Buying Behavior, Perception in Indian Dth Industry

Category: Industries, Television
Last Updated: 16 May 2021
Pages: 17 Views: 644

For the primary source a Questionnaire was prepared for the survey to know the consumer’s behavior in buying the DTH services. The survey was conducted on people who are already enjoying the services of the DTH irrespective of age, income, lifestyle, gender etc. The questionnaire revolved around the consumer buying behavior and was designed to know the complete steps of buying behavior of consumers for the DTH industry in India. For the secondary source journals and articles in the magazine, news paper and internet have been used in achieving the objective of the research.

The sample size was 150 users of DTH services in Delhi and NCR. All the questions from the questionnaire have been analyzed and findings have been inferred from it with the help of the graphs and the tables, making all the information very easy to read, analyze and infer the key findings from them. This is followed by the complete accumulated findings in bullet points from the research and then the suggestions for the DTH industry as a whole and for the DTH players in industry based on the Objectives of the research and the Findings of the survey & research which could increase the performance and sales for the companies.

References that has been used in the entire preparation is also provided along with the questionnaire at the end of the project report. Consumer buying behaviour is the study of when, why, how, and where people do or do not buy products It blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology and economics. It attempts to understand the buyer decision making process, both individually and in groups. It studies characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics and behavioural variables in an attempt to understand people's wants.

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It also tries to assess influences on the consumer from groups such as family, friends, reference groups, and society in general. Customer behaviour study is based on consumer buying behavior, with the customer playing the three distinct roles of user, payer and buyer. Relationship marketing is an influential asset for customer behavior analysis as it has a keen interest in the re-discovery of the true meaning of marketing through the re-affirmation of the importance of the customer or buyer.

A greater importance is also placed on consumer retention, customer relationship management, personalization, customization and one-to-one marketing. Social functions can be categorized into social choice and welfare functions. Each method for vote counting is assumed as a social function but if Arrow’s possibility theorem is used for a social function, social welfare function is achieved. Some specifications of the social functions are decisiveness, neutrality, anonymity, monotonocity, unanimity, homogeneity and weak and strong Pareto optimality. No social choice function meets these requirements in an ordinal scale simultaneously.

The most important characteristic of a social function is identification of the interactive effect of alternatives and creating a logical relation with the ranks. Marketing provides services in order to satisfy customers. With that in mind, the productive system is considered from its beginning at the production level, to the end of the cycle, the consumer. Belch and Belch define consumer behaviour as 'the process and activities people engage in when searching for, selecting, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing of products and services so as to satisfy their needs and desires'.  Incorporated in 2004, Tata Sky is a JV between the TATA Group and STAR. Tata Sky DTH endeavors to offer Indian viewers a world-class television viewing experience through its satellite television service. The TATA Group is one of India's largest and most respected business conglomerates. It comprises 93 operating companies in seven business sectors: information systems and communications, engineering, materials, services, energy, consumer products and chemicals.

The TATA Group has operations in more than 40 countries across six continents and its companies export products and services to 140 nations. The Group and its enterprises have been steadfast and distinctive in their adherence to business ethics and their commitment to corporate social responsibility. This is a legacy that has earned the Group the trust of many millions of stakeholders in a measure few business houses anywhere in the world can match. The SKY brand, owned by the UK-based British Sky Broadcasting Group, brings to Tata Sky the reputation of more than 20 years experience of satellite broadcasting.

SKY is well known for the innovative products and services launched by BSkyB, such as DTH broadcasting in 1989, digital satellite broadcasting in 1998, interactive television services in 1999 and the SKY+ personal video recorder in 2001. Tata Sky joins an international group of DTH businesses that includes platforms as far apart as the UK and Italy in Europe, and Mexico and Brazil in Latin America. Tata Sky has established an extensive customer service network across the country.

It has engaged a field force of approximately 3000 service engineers who are complemented by high-end 24x7 call centres, manned by multi-lingual customer service associates, trained to solve all customer problems. Tata Sky takes direct responsibility for installing and servicing the hardware at every subscriber's home, thereby ensuring the highest levels of customer service.  TV is a division of Zee Network Enterprise (Essel Group Venture). EGV has national and global presence with business interests in media programming, broadcasting & distribution, speciality packaging and entertainment.

