|
MUMBAI:
Television ratings agency Tam is rolling out weekly digital
TV viewing data from today, filling a gap in the industry
that is expected to have a combine of nine million direct-to-home
(DTH) and digital cable TV subscribers by 2008-end.
Broadcasters,
particularly in the niche genres, will be able to monetise
their upscale viewers better with the data drawn from a larger
panel of a growing digital universe. Television channels who
do not find prime space on analogue cable also stand to benefit,
as preliminary data from Tam shows that their viewership is
higher in digital platforms than what is being captured from
the rating system's regular format.
"With
digital riding high in many markets across India, measuring
and reporting that data at a national level to the industry
was the immediate task at hand. After careful study and quality
check processes, starting this week, we will now start delivering
the digital viewing data along with the regular weekly data.
The last two years of measuring and studying digital TV viewing
has been an interesting learning curve. Ever since we deployed
TVMS Digital Peoplemeter (in Tam elite panel) and started
generating digital TV viewing data from January 2007 onwards,
some very interesting viewing differences started emerging,"
said Tam Media Research senior VP Pradeep Hejmadi.
The
digital penetration in the Cas (conditional access system)
belt is steadily rising. Out of the 1.63 million cable and
satellite (C&S) homes in the Cas region, 38 per cent (640000)
had moved to digital by 2007-end. In February of last year,
29 per cent (475000) of the Cas homes had stayed digital.
"Mumbai
with 50 per cent has the highest digital penetration. The
digital viewer also watches more channels and spends 20 per
cent more time (186 minutes per day) than the analogue counterpart.
Digitalisation is also leading to greater fragmentation as
80 per cent TV viewing is coming from 10 per cent more channels,"
said Tam Media Research CEO LV Krishnan.
Digitalisation,
however, has to address three issues. "The individual
or bouquet of pay channels pricing was not received well by
audiences. The value added services, such as video-on-demand
and interactivity, weren’t used frequently due to lack
of education. The quickness in service is also a crying need,"
said Krishnan.
Tam
is working on the STB return path data technology and hopes
to launch it first in Mumbai. The sample size will be 10,000.
DTH
scores over digital cable
Early
Tam findings show that DTH is growing more rapidly than digital
cable. While digital cable has deployed 1.3 million set-top
boxes (till August 2007), DTH has jumped to 6.5 million subscribers
(from 2.3 million in April 2006).
In
urban India, DTH and digital cable have individually mopped
up 0.9 million subscribers. But in the rural belt, DTH has
a higher share with 5.6 million subscribers. Digital cable,
on the other hand, has 0.4 million subscribers.
"We
are seeing a trend where in rural India terrestrial homes
are moving on to DTH. In urban areas, cable has given away
to DTH," said Hejmadi.
DTH
has grown across urban and rural markets while digital cable
is seeing upsurge mainly in the Cas areas.
"Four states account for 52 per cent of the DTH homes.
In Maharshtra, DTH and digital cable have grown. But in Gujarat,
cable is taken over by DTH. Another trend is that while many
cable STB homes had moved to DTH, the reverse has not been
true," Hejmadi said.
Digitalisation
to drive growth
The
stakeholders across the value chain see huge growth potential
in digitalisation. "Digital measurement will enable us
to monetise better. It will expand the business for broadcasters
and they will be in a position to pay more for content,"
said INX Media chairman Peter Mukerjea.
Speaking
at a panel discussion on "Conquering the digital frontier,"
Mukerjea said digitalisation would make it possible for niche
English channels to build business models around digital platforms.
Zee's
international business head Bharat Ranga emphasised on the
need to up the subscription and advertising pricing. "There
are lessons to be learnt from abroad. The players here have
to be clear about which channels are going to be free and
which pay," he said while speaking at Blink, Tam's annual
educative initiative.
Star
India’s Paritosh Joshi warned that it is premature to
draw a cause and effect at this stage based on numbers. Te
industry has painted itself into a corner on the pricing issue,
he added.
Digicable
Network (India) MD and CEO Jagjit Singh Kohli felt it would
be premature to compare DTH with digital cable at this stage.
"There are 5000 headends in the country and the digital
revolution has just begun,” he said.
Hathway
Cable & Datacom MD and CEO K Jayaraman noted that the
advent of DTH would add to consolidation in the cable sector.
"The MSOs are not just buying analogue operators but
are interested in digitalising the entire business. Even in
non Cas areas, the progressive MSOs are pushing STBs at just
Rs 500."
Private
equity funds are getting attracted to the cable sector because
of digitalisation. "The MSOs have received an investment
of $400 -$500 million in form of private equity and debt.
Digitalisation is the obvious attraction for them," said
Jayaraman.
|
