Introduction

India is the largest DTH market in the world by number of subscribers. As on 31 December
2017, there were 67.56 million active pay DTH subscribers in the country. The Indian market
is serviced by 5 paid DTH providers and one free DTH provider.
India's statistics showed DTH emerging as the key growth driver for overall pay-tv industry
growth at an impressive 74% as compared to 15% for digital cable and 11% for analogue
cable. The key DTH providers are Dish TV, Sun Direct, Tata Sky, Airtel Digital TV and
finally Videocon D2H.Doordarshan DD direct plus is considered as world’s one and only free
DTH service. Among them Dish TV, Tata Sky and Airtel Digital TV holds the market leader
position with market share of 50% and above collectively. Whereas Sun Direct is a market
challenger and Videocon D2H a market follower with 15% market share.

Market share of DTH providers in India

13

30
10

27
20

Dish Tv Airtel Tata Sky

Videocon D2H SunDirect

Tata Sky - Market Leader

Market leader has the largest market share in the relevant product in the industry. It has a
dominant position in the market. It leads other firms in new product development, price
change, distribution coverage, promotional activities, and novel experiments.
In the industry of Indian D2H, Tata Sky holds the position of market leader. In the year 2004
Tata sky was incorporated but was launched only 2006. It is a joint venture between the Tata

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group, that owns 80%and star group that owns a 20% stake it currently offers close to 196
channels( as of December 2010) and some interactive ones this count includes some numbers
off HD channels offered by Tata sky ( as Tata sky HD ) and interactive services also. In the
clash between the two pioneers of the Indian DTH industry i.e. Dish Tv and Tata Sky, Tata
sky slowly took the lead, with more emphasis on new technology (as showcased by their
efforts at DVR recording and MPEG-4 compression technology) which allowed 90 hours of
recording in a MPEG-4 compatible Set top box. The remote is provided with playback
control keys and was sold with special offers for existing subscribers.
In March 2009, Tata Sky became the first Indian Direct-To-Home (DTH) service provider to
be awarded the ISO 2700:2005 accreditation, the benchmark for information security. ISOP
2700:2005 is an international standard that provides specification and guidance for the
establishment and proper maintenance of information security management system (ISMS).

Tata Sky’s Strengths and Competitive Advantage

Tata Sky is probably the best DTH operator right now because of its wide-range of channel
packs, unique services and customer service. Tata Sky has been trying hard to stand out from
other DTH operators by launching various new services every now and then. Tata Sky Binge
is an example of that.

i. Differentiation Strategy: There are several services of Tata Sky such as Tata Sky
Watch, Tata Sky DTH account temporary suspension service, Tata Sky referral
programme and so on which differentiates them from their competitors. Tata Sky
Watch service allows users to watch Live TV channels from a desktop browser
similar to Airtel Xstream website. Tata Sky temporary account suspension feature
allows them to suspend their account for a maximum of four days.

ii. Cost Leadership Strategy: Tata Sky is the second DTH operator in the country
which is offering an attractive discount on its Set-Top Boxes. The service provider
slashed the prices of its STBs by Rs 400 a few weeks back to remain competitive in
the market.

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iii. More No. of Channels: Tata Sky also boasts of the maximum number of channels
amongst all DTH operators. It has more than 500 channels in various regional
languages in the updated channel list of 2019.

iv. Wide Distribution Network: Tata Sky’s current footprint in India is spread across 2
lakh towns and 17 million connections. Tata Sky has adopted service as its key
differentiator with no differentiation possible with content and pricing in competitive
market. Sales representative and trained service personnel are deployed at every point
of sales. Online account management facility is available to facilitate customers to
modify their subscription and pay bills online. It also entered into agreements with
ITC’s e - Choupal, Godrej’s Aadhar and Indian Oil Corporation to extend its reach to
the rural consumers.

v. Customized Channel Packages: Tata Sky offered different channel packages so that
consumers could choose their favourite channels and pay only for those they wanted
to watch.

vi. 24*7 Customer care services: The company has set up 24x7 call centres in 14
languages across country with trained multi-lingual professionals.

vii. Rigorous marketing: Tata Sky vouch for creating emotional connect through TV
commercials and contracting popular celebrities for endorsing the brand. Paid media
both online and offline such as TV, newspaper, magazine, and sponsorships are
utilized to communicate brand offering. Tata Sky has sponsored popular events like
IPL to show its ads and brand. The distribution channel also helps in displaying ads.
Owned media such as Tata Sky’s webpage, brand brochure, blog is used as a part
of campaign. The company has used digital and social media to improve engagement
with the customers. To create bond between characters and consumers customized
Facebook and Twitter pages have been created. YouTube videos and competition
have created buzz and increased involvement of consumers in campaign and thus
extended the recall.

