TRAI Issues DTH Portability Framework, Asks Operators To Be More Transparent

 
Sudhir Gupta, Secretary in TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has issued a framework for Direct to Home (DTH) operators in India, which would bring cheers to TV viewers across the country. This framework is regarding DTH portability which will make it easier for consumers to switch operators without any hassles.

This is for the first time that such a directive has been issued with clear guidelines.

The Tariff Order (TO) which has been named “Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services (Seventh) (Direct to Home Services) Tariff Order, 2015 (2 of 2015)” was issued to prescribe an official framework for “commercial interoperability of Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) offered by Direct to Home (DTH) operators to their subscribers.”

Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) is the technical name for set-up boxes which consumers need to install in order to access DTH services. Normally, in case a consumer decides to switch operators, he needs to purchase a new set-up box every time, and needs to pay the installation charges, deposit amount and all other service charges.

TRAI observed the hassles and expenses faced by the end user during such changes, and have made efforts to address each of these issues.
Major pointers as shared in this framework declaration by TRAI:

    DTH Operators are now mandated to formulate a purchase scheme of used set-up boxes, which should be introduced as a standard scheme for all consumers, for all types of set-up boxes
    Operators have been asked to create a rent based system for set-up boxes as well, wherein a refundable security deposit, installation and activation fees is charged one-time.
    From now on, all DTH operators are mandated to offer free maintenance and repairs of set-up boxes for a period of three years. In case a technician is required to visit the premises, then a charge of not more than Rs 250 shall be levied.
    Operators have been mandated to become more transparent regarding installation and activation. Rs 450 has been mandated as the maximum charge for these activities
    If the consumer decides to switch operators, then the company needs to buy back the set-up box after deducting the maintenance charges and in case of rent based scheme, the security deposit needs to be returned
    A collection center has to be created by every DTH operator for easy returns

As of now, there are 73 million DTH users in India, which are served by 7 major operators:

Dish TV; DD Free Dish; Airtel digital TV; Tata Sky; Videocon d2h; Reliance Digital TV; Sun Direct

DTH portability was being talked about since 2009, when TRAI muted the possibility of portability option for consumers, as they are stuck after choosing one. Switching to a different operator is time consuming, expensive affair, and TRAI realized these facts finally.

Certainly it’s a welcome step from TRAI, and we congratulate them for issuing the guidelines for easy DTH Portability.

Resource :- http://trak.in/tags/business/2015/04/03/dth-portability-framework-announced/

DAS Phase III drives STB demand in Q3 2015; India accounts for 97% shipments

MUMBAI: The set-top-box (STB) market in the SAARC region has registered record growth in third quarter of 2015, as rapid digitisation in the Phase III cities of Digital Addressable Systems (DAS) in India is driving the demand for STBs.

With pay-TV industry in all major SAARC countries moving toward digitisation - mandatory or voluntary - STBs of all kind from SD to HDTV and hybrid boxes are witnessing steady and robust growth.

According to new research report from Dataxis, “The STB Market in SAARC countries (Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka)-Q32015,” STB shipments to SAARC countries have witnessed 73 per cent quarter-on-quarter growth during the Q3 2015. In the quarter under consideration, 7.34 million STBs were shipped in the SAARC region with an estimated value of $176 million.

India leads the STB shipments for the period, accounting for about 97 per cent of the total shipments to the SAARC region in the September ended quarter of 2015, according to Dataxis.

Skyworth tops the STB shipments to SAARC in the Q3 2015. The company reportedly has plans to locally manufacture STBs for the Indian market.

Local manufacturing in India, which accounted for just five per cent of total STBs sold during the first and second phase of seeding, is showing steady growth in the third phase. Dataxis estimates that the sale of made-in-India STBs will witness growth up to 15 per cent in the fourth phase of digitisation.

“Local STB manufacturing in India has increased almost fourfold in the third quarter of 2015, and this is in line with our expectations. As the deadline for the third phase digitisation nears, there is high demand for STBs from the MSOs and most of the independent and small size operators are coming forward to partner with indigenous brands,” said Dataxis media analyst Sreeja VN.

