We have all seen the Tata Sky plus TV Spot, featuring Aamir Khan and Gul Panag. Tata Sky promises to end the constant fights between husbands and wives over the remote. With Tata Sky plus which is a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) you can Pause a live cricket match, while you answer the phone. Record your favourite action movie, while you let your wife watch her daily soap. Rewind the Prime Minister’s speech and listen to it all over again. Get the power to pause, record and rewind live television. Tata Sky Plus is essentially a premium set-top box with a personal video recorder that allows you to record up to 45 hours of live TV.
But they have not mentioned to you the most important and the “Killer App” of Tata Sky Plus, which is the ability to skip ads.
In markets like the US, the penetration of the DVR is very high. More than 60 percent of people owning a digital set up box, own a DVR and products like TiVO and all these people are watching recorded programs and have their finger on one button which is the ‘Skip’. It is predicted that in the US there will be almost 60 million DVR homes. Which means millions of viewers are already watching recorded shows and skipping ads.
The Indian television industry is largely dependent on advertising revenues and sees very little revenue flowing from cable subscriptions due to the unorganized nature of the cable TV industry in India. However, with products like Tata Sky Plus, the viewers who are sick of watching far too many ads during their favorite shows will be using the Ad Skip button. India is estimated to have a large base, almost 20-30 million digital television users in the next 5 years and it is a safe bet to take that over 50 percent of them will be using some kind of a DVR product. Currently one can buy a DVR for as low as INR 8000 and pay a monthly subscription of Rs 100. However, this is expected to go down more in the future. The bulk of the upper middle class and middle class, people who are the main targets for advertisers will all be using the features.
I have been personally using the Windows Media Center for over three years. The Windows Media Center also allows you to watch TV, record shows and ever since then me and my family only watch recorded TV (of course by skipping all the ads). The only live programs we watch are news and sports events. Even my 4 year old son hates watching his cartoons with Ads and prefers watching recorded versions of Ben 10 and Tom and Jerry while he skips all the booring ads! However I have to admit that setting up the Windows Media Center to work in India is a nightmare only only a Geek like me was successful is using it. Tata Sky Plus makes this truly plug and play.
One thing is clear TV advertisers will be HIT and HIT big time with the SKIP button. Well, the good news really in all these is for alternative advertising mediums like radio, the Internet, mobile, etc. which has not been as developed as advertisers seem to mindlessly spend all their money on TV advertising knowing that the viewers have no other choice but to watch it. But it’s all set to change and advertisers will soon discover that their ads are being skipped and they will be forced to look at other mediums to reach their message to their potential customers.
With Tata Sky Plus all viewers are able to get rid of one important factor – Time Slot. Tata Sky Plus can help draw more audience considering the fact that viewers would be watching the program, doesn’t matter what happens.
Also, very soon, with IPTV being a reality in India, applications like the network DVR where programs are recorded at the service providers data center and streamed to the user live, will again set up a new challenge for the advertisers. Till now you were the passive viewer but very soon you will have all the controls!
Tata Sky Plus is the best thing which has happened to the Indian Television viewer and is also the advertisers worst nightmare coming true...will be interesting to see how the market adapts to this Change.
For now I am going to watch the recorded version of Prison Break on my Windows Media Center.
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Comments (28)
Makes me more happy! We should run market education program on TiVO and tell people to use more and open the gates of online advertising in India.
It’s better late than never! This is certainly a breakthrough in the Indian television industry and it was to happen sooner or later.
Tata Sky Plus is just the beginning. Other Digital TV service providers, including Airtel and Reliance will follow the footsteps.
Well, finally TATA Sky comes out of the slumber to relieve the viewers and to end the channels’ “see as we show you” monopoly. Thanks a lot as it’ll come out to be a great relief for the viewers and a time saver for those who can’t afford to see their favorite channels at the right time because of some work or the other.
Cheers for ad-free TV!! It truly is a great development.
I think it will be some time before ad companies can fully realize the extent of the loss from people not watching ads, as even ”recorded” ads will appear as ads ”watched”.
It seems to have very interesting features like pause, record & rewind. Definitely looks and sounds interesting. You people must be enjoying this...guess we have to wait for some time till we get these kind of products here.
Tata Sky plus lives upto my expectation & as an actual user, I feel its worth your money. With their STB, you feel completely in control. Although these sentiments look very biased but its true. Their pause,rewind feature has the same feeling of control/power experienced while watching a a DVD at home. Record function is just what my family wanted for recording their shows whenever they are gonna miss them. Yeah these features may not be used every time you sit to watch television, but you realize its value only when you happen to use it. Again its a matter of what value you perceive in the product, and in my opinion those who are passionate about tech products, will surely like what Tata Sky plus has to offer.
I think tatasky plus is a great product , and its surprising that tatasky made it available in India at so early stage of DTH growth. Its not still available in such a simple format in many developed countries around the world.
