of people are using Cable TV and are satisfied with the services given by
Cable TV operators. These is high scope of market expansionfor DTH players. High initial cost of DTH is prime reason for customer not using DTH service,
Customers are satisfied with services provided by their cable providers. Cable
operators are giving on door service on one call where as customers have to
undergo certain process to reach customer care executive of DTH company.
There exist some population of People of rural areas who are not aware of BIG TV as
a DTH player in market.
BIG TV is not available with many electronic stores in exterior city region, recharge
vouchers are nbot available in stores. Existing customers are also moving away from
using BIGTV because of this reason.
People are more aware of TATA Sky, Airtel and Dish TV as compared to BIG TV.
People from rural and semi urban areas were eager to know and use the services
but proper awareness is lacking.
Existing customers were facing a lot of problem as GSK and RCV were not present in
nearby places.
AIRTEL is fastest growing brand among all players
Airtel is giving more incentives to distributers/ retailers which is provoking
them to sell more airtel connections, retailers recommends customer to go
gor Airtel also they perfer to sell Airtel DTH.
Availability of stock(both Set Top Box& Recharge Voucher) in market is very
good and with in customers reach.
Best customer care after sales service, service is directly on the hand of
company engineer not on the contract basis.
Airtel is advertising and coummincation its plans to the public very
efficiently. Proper advertising has helped Airtel to spread awareness among