The Indian government was also proactive during the period by promoting the make in India campaign in the sector. The decisions by three major DTH players namely Airtel Digital TV, Dish DTH and Videocon D2H to opt for indigenous brands have also boosted the Indian STB industry.

Another notable trend, according to the Dataxis Research, is the increase in demand for High-Definition (HD) and Ultra HD STBs in the region. Dataxis’s analysis of STB shipment for the Q2 2015 and Q3 2015, depicts steady growth in the volume of HD STBs shipped to India. The rise in the number of HD and UHD STBs has also contributed to a rise in the average selling price of STBs to the country.

The key STB vendors for the quarter are Technicolor, Skyworth, Changhong, Huawei and Coship (international vendors), and Mybox, One-eIGHT technologies, Trend Electronics, Ridsys, and Willet Communications (domestic vendors).

Resource :-http://www.indiantelevision.com/technology/hardware/set-top-boxes/das-phase-iii-drives-stb-demand-in-q3-2015-india-accounts-for-97-shipments-151104 

Shemaroo launches Friday night movie premiere service Miniplex on Airtel Digital TV

Bollywood content aggregation company Shemaroo has tied up with Airtel Digital TV to launch a movie premiere service called Miniplex. The service, which is an ad-free subscription for Airtel Digital TV customers, premieres one movie every Friday and also showcases recent movie releases.

Shemaroo also mentioned that it plans to launch Miniplex across cable and online in a phased manner in the future. Customers have two options for the subscription; Rs 60 per month or Rs 3 per day. The movies on the service will be scheduled at fixed timings throughout the day.

Other notable partnerships with content providers and DTH operators include Hungama’s tie up with DishTV in August to launch a music service called Music Active.

It’s also worth noting that Eros International, Shermaroo’s rival in the digital space, signed a deal with Airtel to offer the movie and video content from Eros Now and other partners on Airtel’s Wynk application.

VOD platform DishFlix

Earlier in August, Dish TV launched a new video-on-demand (VOD) service called DishFlix which would allow users to watch ad-free movies. The service does not require an Internet connection and movies would be beamed to DishTV’s set top boxes via satellite. Customers would have to buy separate DishFlix hardware for Rs 5,990, and this service would have a monthly subscription of Rs 100 for content. DishFlix box comes preloaded with 50 movies. Out of these, 15 movies would be refreshed every month on FIFO (First in First Out) basis so that the viewable movie library is always updated.

Other Shemaroo deals

– In August, video streaming application HOOQ added over 1,000 Shemaroo video titles on its platform. Shemaroo will provide movies across genres and languages and will include films, TV shows and fitness videos.

– In July, Shemaroo signed a deal with Shah Rukh Khan and Gauri Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment to distribute a dozen Shah Rukh Khan films library on the TV platform.

– Shemaroo entered into a distribution agreement with Magna Publishing Company to distribute its content over digital channels and mobile channels.

– Bringing Playboy content to India: Shemaroo tied up with net mobile AG to distribute content from Playboy Enterprises Inc in south Asian countries which include India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh. It would be content “that adhered to the Indian regulatory framework”. Note that Playboy, the magazine, is banned in India.

– Partnered with the music distribution platform The Orchard, to distribute and market its music catalogue on iTunes in the Middle East & North Africa region. The partnership allowed The Orchard to distribute Shemaroo’s music catalogue on over 100 digital platforms, including Spotify, iTunes, Rhapsody, Virgin, eMusic, FR, Amazon Digital Services Inc, rDio, MediaNet, and xBox Music among others.

Resource :-http://www.medianama.com/2015/11/223-shemaroo-miniplex-airtel-digital-tv/

Tata Sky Launches New Set-Top Box Along With Wi-Fi

Tata Sky is a direct broadcast satellite television provider in India, which uses MPEG-4 digital compression technology and transmission done through INSAT 4A and GSAT-10 satellite. This Tata sky launched a new set-top box (STB) on September 2 which will have recording ability and will come with a Wi-Fi dongle. Using this new set top box consumers enjoy recorded content on smartphones and tablets without consuming internet data. The announcement assumes significance as this is a first of its kind technology in India.

