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Pay-per-view (PPV) channels are a veritable source of revenue for DTH players across the world. These have spanned movies, sports, customised content, tutorials and even adult content. In India, however, they are yet to catch on, with digitsation and subscriber acquisition still topping operators' list of tasks. So far, we have seen PPV movie channels.
But the share of 3 per cent of the overall $1.42 billion subscription revenue (Rs 7,810 crore in 2012 from around 55 million subscribers) has not kept players from experimenting with the mode. Airtel Digital TV (Airtel), the DTH service arm of Bharti Airtel, has come up with an option to watch its PPV channel for free. To replace revenue from subscription when viewers opt to not pay, Airtel will turn to advertisers.
Introducing the option for ad-support on its only PPV movie channel, Airtel will now allow subscribers to view popular Bollywood titles at pre-scheduled timings on its platform for free.
Viewers who would like to watch titles from Airtel's library of movies without paying can watch them on three-fourth of the screen, while the remaining one-fourth will be used up by an advertiser. Should the customer want the movie on a full-screen, she can then pay for an ad-free version.
Shashi Arora, CEO, DTH/ media, Bharti Airtel says, "Going forward, this will create an all-new avenue for movie- watching in India."
However, Anil Khera, the CEO of Videocon d2h, says, "PPV channels in India do well mainly if brand new movies are aired on them. We also have two PPV channels which show relatively new movies and classics for free, while the third, which is paid-for, airs atleast four new releases a month."
Mihir Shah, Media Partners Asia's India-based analyst, points out that while players have differentiated on the basis of recorders, number of HD channels and even celebrity endorsements, VAS offerings such as PPV channels will be far more important because they hinge on content beyond regular channels aired by broadcasters. "So far, PPV in India has not yet seen exclusive content because cross-media restrictions prevent platforms from assuming broadcaster-like roles. However, eventually, when the market settles down, the customer gets used to the set-top box and its EPG, we will see DTH operators striking exclusive production deals for their PPV channels with studios. Look at how multiplexes fostered a different kind of movie-making."
Tata Sky, the JV between the Tata Group and the Star Group for DTH, has options beyond the usual PPV. While regular PPV channels play pre-defined movies as decided by the operator, Tata Sky's video-on-demand (VoD) channels contain hard-to-get movie titles from Hollywood and Bollywood (Rs 25 each), do-it-yourself shorts, which it commissioned (Rs 5 each) and catch-up TV, that viewers can pull using the IPTV-enabled recorder set-top boxes. Vikram Mehra, Tata Sky's chief marketing officer, says, "We felt the need of specialised content beyond movies and the VoD channels give access to 2,000-3,000 movies, anyway." It launched a wi-fi dongle today for wire-free Internet access.
Shah says, "The cable industry is yet to evolve its value-added services. So, DTH players have a headstart in their offerings beyond linear channels. However, it is a fact that once the cable companies get their act right, they have the bandwidth to play many more linear channels than DTH players. Hence, it is imperative for the latter to not only differentiate among themselves but also from these challengers."
Airtel may also get producers of small-budget movies, who may not be able to release their movies in theatres or may have a short run at the theatres, on the platform.
Such exclusive content would eventually counter the present-day drawback: The short run-up of just four weeks since a Bollywood movie's premiere to its TV satellite release, has left very little incentive for viewers to pay for it for TV-viewing, according to Shah.
With inputs from Gaurav Laghate
