With the Indian Premier league (IPl) season on full swing, country’s one of the largest direct to home (DTH) company, Tata Sky has come out with an innovative product to cater to the new on- the go generation. Tata Sky has now made it possible for its customers to be able to watch television anywhere from his smart phones or tablets.
The company has launched one of its kinds, free to download application for both I- phone users and android phones which would enable Tata Sky customers to watch all the channels they have on the television (TV) sets, on their devices at a very nominal price.
While explaining the idea behind this move to expand its services to portable devices, Tata Sky’s Chief Operating Officer, Vikram Mehra said, “This April to July are the hottest seasons for all sports lovers as after the on-going IPl ends, FIFA World Cup would begin. And since all these events are being held in different time zones, TV on devices would give freedom to customers to watch what they want, where ever they want.”
Apart from the mobile TV, Tata Sky has also actively urging customers to switch to high definition services. When asked about the mobile application, Mehra said, “All the existing customers of Tata Sky just have to download the free application and pay a flat fee of Rs 60 to activate services on their device.”
Further expanding their reach, Tata Sky also plans to launch services on laptops. “We will be launching an application for laptop users which will enable them to use their Tata Sky connections on their computers,” Mehra added.
As an incentive to attract customers and make them try the services on devices, Tata Sky has announced free services for a month. “We are trying to give a sample offer to our customers so that they understand and test the services. Once this free month is over, we would be able to tell how many customers opt for our services on their devices. As of now, over a million people have already downloaded the application,” Mehra responded when asked what kind of response they are expecting for the customers.
The services will not just be limited to sport channels and the customers would be free to watch every channel they have on their TVs and also they don’t have to manage separate bills for TV and devices, Mehra said.
As far as profitability of the whole mobile services is concerned, Tata Sky is quite confident that advertising revenues would soon start to pick for the segment. They are certain that the advertising revenues too will move from just TV to other mediums that consumers would consume.
As the area to watching TV is changing, Tata Sky’s mobile services are expected to shrink the screens of their customers to the size of their pockets. Also it would help provide customized services from person to person.