Zee Network incorporated dishtv to modernize TV viewing. dishtv is India’s first direct to home (DTH) entertainment service. By digitalizing Indian entertainment, this enterprise brought best television viewing technology to the living room. It not only transmits high quality programmes through satellite; but also gives a complete control of selecting channels and paying for them. To experience the new life breathing in television technology, dishtv extends high quality broadcast and thorough entertainment. It imparts DVD quality picture and stereophonic sound effects to the customers.

It promises to change the experience of TV viewing with its uninterrupted transmission service. The endeavour enters next level of entertainment with futuristic features, such as EPG (Electronic Programme Guide), parental lock, games, 400 channels, interactive TV and movie on demand. dishtv also brings exclusive national and international channels for the first time in India. dishtv uses NSS-6 to broadcast its programmes. NSS-6 was launched on 17th December, 2002 by European-based satellite provider, NewSkies (one of the only four fixed satellite communications companies with truly global satellite coverage) ishtv - India's first KU-band DTH entertainment service, hopped on to NSS-6 from an INSAT satellite in July 2004. The change in the satellite was to increase the channel offering as NSS 6 offered more transponder capacity.  Direct to Home (DTH) service comes to you from Bharti Telemedia Limited, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Limited. Bharti Airtel Limited is the flagship company of Bharti Enterprises and is India’s largest integrated and the first private telecom services provider with a footprint in all the 23 telecom circles.

As India's leading telecommunications company, the Airtel brand has played the role of a major catalyst in India's reforms, contributing to its economic resurgence. Airtel since its inception has been at the forefront of technology and has steered the course of the telecom sector in the country with its world class products and services. With DVD quality picture and sound, your TV viewing experience will change forever with Airtel digital TV. Now witness the magic of television with best and widest variety of channels and programmes ranging from Sports, Music and General entertainment to best on-demand content on Airtel Live.

What's more, you can choose from the best movies of Bollywood and the world, listen to radio, play games, along with a host of other interactive features and change the way you watch television.  Sun Direct - India's youngest and most exciting state Of the art DTH Company. Sun Direct uses the latest MPEG-4 based technology to increase broadcast capacity. Sun Direct confirms to provide next-generation services in fast-growing and emerging markets quickly and efficiently. Sun Direct will be supported by Irdeto's conditional access solution to manage content and revenues in the satellite broadcasting venture.

Sun Direct selected Oracle based on its convergent multi-service capabilities and proven real-time scalability allowing it to consolidate billing operations, enables powerful new service offerings and improves visibility into customer information across services. Sun Direct Pvt Ltd, the leading direct-to-home (DTH) service provider is all set to redefine the television viewing in the country. Sun Direct today created history by launching the first ever High Definition (HD) broadcast on DTH platform in India. Sun Direct: Sun Direct is a 80:20 joint venture between the Maran family and the Astro Group of Malaysia.

Sun Direct offers all customer premises equipments like the dish and Set Top box free of cost to the customer, which is a practice followed by DTH platforms across the world. Sun Direct is the first one to adopt the advanced MPEG4 technology offering better compression and signal quality and is the first to offer HD TV (High definition) content. Sun Direct offers all customer premises equipments like the dish and Set Top box free of cost to the customer offering more than 200 channels, with 7 basic packs and 41 add on packs.

Imagine a satellite TV service that suits you and your family’s interests, passions and busy schedules. Picture all of your favourite channels, shows, and movies at your fingertips —it’s time to step into the BIG world of entertainment. Reliance is excited to present the next landmark of TV entertainment in India. With Reliance BIG TV Digital Service, you can experience spectacular entertainment, blockbuster movies, up-to-the-minute news, and your favourite programs at the click of a button. Transform your home with Reliance BIG TV Digital Service, powered by MPEG – 4 technology for the first time in India.

Reliance BIG TV has fantastic features like pure digital viewing experience, more channel choice, many exclusive movie channels, easy programming guide, interactive services, parental control, 24x7 Customer Service and lots more — Ensure a never before viewing experience with unlimited hours of fun and entertainment for your entire family. It is world’s 1st satellite television, via state of art satellites, which means you no longer have to tolerate all the hassles associated with Cable TV.

No more frustrating disconnections right in the middle of an intense game. And whether you’re watching a Hollywood thriller or a Desi blockbuster, Videocon d2h results in a “The End” to all the unnecessary interruptions. We invite you to experience a world of awesome digital entertainment, crystal clear pictures, ultra sharp sound and state of art technology which uses the revolutionary MPEG -4 with DVB S2. This means you’ll be able to notice the minutest of details on your favorite celebrity. And hear every scream, every sound. Even if it were a faint sigh.

