DTH is around 32m. DTH
penetration of the pay‐TV
environment is still only about 26%,
so TV penetration has a way to go,
and pay‐TV penetration too.
We fire on a lot of cylinders.
Continuing to push HD and HD
PVRs is obviously important, HD
provides us with an incremental
revenue stream. VOD is increasingly
important, we now have a wireless
dongle that you can plug into your
box which will help uptake because
not everybody has a wired Internet
connection or wants more wires
trailing across the living room. And
as and when we get more bandwidth
that will allow us to expand our
content offering and the ways in
which we present content and
entertainment to our subscribers.
One of the other things that is
likely to happen is that as content
producers recognise there are more
routes to monetise that content,
there is going to be a bit of a hiatus
as everyone works out whatʹs the
difference between granting
someone an IP right versus a mobile
right, but over time these things
will largely get resolved, and there
will be greater clarity on
windowing. And windowing again
provides an opportunity to
segment the demand curve. So for
example on pay‐per‐view at the
moment sometimes we get the
Bollywood movies days prior to
broadcast, sometimes we get them
4‐5 weeks before broadcast,
sometimes we get them after they
have been broadcast on one of the
main channels.
What was the incentive for you to
go to Tata Sky?
Iʹve long been fascinated by India
and thought it would be a great
challenge to work in an incredibly
vibrant economy and be part of an
industry that really is growing and
changing, in a country where things
can and do happen very quickly. I
have met some fantastically smart
people. Tata Sky is growing at a
rate of knots that BSkyB and Sky
Deutschland would love ‐ weʹd love
their ARPUs but they would like
our subscriber growth rate!
Nicola Bamford, thank you.
market although Apple has a
significant presence here. A lot of
video is served up, and certainly
India is showing significant growth
in video consumption via IP. One
of the issues is bandwidth
availability and speeds.
How is the Indian media market
going to evolve?
It will continue to be incredibly
diverse. One of the big themes in
India is digitalisation which has
just been delayed. If digitalisation
occurs ‐ and we would be as a
business very disappointed if it did
not happen because at the moment
there is not a level playing field
between cable and DTH ‐ then huge
opportunities arise for us to
continue to grow TV subscribers.
4G is coming soon, at the end of
this year or beginning of next year.
Letʹs see how bandwidth allocation
happens in mobile. The majority of
Internet growth will come via
mobile technologies rather than
wired Internet connections. If there
is sufficient broadband speed one
will see a lot more consumption of
entertainment on mobile devices,
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I think it is
important
there are
multiple
voices in
news
and I think potentially there is
going to be a greater differentiation
in terms of products and services
that people offer, primarily based
on income.
Sport is an interesting area to
watch. Sony who have the IPL
rights have launched a new sports
channel, STAR recently purchased
the BCCI rights from the Indian
cricket board, and NewsCorp
(STAR) announced that they are
going to be buying Disney/ESPN
out of their ESS Asian joint venture.
Without doubt, sports other than
cricket are becoming increasingly
popular – football for example. As
more sports become followed by
larger audiences, it will be
interesting to watch what works
and how sports are actually
broadcast.
Where is Tata Sky heading?
There is ample opportunity for
expansion in India. The data that I
have is that total TV households as
a percentage of total households is
around 62%, there are approximately
21m terrestrial households, 88m
analogue cable households, and
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