| 7827 has been around for two years, but is going to
be leveraged like nothing seen before in the next two weeks. Dutta
says the decision to give 7827 a focus in terms of making a separate
division for it was taken towards the beginning of the year, when
it was realised that it would work. An internal project team worked
on the concept for India mid 2003, with representations from Star
management teams in different markets China, India, Taiwan and the
Middle East, of which Sumo Dutta was a part, and where it was decided
that SMS was going to have a huge business potential. A couple of
months ago, says Sumo, he was given the charge of a separate division
to set up to look into this business.
Star Wireless, as it is being termed, will work totally on and
feed off television and radio, because the content and the ability
to talk to the masses is available only through these media, which
can keep reinforcing the message. There will be a large amount of
non Star content that Star Wireless will provide, says Dutta
The other content offered could be linked to best deals, astrology,
traffic, medical emergencies, logo downloads, wallpapers, mobile
phone gaming... the list is endless.
Star Wireless will operate on a revenue share basis with cell operators
in the country, all of whom have been tied in, except for BSNL,
with whom talks are in progress and with Reliance for the CDMA front.
"We are helping further their business," he points out,
by "developing the culture of SMSing and driving mass SMSing."
Importantly, Star has the wherewithal to educate the masses about
how to SMS via the airwaves, as well as push the services.
The positioning of the revamped version of 7827 will be that it
is the short code of choice for the masses, and the communication
in the campaign currently being worked on is that '7827 has arrived.'
The initial set of services will focus on the exclusive content
that Star has. "You can interact with our shows on TV and radio,
play games, contests, which in itself is a big offering," says
Dutta.
The Star Wireless team will comprise just a dozen key people, because
a lot of the business, as Dutta says, will be done on alliances
with multiple partners.
The biggest investment apart from that in infrastructure and people
will be in airtime, to educate the masses about the use of 7827,
a process that will go on for a few months initially.
Talking about the growth of the division, Dutta says Star plans
to target a large subset of the 200 million TV viewers who happen
to be mobile phone owners. In the next six months, at least 30 per
cent of the market will be cornered by 7827, and by the end of the
July fiscal next year, 50 per cent of the market.
Star Wireless will not intervene with programming in any way, although
Sumo says internationally the business does help ratings go up.
It will help in brand recall, increase interactivity and involvement.
It will move towards a monthly subscription parameter, but right
now, Star is focusing on developing mass usage of services that
are offered, to check which are feasible and then put the more used
ones into a package, says Dutta.
|
