Consumer is the king!

Consumer is king and long live the consumer is the fervent call of the plethora of operators in the fray to take the driver's seat as analog signals go blank to pave the way for digitalisation this July 1.

Three platforms — Direct to Home (DTH), Digital Cable, and IPTV — today embrace digitalisation with about a dozen companies being active in the digital space. The DTH service, since its launch in 2003, has boosted the digital market in the country with an estimated 4.5 crore subscribers.

The DTH space is led by Dish TV and hosts other big ticket players like Tata Sky, Airtel, Reliance, Bharti, Sun and Videocon. Big Multi Service Operators (MSOs) like Hathway, Den, Digicable and WWIL, currently offer the Digital Cable service. The IPTV service now only caters to a niche market with a minuscule share with MTNL and Airtel in the fray.

With so many options how does one make the right choice? "Customers should primarily look at large established players with a good track record of operating in this environment and there are quite a few of them to choose from. Dish TV is the largest operator that offers you the best both in technology and content," said RC Venkateish, chief executive officer, Dish TV.

Vikram Mehra, chief marketing officer, Tata Sky, endorsed the DTH best bet pitch. He averred, "With a robust infrastructure that is already in place, the DTH industry has got all that it takes to cater to the customer growth during the digitisation phase. This technological edge will further be reinforced by the fact that best options can be made available to the consumers as per their viewing preferences."

The digital cable industry too is bullish. "Digital cable TV can actually beam similar superior picture quality as provided by DTH operators," said K Jayaraman, managing director and CEO of Hathway Cable and Datacom Ltd.

"Cable will always be cost-effective for the consumer in the long run because the consumer will get more for a lesser price. Today, a consumer is not able to experience that because the digital world in cable has not yet settled in," professed Jayaraman.

Countered Dish's Venkateish, "On the cost comparison side, DTH is already more cheaper than cable in the four Indian metros. For instance, the average price of a cable connection even in the slums would be Rs 200 while it is anything between Rs300 and Rs 350 in the residential areas. The situation is more or less the same in Delhi as well. Compare that with DTH wherein the starting package is Rs 180. It's only a myth that cable is cheaper than DTH when compared price wise."

Price apart, Mehra at Tata Sky cautioned, "Make sure you do a thorough comparison between STBs provided by digital cable and DTH operators." He counselled consumers to seek expertise in Digital TV and find out whether the service provider had adequate experience, infrastructure, technology and relevant expertise to offer a good quality digital TV service.

Pitching for Digital Cable, Hathway's Jayaraman, said, "Digital cable TV would bring more local centric content to the consumers for instance; events like Satsang sessions, exhibitions, festival and local news coverage etc."

"The cable fraternity is basically talking about advantages that are very hypothetical in nature. No one has really either used or offered such services yet," asserted Venkateish at Dish TV.  Portability was one of the biggest advantages DTH enjoyed and that's why its penetration was significantly higher across the country, he added.