Tata Sky, which was launched in 2006 as a joint venture between Tata Group and 21st Century Fox, currently has 14.5 million connections out of the estimated market opportunity of 50 million connections. The new Tata sky STB has storage capacity of 500 GB and it comes with a price Rs 9,300. This product aimed at customers in the metro and Tier-I cities.

The new STB empowers the subscriber to transfer their recorded television content from the set top box to their smartphones or tablets. The chief commercial officer of Tata Sky, Pallavi Puri said, “We expect to see a fair share of growth as we have seen with our other products”.

Resource :-http://timesofkabul.com/720/tata-sky-launches-new-set-top-box-along-with-wi-fi/

Dish TV sinks 4% as Tata Sky's new scheme may hurt ARPUs

According to the brokerage, the move by Tata Sky may put further pressure on ARPUs as subscribers may activate their connections only when they have content to watch, reducing operating leverage for the DTH providers, while their costs will not change despite a consumer opting to use the service for only part of the month.

Moneycontrol Bureau Shares of Dish TV lost 4 percent intraday on Thursday. Goldman Sachs advises to sell it stating rival Tata Sky's recently launched scheme may hurt Dish TV's average revenue per users (ARPUs).


 Tata Sky has recently launched a daily recharge coupon for its direct-to-home (DTH) subscribers which allows users to recharge for Rs 8 (up to Rs 100) for a single day access. According to the brokerage, the move by Tata Sky may put further pressure on ARPUs as subscribers may activate their connections only when they have content to watch, reducing operating leverage for the DTH providers, while their costs will not change despite a consumer opting to use the service for only part of the month. Goldman Sachs believes this pricing will have two implications over the medium term for Dish TV through higher competition in semi-urban and rural areas as traditionally urban operators, such as Tata Sky, make a more concerted rural push and potential dilution in ARPU for the existing operators, if they were to match the offers made by Tata Sky.


 "Tata Sky is offering this scheme to make a greater push into Phase 3 & Phase 4 markets, where the deadline for compulsory digitisation is coming up in Dec 2015 and Dec 2016, respectively. Traditionally, Tata Sky has a lower share in these markets as compared with other DTH competitors, such as Dish TV. Tata Sky is promoting this scheme with regular advertising during the ongoing IPL season 8, which tends to be a high viewership broadcast," it says in a report. At 13:35 hrs Dish TV India was quoting at Rs 79.90, down Rs 3.50, or 4.20 percent on the BSE.


Resource :-http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/buzzing-stocks/dish-tv-sinks-4-as-tata-skys-new-scheme-may-hurt-arpus_1359328.html

DTH payment system provider BuySmart completes a Decade

MUMBAI: Starting their operations in 2005, the Indo-Israeli company began with Tata Sky, Videocon D2H and Sun DTH as their earliest clients and taking their service offering across India through an electronic distribution system. Over the next few years, the company strengthened its digital distribution on a pan India presence and also built a payment super highway with a scalable and robust technology that supports their B2B2C business model.

EPRS BuySmart has, since then, expanded into offering a basket of products through their strong network of more 2.5 lakh retail outlets in more than 35,000 towns in India. As their technology works in the absence of strong Internet infrastructure also, the company has been able to reach Tier III/IV towns and villages in India, and currently, the company counts more than 300,000+ transactions/day on their platform. With the earlier focus on telecom & DTH, the company has now expanded into financial, logistics, utility payment and e-commerce segments of business with association with Tata Sky, Airtel, ICICI Bank, RBL, Dish TV, and Reliance BIG TV to name a few.

Speaking on the occasion of the company's 10th anniversary, Himanshoo Patil, Chief Executive Officer, EPRS-BuySmart, said, "EPRS-BuySmart was established with a view of revolutionizing the digital distribution and payment industry and help service providers reach out to all corners of the country and enable SMEs/entrepreneurs to offers consumer services at their retail points. I am glad that in these 10 years we have been able to come up as the catalyst of growth, prosperity and empowerment for the bottom of the pyramid population as well for the small business owners. It is encouraging to see that what EPRS-BuySmart is doing is in line with the current agenda of our nation's leadership. We look forward to taking this forward in building a stronger brand over the next decade!"