Also price offered is very low and mouth washing. I wanted to get these features and all alternative hardware was costing nothing less then 20k and was doing half what tatasky plus offer.
The technology like these have really taken off the control from the hands of TV channel operators who are cashing in on by forcing the viewers to watch whatever crap they want to in middle of a program. i don’t give a damn about the advertising industry weather they go in loss or in profit but most importantly i am concerned about more annoying ways that are about to be introduced by the ever “innovative” brains of advertising industry.
Meanwhile they can advertise here -
Everyone around was raving about Pause ,rewind and record features of the revolutionary product “Tata Sky plus” So I upgraded my normal Tata Sky connection…..the decision has been mind blowingly correct!
These features are quite useful considering most of the times there are family fights for watching soaps (at least in my house). Tatasky always come up with interesting & useful features.
soon there will also be a major change in the concept of TRP..
with no Prime time left with a DVR...
As rightly said, advertisers need to use other modes for advertising. The most effective being mobile advertising as it is the next best entertainer after television. Nevertheless the screen would be smaller :-)
cool infact there will be a change in the way TRPs for TV are calculated as
these will be a shift in the prime time
As mentioned in the article itself, the pause, skip applications are already in use. However, Tata Sky Plus will now make sure that the technology reaches the homes of the common Indian man.
Undoubtedly, this would be a boon for all those who love watching TV and don’t really want to have popcorn in ad breaks. Great news for the couch potatoes like me but not so good for the advertising industry.
”Isko Laga Daala to life Jhinga La La”
Its really a revolutionary product in the Indian market. Best part is that we can skip the ads and even catch up with the shows that we miss when not at home.
I have been using it for few days... and really best feature is that you can skip ads... No more you need to waste your time watching on-your-face-unasked advertisements
Advertisers will need to change their plans, as they for sure will loose the medium of Television within few years.
This sounds great!!! Now I won’t have to fight with my wife for the remote. Lollllzzzzzz! Now there is Tata sky recorder and Skip button to relieve the tension off and to help me see my favorite channels, what if I do it after my wife finishes her favorite programs.
Of course, the advertisers will be aiming Internet but I think they are realizing that mobile is the Internet on steroids. Moreover, mobile is a personal medium, and it’s portable. So automatically advertising is going to shift from TV to mobile and Internet, but now the pace will be a bit faster.
Imagine a scenario when there are no advertisements.
How will the world be introduced to new products coming in the market? How consumers will change their lives for the better? It’s wrong to say that people don’t watch advertisements. People still love watching ads. They click on ads. They buy after being influenced by ads. That’s how the industries are growing. Of course, we cannot neglect the word of mouth too here, which now-a-days plays a major role. Advertising is social interaction. Neglect it. No problem. But, you’ll come back for sure. We can’t survive without ads. What say?
it’s an old thing here and majority of users in US do it for a long time... what irks me is only 45 minutes of recording...its too short you know! it won’t be a big benefit if you want to record 2-3 favorite operas while at your office or on beach. If they can do the recording part with the sever, that would be great. Yes, it does demand a big initial investment but it’ll reduce the cost of their set top box. it will come out to be a win win situation for both.
There will be new Ad forms:
Example:
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2008/november12/video-111208.html
The ads business still has a long way to go. With event of intelligent data, it gives advertisers amazing opportunity to reach the right viewers.
Most people hate ads, as the current Ads system (more specifically television) holds no contextual meaning.
Going into the future in a time precious, information overloaded world -
Optimized search, contextually relevant information and meaningful ads will hold the key to progress.
What do I mean by contextually relevant? When you choose to go and watch a movie in a theater, almost everyone hate the ”Nirma” Ads, but majority still enjoy the previews of the upcoming movies (these are nothing but Ads, but in this case relevant to the viewer at that given time).
Devoid of context, barring exceptions, most of the TV ads in India cause irritations to the viewers, Now they have a choice to skip unwanted ads. But advertising has to stay in one form or the other. Advertising not only help in selling a product but also educate consumers about the new products. The question is of medium as the guru of Mass Communication Marshal McLuhan said at least two decades ago that the medium is message.
Just for information.. Every DTH provider in India is planning to role out such service..
http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=47912&tp=on
It is just that Tata Sky took it first
Finally no fights with my wife - its the perfect ad put up by Tata. I don’t think advertising industry is even bothered by this technology because by now they might have thought of showing ads as we see them during a live match with the screen squeezing a bit and ad appearing on the sidebar. skipping that would mean skipping some part of your program. I think this is better than the previous method of showing ad as we knew that the program is not going to resume before 3-5 minutes and we skipped the channel for a while. and also we won’t hear the popular line from the anchor - Don’t touch that remote or Don’t go away.
thanks broo
ı liket this final
it was wonderful post
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Awesome blog. I enjoyed reading your articles. This is truly a great read for me. I have bookmarked it and I am looking forward to read new articles. Keep up the good work!