Tata Sky is expanding scope and digital footprint to stay relevant

In the midst of the overhaul in the entertainment landscape wrought by the rapid pace of Internet penetration in the country, Tata Sky is repositioning itself. While distribution of TV channels will continue to drive its core business, the direct to home (DTH) player says it also wants to offer viewers access to digital content and be seen as an ‘integrated content distribution platform across DTH and OTT’. On its radar are young viewers/consumers of entertainment in urban and rural households who are increasingly seeking their daily entertainment fix online and via their phone screens.   

Convenience and cheap access to digital networks has changed the way content is created, played and distributed, forcing the hand of players such as Tata Sky, say experts. According to a survey by IMRB Kantar and the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), there are 481 million Internet users in India as on December 2017. Of this 70 per cent users consume Indic (languages other than English) content and among them 68 per cent of the usage is for entertainment, audio/video consumption only. The potential is impossible to miss and traditional players, be it broadcasters or distributors, are reading the writing on the wall.

As a result, the content story in the Tata Sky’s growth strategy has taken a sharper focus, with innovations being made not only on the type of content acquired, but also on the way it interacts with users on the platform. Arun Unni, chief content officer at Tata Sky explains that the company has identified three broad buckets within its consumer base—the rural content consumer, the urban middle class and the digital native consumer. All three behave distinctly, and hence, need to be serviced as such.

A New Pitch

• Tata Sky has identified three distinct consumer categories it wants to cater to: rural,urban and the digitally savvy viewer across geographies
   
• It wants to be known as an integrated content delivery platform across  TV and OTT media services  

Internet penetration in urban India is 64.84 per cent as of December 2017 as compared to 60.6 per cent last December. In comparison, the report on Internet usage in the country says that rural penetration has grown from 18 per cent last December to 20.26 per cent. Also the Internet is predominantly used by youngsters across urban and rural regions, and it is used mainly for entertainment and social networking. 

At Tata Sky, Unni says the objective is to treat each category of consumers separately. For rural consumers, “the ‘plus one’ and ‘repeats’ service has seen very good acceptance while our premier Bollywood movie service has helped engage the urban middle class consumer. For the digital native, we have tried to have a digital extension of our DTH service on the Tata Sky (mobile) app and the World Screen feature,” he explains.

The ‘plus one’ feature looks to get more out of the same content, especially blockbuster movies and entertainment shows. It plays mirror feeds of leading general entertainment and movie channels, with a one hour delay in telecast. This essentially means that viewers can see shows and/or movies on the +1 feed, an hour later than the original show time. 

“Say you have two shows you follow running parallel on different channels, you can simply watch one of them an hour later. Same thing with movies. If you miss the first twenty minutes of a movie, you can catch it from the start (on the other channel) in 40 minutes,” Unni explains. Rural areas where single TV homes are prevalent and digital/OTT penetration is not high, have shown acceptance of this service.

For the urban middle class, Tata Sky has gone the additional services way. Apart from features like the Activ services and Showcase library (pay per view/day movie channels) it has launched premium services where consumers get access to the latest films from Bollywood along with the classics. Since Tata Sky is a platform, it does not face the issues that typical broadcasters do in terms of rights acquisition, and since it’s a subscription-based service, it has access to an alternative revenue stream and not solely dependent on advertising revenues.

The one segment where television broadcasters still score over digital counterparts is sports. And Tata Sky, also plans to launch a sports add-on service where viewers can get access to premiere sports events with multi-camera angle feeds and exclusive content. It is working with sports broadcasters currently to fine-tune the workings of the service.

The World Screen service is for digital natives Unni says. An ad-free service where subscribers can view select series and movies from across the world, running 24x7, where most of the shows have never been available in India on television. “We are offering over 650 curated hours of great stories, not just from Hollywood, but from around the world, ad-free. Our analysis indicates that consumption patterns are evolving, and there is an audience looking for exciting and diverse content, unconstrained by language. Our handpicked list includes some of the most popular and critically acclaimed movies and TV shows across the world, a lot of which has never been seen on TV in India,” Unni says.

As the entertainment industry evolves and platforms mature in terms of the quality of viewing and content offered, another area that is likely to see big changes is that of regional content and its distribution. Among urban users there is 66 per cent usage of digital platforms for Indic content and among rural users, 76 per cent, the report says. For players such as Tata Sky, it would not take much to cash in on the seemingly insatiable demand for regional entertainment.