The company's proposition to enable product sales on demand, at 2.5 lakh retail points across the nation is unique and unmatched, thus allowing the manufacturers and brands to save 20% on their cost in reaching out to end customers in a quick, economical and effective way.

Services based on cutting-edge technology have helped create opportunities and employment for retailers at the bottom of the pyramid while exposing Indians at every corner of the country to mainstream services and products. EPRS BuySmart looks to further its vision by investing in their technology to offer a larger bouquet of products in the future.

Resource :-  http://www.indiantelevision.com/dth/dth-operator/dth-payment-system-provider-buysmart-completes-a-decade-151028

DD’s DTH service Freedish hikes reserve price to Rs 4.30 cr

MUMBAI: After mopping up Rs 57 crore (Rs 570 million) in the 23rd e-auction, Doordarshan’s direct-to-home (DTH) service Freedish has increased the reserve price to Rs 4.30 crore (Rs 43 million) per slot for the 24th e-auction to be held on 9 November. Earlier, the reserve price was Rs 3.7 crore (Rs 37 million). The DTH operator with the maximum capacity of carrying 64 channels has not disclosed the vacant slots that are up for grabs. Interested parties will have to submit uplink and downlink permission from the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) along with the application.


The participation amount for the e-auction is Rs 1.50 crore (Rs 15 million) while the processing fee is Rs 10,000, which is to be submitted by demand draft (DD) to the PB (BCI) Doordarshan Commercial Service. Applicants must provide their uplink/downlink permission documents received from the ministries concerned. The demand drafts of unsuccessful bidders will be returned immediately or within a week after the completion of the e-auction process


The last day for submission of completed application is 9 November. The e-auction will be conducted by Noida-based C1 India. Incremental amount will be Rs 10 lakh (Rs 1 million) for the 24th e-auction and every e-auction will be of 15 minutes. Additional five minutes will be added if the bid is received before the closing time of each e-auction. The next round of e-auction, if held, will be conducted after 10 minutes of each e-auction. Doordarshan might extend the e-auction to the next day if required. The successful channels will have to deposit Rs 1.10 crore (Rs 11 million) of the reserve price within one month of channel placement. The second instalment of Rs 1.1 crore (Rs 11 million) will have to be deposited in the second month of channel placement along with 14 per cent service tax on total bid amount.

The balance bid amount will have to be deposited after six months of placement of the channel, failing which the deposited amount will be forfeited and the channel will be discontinued after a 21-day notice. In the 23rd auction held on 19 October, the DTH platform had added four new channels, namely Sony Mix, Sadhna National, Homeshop18, and Big Magic Ganga, while 10 existing channels, namely ABP News, India TV, Cinema TV, Enterr10, 9XM, Dabangg, Mastii, Chardikala Time, B4U Movies, and Maha Movie, had renewed their deals.


Resource :-http://www.televisionpost.com/dth/dds-dth-service-freedish-hikes-reserve-price-to-rs-4-30-cr/

HomeShop18 hops on to DD FreeDish DTH platform

MUMBAI: HomeShop18 has hopped on to Prasar Bharati’s direct to home (DTH) platform DD FreeDish.

With this new e-auction win, the channel will reach out to an additional 18 million subscribers of the Indian free-to-air (FTA) DTH broadcasting platform.

The channel has been made available on DD FreeDish from 1 November, 2015.

HomeShop18 CEO Sanjeev Agrawal said, “As the exposure and aspirations of customers in tier II and III geographies evolve, so does their demand for high-quality products. However, due to the limited internet penetration and lack of presence of modern trade there is a gap in latent demand and supply. We have the advantage to cover this gap and reach out to customers across the country through television shopping and our wide range of products. Our association with DD FreeDish is a step towards our commitment to match the HomeShop18 signals to the country’s television penetration and our strong physical reach.”