We will provide you unique active services, multi lingual user interface, more movie on demand channels, radio channels, cross genre tickers and many more value added services. Our interactive Direct to Home (DTH) Services will be available through Satellite LCD, Satellite TV, Satellite DVD as well as a Satellite Box (STB). We bring you cutting edge technology through our services, which will make your home the most exciting place on earth. The Products i. e. Satellite LCD, Satellite TV, Satellite DVD are owned and marketed by UDCL.

The DTH services and Satellite Box are marketed by BBCL subject to terms and conditions of Customer Agreement. Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite television is becoming a buzzword in the satellite broadcast industry due to the fact that DTH offers immense opportunities to both broadcasters and viewers. Thanks to the rapid development of digital technology, DTH broadcast operators worldwide have been able to introduce a large number of new interactive applications in the television market besides a large number of entertainment programmes over a single delivery platform.

In addition, since digital technology permits a highly efficient exploitation of the frequency spectrum, the number of TV channels that can be broadcast using digital technology is significantly higher than with analogue technology. The increased number of television channels allows the operator to satisfy the demand of a number of niche markets with dedicated transmissions. In general, DTH service is the one in which a large number of channels are digitally compressed, encrypted and beamed from very high power satellites. The programmes can be directly received at homes.

This mode of reception facilitates the use of small receive dish antennas of 60 to 90 cm diameter installed at convenient location in individual buildings without needing elaborate foundation /space etc. Also, DTH transmission eliminates local cable operator completely, since an individual user is directly connected to the service providers. However, a digital receiver is needed to receive the multiplexed signals and view them on a TV. DTH, in sharp contrast to Cable TV, lends itself to easy monitoring,and,control. Transmission in Ku band is most appropriate and widely used for the purpose.

As mentioned above, all the encoded transmission signals are digital - thus providing higher resolution picture quality and better audio than traditional analog signals. All the advantages of the digital transmission, as applicable to the terrestrial transmission are relevant in the satellite transmission also. Over the last three years, the direct-to-home (DTH) satellite industry has come on strongly worldwide. It has grown from a niche delivery mechanism into a mainstream business. The spread of subscription-based DTH satellite TV promises to enhance choices for many households in developing countries.

With the Government throwing open the DTH sector in the country,a handful of players have come up with grandiose plans to enter the market. Given the stiff level of competition this premium services will face from the existing multi-channel cable network, possible entrants need to clearly grasp a few of the winning rules of the game. The movies,news channels,sporting events,and/or general entertainment features that constitute an offer to consumers. Space: Ownership or access to sufficient transponders in the right orbital slot to broadcast an offer to a specific area.

The ability to distribute, install and service dishes and set-top boxes(otherwise known as customer premises equipment, or CPE), combined with access to relevant technology and manufacturing capabilities. Subscriber management: Ability to acquire and deactivate subscribers,bill and collect from them, activate pay-per-view movies and perform customer service. Financing: The provision of credit to customer seeking to buy or lease CPE. Government relation: Ability to navigate government procedures and regulations to obtain permits and so on.

So diverse are these requirements,that no existing player in any market will be able to fulfill all of them on its own. This, the industry will be populated by consortia and it is unlikely that more than one or two DTH consortia will be able to achieve break-even. Exploit Bottlenecks: In this market,content and transponder capacity are scarce and controlled by a few players. With content, access to unique local language material is critical. In a market like India,all a DTH player may need to do is repackage existing channels that are not universally available.

In sports, some players have won an advantage through long-term rights purchases. Broadcasting rights to cricket in India, for example,belongs to ESPN for the next five years. It also controls the right to football for West Bengal(the most popular league) for ten years. The second obvious bottleneck is in transponder capacity. A modest DTH offering is likely to require a minimum of 10 to 15 transponders-almost a dedicated satellite. The number of satellite that can broadcast to a particular region is limited by physics. Move First: In the DTH industry, a credible and well managed first-mover service has a tremendous advantage over others.

In India, a first mover may effectively shut out competition. Exploit Market Niche: In some markets, the segment of consumers who desire highly specific content may be large enough to form the core subscribership of a DTH service. An example of this could be again cricket in our country. Any DTH consortium must decide how it will deal with a number of strategic choices that will determine its success: Build an appropriate content offer: This is the single most crucial choice a DTH company will make. In a remote town with no access to television, for example,even a DTH bouquet of just two channels might seem attractive.

