Airtel digital TV is a part of Bharti Telemedia Ltd a susidiary of Bharti Airtel Limited owned by Sunil Mittal the Indian telecom giant who brought mobile Services to India Through the largest mobile service provider of India - Airtel . Airtel digital TV Started operation from 9th October 2008 with the slogan "Come Home To The Magic". It currently offers close to 150 channels and many interactive ones as well as WorldSpace Satellite Radio channels. The company plans to increase the Channels in near future.It shows many interactive channels and plans to bring internet on DTH by using Airtel Live,..It is the second pan India dth provider providing mpeg-4 technology.
The DTH market in India has seen some real fireworks in recent times with a number of players entering the segment . This has been primarily because of the recent growth rates acieved by the indian economy coupled with future optimism. Starting with the initiative of dish tv there are today 6 operational DTH operators in the country. Even while new entrents are pumping big money into the sector the incumbents are finding it hard to remain profitable because of changed market realities.
The major players in the category are 1)Dish TV 2)Tata Sky 3)DD Direct Plus 4)Big Tv 5)Airtel Digital TV (IPTV) 6)Sun direct , with videocon planning to enter the segment soon with D2H
Positioning Airtel Digital TV
Deciding the positioning strategy would have assumed much greater importance in the case of Airtel digital Tv because there were already 4 heavy weights in the industry. Moreover Airtel is a national brand which enjoys substantial loyalty, any misjudgement could have resulted in the brand falling on its face. The rivalry between Dish tv and Tata sky had already brought rates to a competitive level with tata sky having an edge over dish tv with respect to add ons and innovative offers.On the other hand DD direct plus was mainly a bundle of prasar bharti channels and other free to air channels with nothing big on platter. This is where Big tv capitalised by positioning itself as the "entertainment specialist." Now with major 'spaces" occupied by major players it didnt made sense for Bharti to introduce a new name , and the bharti name wasnt strong enough to lend the necessary credibility. Thus using the airtel name made sense because "Airtel" was already eastablished as a strong , sophisticated "upmarket" lifestyle brand. Moreover the extension of airtel from telecom to DTH could happen seamlessly because of the related nature of the two industries. (telecom and DTH). The synergies arising from common distribution and sales would have also prompted the company to adopt the airtel brand name. The brand tries to make a departure from the features laden positioning that was typical with the industry to a more emotion driven one, and it becomes apparent in the metaphors used in the communication and product design. Also the base technology is positioned as superior to competition (it is based on IPTV not DTV platform) The technology helps it to offer broadband and interactive channels in its basket of offerings , this is further in tune with the adopted positioning and helps the brand to differentiate itself from the other players.
Indian DTH market is flooded with new companies which are just making their whole network digital with advance technical setups.The real factor of DTH market drive is maximum channels in minimum price.Those which gives this thing,they can easily excel in this market and Airtel has done this.
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