The channel has shows like 18 Shringaar, Today’s Special Offer amongst others that will provide shoppers with deals, expert advice, a complete new look to women and an assortment of products.

Resource :-http://www.indiantelevision.com/television/tv-channels/specialised-and-niche/homeshop18-hops-on-to-dd-freedish-dth-platform-151102

SkyPerfect offers UHD-HDR by DTH

Japan’s SkyPerfect JSAT pay-TV operator is to offer Ultra-HD transmissions in High Dynamic Range to its DTH subscribers.

SkyPerfect is already transmitting UHD signals via its JCSAT-3A satellite. The broadcaster will demo the new signals at the Tokyo InterBee Broadcast Equipment event on November 18th – 20th.

For the 4K HDR transmission, an uplink using existing facilities at the SKY Perfect JSAT Tokyo Media Center (TMC) will be sent from the JCSAT-3A communication satellite to the Inter BEE venue. Programming will consist of a variety of prerecorded SKY Perfect JSAT HDR video content and live TMC studio programmes. The 4K HDR format itself uses a Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) system, jointly developed by Japan’s public broadcaster NHK and the BBC and standardised by the Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB).

HLG is widely considered to offer a distinct advantage in that it is backwardly compatible with older digital transmission technologies.

Resource :- http://advanced-television.com/2015/11/04/skyperfect-offers-uhd-hdr-by-dth/

Personal assistant app Helpchat sees 1M downloads

Personal assistant app Helpchat, run by Coraza Technologies Pvt Ltd, has been downloaded one million times since it was launched eight months back.

Helpchat, which offers information and services across categories including mobile and DTH recharge, tech support, travel booking and holiday guidance, has witnessed maximum traction in Bangalore, followed by Delhi-NCR and then Mumbai, said a company statement.

“Since inception, we have had the single-minded goal to amplify users’ ability to get things done. We use these figures as impetus to push us further,” said Ankur Singla, founder and CEO, Helpchat.

Helpchat is a personal assistant app that completes tasks on users’ behalf and claims to have forwarded $6 million worth of user requests to its partner businesses in the last three months.

It has recently launched an automated conversational feature which allows users to schedule their laundry, order food, get suggestions on the best shopping deals, etc.

Originally known as Akosha.com, it was an online customer feedback platform before it pivoted into a chat-based personal assistant app in July and rebranded itself as Helpchat.

Post the pivot, it also appointed TaxiForSure’s finance head Deena Jacob as chief financial officer.

Akosha was founded in 2010 by Singla, who was joined by Avinash Vankadaru (in operations) and Vishal Pal Chaudhary (in technology). Akosha provided users information on pricing, discounts, customer service, booking appointments, travel research and so on.

Recently, it was reported that Helpchat had laid off 100-150 staffers. A Bangalore Mirror news report quoted unnamed employees of the company as saying that the inability to raise fresh funding compelled Helpchat to trim its workforce.
It had last raised $16 million (Rs 100 crore) in Series B funding led by existing investor Sequoia Capital five months ago.

Resource :-http://techcircle.vccircle.com/2015/10/29/personal-assistant-app-helpchat-sees-1m-downloads/

Vodafone focuses on financial inclusion

 Suresh Sethi, Business Head of M-Pesa, believes that it is difficult to compare the scale of M-Pesa in the country with the one in Kenya.

“Financial inclusion is the need of the hour in a country like India and it has been emphasised enough by government, companies and individuals. However, the success of M-Pesa in India on a scale comparable to Kenya will be a long haul. A lot of this is because people still rely on banks to deposit money, and are not comfortable transferring money over mobile,” Sethi told Deccan Herald.

We are positive with the in-principle payments bank licence. Trust in our mobile platform, similar to the trust in banks, will be a huge enabler in driving further adoption among the migrant population, Sethi added.

So, how exactly is M-Pesa driving towards the financial inclusion agenda?

“With over 90,000 agents and more than 3.5 million customers, we are already the largest business banking correspondent in the country and are providing people in remote areas a convenient way to transfer money and make payments in a safe and secure manner," Sethi says.