Transponder costs are also a factor in an appropriate content offer. It is the bouquet size that determine how many transponders are needed,creating a tradeoff between the cost of transponders and the richness of the offering. Leverage killer content: A subscription service could use its rights more effectively. It might secure the exclusive right to broadcast a sporting event live, even if it is shown on free TV later. Offer superior services: Cable companies are frequently criticized for installation delays, billing errors and surly staff and the nature of cable plant makes signals prone to disruption.

Staff and customer service issues relating to CPE installation and maintenance may yield a fine of differentiation above and beyond picture quality.  Another strategic choice consortia must make is which markets to make bets in. A few rules of the thumb are: Number of TV households: the number of TV households and its rate of growth determines how easy it will be to break even and how quickly, if at all, a developing market will become attractive. TV advertising and its growth: Ad revenue are also available to a DTH service provider, so the existence of a robust or growing ad market is important.

Technical barriers to access TV: Even if DTH offers are likely to be thin on the ground,it is possible for a company to own a piece of the chain that links a service to subscribers. Until recently, Sky had a monopoly on the UK encryption standard, Videocrypt and could effectively dictate the terms of DTH competition, This was because it had a large installed base of set-top boxes using this standard. Ownership of key content: The availability of sports and film rights is a crucial determinant of market attractiveness.

In India, such rights are divided among many separate players. In such a case, no rights owner is likely to be strong enough to play kingmaker. Position in a market: The most important asset is arguably an ability to play a unique role in the DTH value chain. This advantage may reside in business that have little or no obvious connection with DTH. A company that has pioneered a business offering credit for consumer durables in a developing country, for instance, might be well placed to supply finance to purchasers of CPE.

Despite the global financial meltdown, the future of DTH industry in India has numerous opportunities. A 20 per cent annual growth is being witnessed in the DTH sector and there is still scope for more. Int he current context of the global financial meltdown, the Direct to Home (DTH) industry in India is in the throes of multifarious challenges and opportunities. The ‘big game’ is all about shaping up grandiose plans to master the winning rules to garner as much portion of the Indian DTH pie as possible by a handful of players.

Since the DTH space denotes ‘big value’, akin to the space occupied by television  and telephony, inter-firm rivalries have thrown up price wars, discount schemes, procurement of transponders, ambitious targets for improving the subscription base, popular bouquet of channels, set top boxes with superior quality of videos, improving content, etc as a desperate means to entice the Indian viewer. A neat 20 per cent annual growth is being witnessed in the DTH sector in India with over 8. million households having digital pay tv According to Harsh Bijoor, a brand consultant, “Since Dish TV, the biggest market player on the Indian soil, has not scraped even five per cent of the pie, there is plenty left for other players to eat. ” In the early 2008, five major players, Zee’s Dish TV, Tata Sky, Reliance ADAG, Sun Direct and Bharti Telemedia formed an umbrella body – DTH Operators Association of India (DOAI). The Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of India in its ‘2008 Pay TV Piracy Survey’ have predicted that the Grey TV market of around USD 1. billion will gradually be taken over by the legal DTH industry.

Marcel Fenez, chairman CASBAA, said, “Despite the global sinking of economies, the Asia Pacific market is healthy and the decline in growth will not derail the industry. With 1. 7 million digital cable subscriptions, the digital pay-TV market is finally taking off and this degree of penetration represents a tipping point for our industry in Asia. ” Starting with a million strong subscriber base in August 2006, Tata Sky, a DTH joint-venture Company between Star (owned by Rupert Murdoch) and the Tata Group, now has more than 2. million connections and the forecast for 2012 is that it will further increase to eight million. The Indian DTH growth scenario bodes well for the advertising industry as well with over Rs 30-40 crores being earmarked by these companies annually for advertising revenues. While Tata Sky has roped in Amir Khan and Gul Panag for its promotion, endorses for the Dish TV. MD and CEO of Tata Sky, Vikram Kaushik, recently confirmed in an interview that the company estimates were standing at Rs 40 billion for its final funding requirement as ‘competitive entries’, ‘explosive growth in volume’ and customer acquisition have jacked up the costs.

