DTH service provider TataSky bets big on rural demand

Direct-to-home (DTH) services provider TataSky is betting big on rural demand, and going ahead, it is planning to customise its offerings to improve customer base in non-urban markets.

Speaking on the rural expansion, Malay Dikshit, chief communications officer of TataSky, said since the launch of the company's rural focus last year, it had been witnessing a significant gain in market share in Tier III and IV locations.

"With the infrastructure and the point-of-contact centres created by us in the last few years, we could easily target reaching out to a greater number of households in semi-urban areas and towns," he said, adding the company's total subscriber base stood around 14 million, and was growing at an annual 12-13 per cent.

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), private DTH service providers had a total of 67.57 million registered users, with 38.24 million active connections for the quarter ending June 2014.

He said Telangana and AP were the top markets for them in the south, and the region was seeing higher growth in new additions each month. TataSky today announced the launch of new customised packs exclusively for south. Its new offering Naapack, priced Rs 99, allows users more than 100 channels.