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Videocon D2H – Market Follower
Market follower is a company that follows the strategies of the market leader. It never tries to
challenge the leader. It waits and observes what its competitors do, especially the market
leader and then only adopts the leader’s successful strategies.
In the Indian DTH industry, Videocon D2H can be considered the market follower as it came
much later into industry with service features similar yet competitive to the existing players.
As of December 31, 2017, d2h has a market share of 19% among the pay DTH operators.
It delivers digital services including television audio programming and interactive television
services. Currently Videocon d2h is offering more than 400 channels and services which
include 22 HD channels, one 3D channel and 21 Active Music Services. In May 2011,
Videocon d2h started offering HD Digital Video Recorder (DVR) box with 3D which
enabled to record live content.
In order to become a market leader in D2H Industry, Videocon D2H can follow the adapter
strategy in which market followers have similar products but they try to adapt from their
closest competition. Adapters can soon become leaders because they can adapt, learn and
make a better product than the higher competition. Some of the areas in which they can work
on is:

i. Hardware and look: First impression is the last impression and Tata Sky clearly
wins in this area. Tata Sky set top box (STB) looks better than Videocon D2H set top
box. The front of Tata Sky STB is sleek, it shines and looks like a branded product.
One the other hand, Videocon D2H STB looks basic. Tata Sky STB comes with
a 500GB internal Hard Disk to store program recording which is a huge amount of
space to record TV shows, movies, etc. On the other hand, Videocon D2H STB

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 doesn't contain any internal hard disk. Although it provides a 4GB USB pen drive to
attach into STB but it’s very small in size. So, it can work on packaging, hardware
and storage in order to provide the facility for recording huge data and grabbing the
attention of consumers.

ii. Channel count and picture quality: Talking about HD channels count, Tata Sky
beats Videocon D2H. Tata Sky provides maximum 84 HD and 479 SD channels with
really good audio and Dolby Digital sound quality, on the other hand Videocon D2H
provides 55 HD and 375 SD channels with no DD sound. Videocon D2H could
increase its HD and SD channels with DD sound which they are not providing
currently.

iii. DTH Plans and Channel Packages:

From the data it can be inferred that although Tata Sky is providing more channels
than Videocon D2H, they are much cheaper as compared to Videocon D2H.Market
follower could also go for cost leadership strategy in order to become a market leader
because lesser cost/price will lead to more customers.

iv. Customer care services: Videocon D2H doesn’t have many customer care centres all
over India because of that they are not able to provide instant support to their
customers 24*7 which eventually resulted into shifting of customers to much better
DTH services like Tata sky or Airtel digital services. They can increase their customer
reach through putting up more customer service centres in more remote areas.

v. Promotion & Marketing:

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 Videocon D2H has taken a less-travelled path by being present on social media.  On
Facebook, the DTH services provider has more than 815,000 fans, which makes it the
most followed page in its category in India. A DTH provider can do some much more
with its social presence. It can be real-time with its updates taking about what to
watch on TV.

Conclusion:
By this study it can be concluded that a market follower can gain a position closer to market
leader by simply adapting its core strategies and making it better with its creativeness and
innovation such as in the case of Tata Sky and Videocon D2H.
With existing regulatory restrictions, increasing content costs and strong competitors,
maintaining a leader position and gaining market share seems tough. Companies have to
differentiate only at the service and cost levels. Videocon D2H can focus on providing more
HD channels with better sound quality on a cost lower than Tata sky and having a huge
customer service centre base for instant problem solving. Attractively priced and feature rich
package targeted at the critical mass can be a strategy in sustaining the growth rate.