'DNA' digital: Dish TV beams a killer app

As competition in the fast-growing direct-to-home (DTH) television market intensifies, channel distributors are harnessing cutting edge digital technologies to keep pace. For instance, market leader Dish TV, which beams over 330 channels and some of its own content to 12.5 million subscribers, has introduced Dish truHD+, a high-definition digital video recorder (DVR), recently.

The aim is to retain and grow its majority share of the market which recorded 41 million subscribers as of November 2011 (up from 23 million just a year ago, and 8 million in 2008). Dish TV executives say the key to sustained leadership in the DTH market is a combination digital technology and imaginative value-for-money content packages.

Taking pride of place in Dish TV’s digital offerings is truHD+. For, TV viewers in India crave recording equipment so they could watch their favourite programmes at convenience, says Salil Kapoor, chief operating officer, Dish TV.

“Two decades ago, most households had a video home system (VHS) which is now obsolete. While technology did change over the years, recording got restricted to IT devices and did not include entertainment devices like television. We realised there was a vacuum to be filled, but we didn’t want to burden the consumer with the associated high costs which led to the introduction of Dish truHD+ box,” says Kapoor.

While most DTH operators price their DVR set-top boxes (STBs) between Rs5,000 and Rs6,000, Dish TV has redefined the category through its Dish truHD+ box, making it available at Rs2,690, the price of a normal HD box. Dish truHD+ allows unlimited storage, unlike STBs of other DTH players that require subscribers to delete recorded content once the storage capacity reaches its limit, if they wish to record new content.

That’s not all. Dish truHD+  is compatible with universal serial bus (USB) flash drive or hard disk drive (HDD). “The new box comes with a software upgrade that allows viewers to simply plug-and-play an existing USB stick or HDD and build an entire library of their favourite programmes,” says Kapoor.

The storage device, however, is designed to work only with the Dish truHD+ box, thereby preempting content piracy. To rack up volumes, Dish TV is offering existing HD customers a software upgrade at no extra cost (barring Rs300 for a new remote control)..

Dish TV management is confident truHD+ will prove a game-changer as Dish offers the highest number of HD channels (see table alongside). “The existing HD market is about 40,000 to 50,000 boxes a month. With HD+, we expect to double the size of the HD subscriber market in the coming months and garner a 40% market-share,” says Kapoor.

With picture resolution of two million pixels per frame (five times the traditional TV systems), HD channels come equipped with MPEG4 technology and offer cinema-like viewing experience, given 33% wider screens, a panoramic aspect ratio of 16:9 and 5.1 stereo surround sound. Even ordinary TV content, which can now be digitally converted and included on the HD platform, offers top quality viewing pleasure.

Combined with attractive and affordable content packages, HD-TV is expected to prove popular in India. To meet rising demand, Dish TV offers a variety of HD packages like Tru HD World priced Rs375 per month and Tru HD Premiere (Rs450). Each contains 25 HD channels at Rs4. Tru HD Royale (Rs550) offer 42 channels at Rs4.76.

Other DTH players such as Tata, Airtel, Videocon, Reliance and Sun, though lagging far behind Dish TV, are expected to step up their efforts to increase their market-shares. For, some ten million subscribers in the four metros are expected to switch from analogue cable TV to digital format before June.

By 2015, the DTH share of cable and satellite subscribers will have increased by 23 million to touch 64 million, according to PINC Research. Billions will be invested in digital technology, be it satellites in space, ground level infrastructure or user-end devices like the truHD+ DVR.

Specsheet
Dish truHD+
Dual advantage: HD and DVR
Picture quality: 1080i
Picture format: 16:9
Surround sound: 5.1
Technology: MPEG4
Plug-n-play: external USB device
Features: recording, playback, pause, rewind live TV, different playback positions, event-based recording, time-based recording
Price: Rs2,690

Fair disclosure: Dish TV is a Zee Group company. Zee is also the co-promoter of Diligent Media Corporation, which publishes the DNA