Tata Sky's entry into this fledgling market for HD services is bound to shake up the market considering that other DTH players have already entered the market with much higher prices. While Sun Direct HD service is currently priced at Rs 9,990, according to the price on its Web site, Reliance Big is priced at Rs 7,490 while Dish TV's HD service, recently launched, is being offered at Rs 5,999.
Asked about Tata Sky's aggressive pricing for its entry into HD services, Mr Vikram Mehra, Chief Marketing Officer, Tata Sky, says that the market for HD services needs an “evangelist” to popularise the service that offers high picture quality.
“Anybody who bought a TV in the past three years is bound to have bought a HD-ready set. The TV makers are waiting for HD set-top boxes and for HD content. We decided that if the numbers come, more content will follow.”
The service will be launched with the movie Kites being shown exclusively on Tata Sky in HD format. Mr Mehra expects Bollywood, sports and channels such as National Geographic and Discovery HD to drive viewers to the HD format for a superior viewing experience.
Mr Mehra said the imported HD boxes will be subsidised by Tata Sky, as do most other DTH players, but says this is necessary to drive the market.
“Aggressive pricing and Bollywood magic, we expect, will do the trick of pushing HD numbers,” he says. The Tata Sky HD offering will soon include many more channels such as Star Plus HD, Star Movies HD and popular sports channels.
As part of the launch phase, all existing Tata Sky subscribers can now upgrade to Tata Sky HD and avail themselves of the HD Gold Pack for an entire year while all new Tata Sky HD subscribers would be offered free the HD Gold pack for the first two months.
Subscribers cannot trade in their old set-top boxes but, as Mr Mehra says, can use it for a second TV, for which subscribers can avail themselves of an additional connection for a flat Rs 150 extra.
Mr Jawahar Goel, Head of Business, Dish TV, said Tata Sky's pricing needs more clarity and its content charges in future will have to be seen as it's among the highest in the industry.
HD services need a lot more bandwidth, but Mr Mehra says Tata Sky has the transponder capacity to handle HD services without dropping any existing channels.
