Direct-to-Home (DTH) operators have slightly been sidelined by the popular over-the-top (OTT) platforms. Most of the broadcasters have their own OTT apps too with a freemium business model where a lot of content that people have to pay for to watch on TVs is free. For the last few months, the subscriber churn rate for the DTH operators has been high and stagnant. There are very limited DTH operators in the country and all of them have a different strategy for acquiring and retaining customers. But there’s one DTH operator which is heavily investing in OTT services and it is Tata Play (earlier known as Tata Sky). Bharti Telemedia is also offering access to OTT platforms with Airtel Xstream Premium and the Xstream Box, but it is nothing like what Tata Play is offering.
OTT Platforms are the Future of Quality Content, DTH Needs to Find a Way In
Tata Play is bundling OTT platforms’ subscriptions with a normal channel pack for Binge+ Set-Top Box (STB) users. This is a great strategy by the company which will ensure that people don’t need to overpay for getting access to all the channels and the OTT platforms. Moreover, the DTH player has also started bundling Netflix subscriptions with its OTT Combo channel packs. Tata Play understands the future of content is in OTT platforms. While there’s no doubt that DTH platforms have some channels that users can’t get on any OTT platforms in the world, it won’t be long before OTT players start incorporating a TV-like service for their users directly on their smartphones, laptops, tablets, and even TVs. DTH sector can’t look at OTT as its enemy right now. Instead of trying to be ahead of each other, both segments of the entertainment industry can grow together by strategic partnerships. There’s still a long way to go for OTT to reach every part of the country where DTH already is because of less fiberisation and no internet in many areas. Hopefully, in the near future, all the DTH players can offer something like what Tata Play is offering to customers with OTT combo packs.