Tata Sky recently launched the NDS-developed XTV personal video recorder (PVR) that enables the customers to watch a particular TV show while recording another. It is being hailed a ‘major introduction’ in the Indian DTH market. Within a few days of its launch 2, 500 PVRs, priced at Rs 8, 999, were sold as claimed by the Tata Sky MD, Kaushik. This places Tata Sky among the top 19 ‘pay-TV operators’ around the world with NDS solutions being a unique introduction to facilitate flexibility of PVR to their subscribers.

A deal along similar lines was announced by Bharti Airtel, in the provision of DTH services, dependent on NDS for its conditional access. N Arjun, executive director Bharti Telemedia, expressed enthusiasm about the company’s expansion plans by disclosing that his company looked forward to providing the best of home entertainment services via Airtel digital TV in terms of latest technology and exciting content. “Since DTH is the future of home entertainment, with the support of our technology partner NDS, we will render superior, state-of-the-art services to our DTH service customers”, he said.

Sun Direct, which entered the DTH sector as a discounted brand in opposition to Tata Sky, notched at a 30 per cent premium and supposedly mopped up over a million subscribers within a short time p. Tata Sky, though placed at a launch-premium of Rs 1,000, is open to segmentations. A demand of a tax holiday of five years from the government has been mooted by the DOAI that should incentivise the DTH industry as its market has reportedly surpassed the Japanese one in the last five years.

The Indian DTH industry players look forward to a seven times multiplication of its market, about 40 million subscribers by 2015, from a total of 165 million pay TV households. Analysis Since 1959, when Indian television was first launched and the state owned Doordarshan aired just two channels in black and white as recently as 1991; the world of entertainment has made rapid and unusual strides. The turning points were the 1982 Asian Games when colour television was introduced and the 1991 liberalisation and deregulation that ushered in the era of foreign investments and foreign channels that egged the domestic players to jump into the foray.

From large metros, satellite TV moved to smaller towns that spurred the sale of TV sets and brought about an upgradation from black and white television viewing to the colour one. With time, more and more changes took place and finally the DTH services arrived. DTH operations in India could be enhanced if the dearth of satellite capacity is removed by increasing the number of available Ku-band transponders that at present is 12 on Insat 4A, which in turn would mean more channels for viewing.

Tax burdens on DTH are another area of complaint for operators. Around 40 per cent of revenues are siphoned off to pay taxes and license fee and another 12 per cent for services imposed by the Central government. Apart from this, there are entertainment taxes that differ from state to state. Cable TV operators also give a stiff level of competition to the DTH sector by suppressing their prices artificially by way of under-declarations. This has pressurised the DTH operators to cut their profits to the extent of making them unviable. At present, there are 80 million TV households in India, of which over seven million are DTH ones. Since the penetration is just under nine per cent, there is much room for a massive growth rate”, according to the Bharti Airtel’s head of brand and media, Chandrashekhar Balakrishnan. “This is what the company is focusing on, to enhance its subscription base to 20 per cent,” he added. Industry analyst Siva Sundaram said that India will be the leading power in Asia by 2010 in the field of cable market and by 2015; it will be the most profitable in the area of pay TV market.

Interestingly, the rural rich were the first to positively respond to the advent of DTH industry and those in the remote areas with no or unreliable access to the cable services will be tapped in by the DTH players. The ‘Indian Readership Survey 2008 R2’ findings have shown that the Dish TV is the largest player with over 3. 1 million subscribers, followed by DD Direct, Tata Sky and Sun Direct, which has a predominance in the southern zone. The zone wise analysis puts the western zone with 2. 24 million topping he subscriber base charts and the North, South and East following the lead. While the ‘big game’ hots up between the DTH service providers, the regular big Indian couch potatoes may keep surfing the channels and choosing from the burgeoning options.

Conclusion

A few things are assured in the DTH industry even in the face of paradigm shifts. First, the value of transponders is likely to fall as compression allows more and more content to go through the same satellite, and as more satellite are launched. Second, as bandwidth explodes, so will demand for content.

Obscure sports and the like will become more valuable;conversely, much of the content that is currently valuable will face downward pricing pressure. Niche content providers will emerge. The industry is likely to be characterized first by a period of fragmentation and then by an increasing concentration of global consortia as unprofitable participants fold. What is clearer than ever is that satellite TV is here to stay and will play role in bringing television to mass around the world. The objective of the research is to find the consumer’s behavior and perception in buying the DTH services in the Indian market.

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Buying Behavior, Perception in Indian Dth Industry. (2018, Feb 14). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/buying-behavior-perception-in-indian-dth-industry/

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