“The combination of being a bank plus a mobile company allows us to reach out to the masses. The total number of bank branches is about 1,10,000 in India and we already have 90,000 such branches (agents) operating through our M-Pesa format. Also, we distribute our products through 1.8 million retail outlets across the country and a majority of them, i.e. 60 per cent, are in the rural belt,” Sethi adds.

With its services currently being made use of only for money transfer, utility payments, DTH and prepaid recharge, what are the kinds of services that it plans to offer going forward, now that the licence is already in its kitty?

“We will continue to expand the service to retail consumers and are also looking at leveraging our corporate relationships to align M-Pesa into the cash -management eco-system of corporates. Vodafone has tied up with Walmart India, enabling business members of six Best Price Modern Wholesale stores to make payments using M-Pesa from their mobiles anywhere, anytime,” Sethi says.

Vodafone has also partnered with several government bodies to run pilots for enabling direct transfer of wages/subsidies. These include mobile-based disbursement of government subsidies (MNREGA), disbursement under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), and a tie-up with Rajasthan Grameen Aajeevika Vikas Parishad (RGAVP), to empower women in Village Organisations (VOs)/ Self-Help Groups. Besides, the in-principle payments bank licence will enable Vodafone to offer a more comprehensive portfolio of banking and financial products and services, accelerating India’s journey into a cashless economy, he adds.

he concept of branchless banking perhaps is all set to expand in India with the issuance of payments bank licences by the Reserve Bank of India. Vodafone M-Pesa is one of the applicants that has received in-principle nod from RBI to set up a payments bank. Vodafone’s mobile banking service in Kenya, called M-Pesa, is usually cited as the biggest success story of mobile banking services globally. M-Pesa is a very successful initiative from Vodafone and is live in nine countries, viz.Romania, Kenya, Egypt, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, South Africa, Lesotho, and also in India. Today over 700 businesses have integrated with M-Pesa to extend various innovative services at lower cost to people in remote areas, including buying solar-powered lighting and mobile phone charging kit by making an initial upfront payment using M-Pesa. This initiative has played a critical role in providing electricity, not just to individuals, but also to small and medium enterprises.

Resource :-http://www.deccanherald.com/content/509887/vodafone-focuses-financial-inclusion.html

Paytm to hive off original wallet biz into separate app

BENGALURU: In a bold move, the country's largest mobile wallet Paytm will hive off its bread-and-butter payments business as a separate app, with the current app focusing on shopping. This will put the Alibaba-backed Paytm in direct confrontation with the deep-pocketed dedicated e-commerce players including Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal.

Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma said the payments market (Paytm has more than 100 million registered customers) has reached the long-tail of Indian consumers, where the app requirements are different from that which urban English speaking customers needed.

The main app, which will morph into an e-commerce app, will continue to offer the wallet option for some time, but will prompt users to download the independent app for wallet use cases. The company is running pilots now and will launch the second app in January.

Facebook did a similar thing with its Messenger app, and while there was resistance, the move was successful with most users downloading Messenger. But can Paytm do it successfully? The risk is higher because unlike Facebook Messenger, which is only a small part of FB, the wallets business of Paytm is huge.

Sharma is confident. "Paytm is the default payments app for many and its use case needs to be simplified even as we as a company expand our horizon by adding commerce. By this method, we can make both users happy," he said.

Paytm's increasing commerce business that includes goods, bus tickets, hotel bookings and more, have made the app heavy and the co-existence with payments has complicated the payments use case, Sharma added. He felt that many rural customers will be put off by a heavier app and it makes sense to give them a simple light app for payments.

There are others in India who now have multiple apps, but the newer apps have invariably been for newer nascent businesses. Flipkart just launched a separate app for grocery purchases called Flipkart Nearby. Ola has a different app for food delivery. Zomato's food delivery app is called Zomato Order. Following the acquisition of Freecharge, Snapdeal has a separate wallet app.

Ashish Jhalani of Etailing India, an e-commerce consultancy, said that it is a prudent decision. "The apps are getting heavier and slower. What if consumers don't want most of the new features. Downloading a new app is not a big deal now. This is customization according to customer requirements," he added. At the time of downloading, most apps are light, but the cache data keeps on adding to the size, unless the user periodically deletes the data manually.

