At ESPN-Star Sports, Ravi C Venkateish had fought long battles with Zee Entertainment founder Subhash Chandra over broadcast rights for cricket matches. But old rivalries didn’t stand in the way of Chandra recently snapping up Venkateish to be CEO of his Dish TV. It may be the largest player in the direct-to-home (DTH) space with 8.5 million of India’s 27 million subscribers, but it has no fewer than five rivals.
The new assignment, says Venkateish, is different. “ESPN-Star Sports was a broadcaster, while Dish TV is about infrastructure. Here, since no platform can provide exclusive content, it is a classic marketing and brand-building model,” he says. Not that Venkateish is a stranger to this world. After studying at IIT-Chennai, and IIM-Kolkata, he worked for GlaxoSmithKline, Oral-B, Kellogg and Nestle — all brand-led companies.
So, how does he plan to break the clutter? Venkateish says he will focus on innovation and distribution. “I plan to have at least two technology-led innovations every year,” he says. Isn’t profitability an issue in the DTH business? “We have been Ebitda-positive for five quarters now. Given the low average revenues per user, you need at least 10 million subscribers to be PAT-positive,” he adds. With 1.1 million new subscribers coming into the DTH fold every month, Venkateish can hope to reach that mark soon.
DTH operators are also lobbying hard to reduce licence fees. So, Venkateish may also have to do the rounds of Trai, which regulates the DTH sector. That’s the only kink in an otherwise classic marketing job.