Airtel Digital TV DTH launch - are they a bit late??

After Dish TV, Tata Sky, Sun Direct and Big TV, its now the turn of fifth private DTH operator, Bharti Airtel to launch their services on October 9, 2008. The service would be known as Airtel Digital TV and available in 62 cities initially.

Airtel would have an advantage of integarting its operations with mobile phone, internet and TV, where it could use its exisiting distribution channels to market the product.

Currently the Indian DTH market has subscribers with 75 lac subscribers. The older players have more subscribers which would imply that Airtel DTH would continue to remain a laggard in this space in terms of market share. However, with its strong brand equity, it can hope to leverage on it.

All the DTH players are still bleeding as initial costs are high while competition is eating away margins. Airtel is also likely to face financial pressures in initial years but with once the market grows and become mature, it could follow a similar product life cycle as witnessed by the telecom industry.

Also, Airtel would offer some unique features which other operators doesn’t. Firstly, it has a larger dish antenna that offers better performance during rain. There are some contents like World Space Radio, services for shopping, knowledge and interactive services in a different format.

Airtel has also launched a teaser campaign for its DTH service, called ‘See you at home soon’. It has four teasers – Masai (infotainment), Cowboy (movies), Band (music) and Meercats (kids). The common element is all these teasers is a big, red couch.

The camapaign can easily be mistaken for a Big TV DTH service as both have similar colour settings of red and white. Incidentally, Big TV has also launched a similar campaign to take the sheen of Airtel ads.