Paytm has entered e-commerce as the payments business based on commission is a low margin business. The commerce business, started a little over a year ago, now contributes 40% of the company's revenue. The company expects commerce to be 60% in another 12 months.

Alibaba, which has pumped in more than $600 million into Paytm in less than a year, follows a similar model - its Alipay app takes care of payments, while the Tmall app does the commerce business.

However, BigBasket co-founder Hari Menon thinks a multiple-app strategy may backfire. BigBasket gave up the idea of going that way for their business of showcasing recipes and associated product offerings. "People want to make things easier in life and multiple apps and notifications from more apps will create resistance," he said.

Resource :- http://cio.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/enterprise-services-and-applications/paytm-to-hive-off-original-wallet-biz-into-separate-app/49655142

Now an app that lets you keep tab on mobile usage

Keeping tab of your mobile phone usage is one of the biggest pain points of our time. While service providers offer their own apps to keep tab on usage and recharge accounts when needed, multi-service apps of this kind are rare. This is where the updated Planhound 2 app wants to make difference.

“We built a recommendation engine to help people discover the right plan based on their usage, but soon figured that a majority of the mobile users did not know their usage because they were mobile prepaid users who did not get a mobile bill. That is when the app idea was born — something that sits on your phone and can measure all this automatically,” explains Jigar Doshi, co-founder of Cheeni Labs, creators of the new app. He says that with usage being accurate, the recommendations are better and the savings a lot more real.

The app automatically recognises your service provider, the kind of network you are on and how much balance you have. On a post-paid connection, it shows usage, but not the unbilled amount. It shows data usage, call minutes and SMS number as well as roaming usage.

Resource :-http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/social/now-an-app-that-lets-you-keep-tab-on-mobile-usage/

News Headline | Tata Sky targets DAS Phase III areas with celebrity driven ad campaign

MUMBAI: In a bid to capture a chunk of analogue cable users in Phase III areas of Digital Addressable System (DAS), direct to home (DTH) platform Tata Sky has launched a celebrity driven ad campaign to generate awareness about digitisaton.

The ‘Missed Call’ ad campaign, which features actors Kangana Ranaut and Dhanush, aims to bring on board customers who are still on analogue cable.

With this campaign, Tata Sky is looking to target the 40 million households residing in 7,000 towns and cities, which will now witness the next phase of digitisation.

Tata Sky CCO Malay Dikshit said, “When we asked new Tata Sky subscribers on what motivated them to come aboard our platform, they gave us some brilliant insights on why they saw great value in getting Tata Sky at home. This campaign presents these insights in simple and direct narratives delivered through rooted and relatable characters played by Kanagna and Dhanush, both fine actors. This is our initiative to drive digitisation in DAS III markets.”

The series of three ad films with each actor, leaves viewers with a sense of realisation and a smile. It also highlights payment flexibility options such as daily recharge and various monthly subscription packs.

The ‘Missed Call’ campaign launched in the South with Dhanush is targeting 1200 towns that have been identified under DAS III and have the least DTH penetration. Tata Sky offers a range of innovative offerings and has been expanding its bouquet of channels across regional languages.

Commenting on the thought process behind the new communication, Ogilvy India ECD Sukesh Nayak said, “Tata Sky is the segment leader who is known for innovation and redefining the sector with its value propositions. The hard hitting, single take talkies are delivered by Kanagna and Dhanush, who play an average Indian consumer, who are delighted with a Tata Sky connection at home.”

Ensuring its reach is extended to the hinterland, Tata Sky has launched the campaign in 11 languages namely Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Assamese, Odiya, Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Bengali as well as in four dialects namely Manipuri, Bhojpuri, Marwadi and Tulu.

The ‘Missed Call’ marketing campaign includes TV, print, outdoors, cinema halls and radio.
Resource :- http://www.indiantelevision.com/dth/dth-operator/tata-sky-targets-das-phase-iii-areas-with-celebrity-driven-ad-campaign-151106