DTH
Learn acting on Tata Sky’s Adda for Rs 59 a month
MUMBAI: Tata Sky, India’s innovative content distribution platform, HAS announced the launch of its latest interactive service ‘Tata Sky Acting Adda’ powered by FTheCouch (FTC).
This service priced at Rs 59/- month will be available exclusively to Tata Sky subs on #111 & on Tata Sky Mobile app.
This revolutionary service will not only offer acting lessons to all the Bollywood dreamers but also offer a platform where they can send auditions and try for their big break from the comfort of their homes. Tata Sky has partnered with FTheCouch (FTC), a Suniel Shetty and Mukesh Chhabra initiative, to create exclusive content with the best acting teachers and to source the best job opportunities across Movies, TV shows, Theatre, Advertising and more.
Tata Sky Acting Adda had a star-studded launch with National Award winner Ajay Devgn, Bollywood stalwart Suniel Shetty, the leading casting director of Bollywood, Mukesh Chhabra along with Tata Sky’s Chief Commercial Officer, Pallavi Puri, at a press conference in Mumbai. Its tagline ‘Bade Break Ka Bada Manch’ came to life with an engaging live performance depicting the journey of a Bollywood aspirant and culminating with the launch of an ad campaign featuring the legendary superstar Amitabh Bachchan.
Speaking at the launch, Pallavi Puri, Chief Commercial Officer, Tata Sky, said, “There is a hidden actor in many of us. But, not everyone has the means to hone their talent or the access to find the right opportunities. With Tata Sky Acting Adda, we have tried to bridge this gap. This service will help acting aspirants get a little closer to their dreams of acting on any platform. That too without leaving their homes and landing in Mumbai, the way thousands do today.”
She further added, “For those not keen on facing the camera, there is a lot of exciting original content to keep them entertained like exclusive star interviews, behind the scenes & more.”
An exclusive service for Tata Sky subscribers, Tata Sky Acting Adda is the first service on Indian television to offer acting lessons delivered by experts from FTII, NSD, Barry John School of Acting and more. A unique curriculum has been designed for this service where each day, one can learn different aspects of D.R.A.M.A. – Dialogue, Roleplay, Action & Dance, Makeover and Auditions. There’s even special content like acting workshops for kids and short films over the weekend.
Speaking about his vision, Suniel Shetty says, “The media industry largely depends on new talent, which is the key word to unlock all doors for its growth. Having spent a quarter of a century in front of the camera, I strongly felt the need to streamline the behind-the-scenes processes, to provide new talent, the platform it deserves. Hence Acting Adda, powered by FTC was conceived and curated. To deliver this service, I couldn’t have found a better associate than Tata Sky, with whom we have already successfully partnered, for our ongoing Fitness service. Henceforth those in search of stardom, can start off by just clicking 111, rather than dashing off to Mumbai. From Acting to Auditions, we teach it all.”
Mukesh Chhabra said, “In my professional capacity as a casting director, having given breaks to Sushant Singh Rajput, Richa Chaddha, Fatima Sheikh, Sanya Malhotra, child artiste Harshali Malhotra, amongst many others, it’s a privileged next stop, for me to be associated with AAA and FTC, two fully integrated digital platforms. They are both bound to expand the base of talent, at a click of a button.”
The interactive segment of Tata Sky Acting Adda will offer audition details, a fun Bollywood quiz and exciting video based challenges to test acting skills and reward winners with gratification that may just take them one step closer to achieving their dreams of acting.
DTH
Prasar Bharati’s WAVES earns Rs 2.9 crore in first year
Platform scales content, users but monetisation gaps limit revenue growth.
MUMBAI: Big waves, small ripples at least for now. When Prasar Bharati launched its OTT platform WAVES at the 55th International Film Festival of India in November 2024, it pitched a bold vision: a homegrown rival to global and domestic streaming giants, blending video, audio, gaming and commerce into a single digital ecosystem. Five months into FY2024–25, however, the platform’s revenue stands at just Rs 2.90 crore, a figure that underscores the gap between ambition and monetisation.
On paper, WAVES looks anything but modest. The platform has ingested 13,608 titles, totalling 9,495 hours of content, with over 13,000 titles already live. It has streamed more than 575 live events from the Mahakumbh Amrit Snan and the 76th Republic Day parade to the Hockey India League, Kabaddi World Cup and Mann Ki Baat while offering 74 live TV channels and 12 radio channels. With over 10 lakh registered users and more than 200 content partners onboarded, the scale resembles that of a fully operational streaming service rather than a pilot project.
The architecture supporting this scale is equally robust. Built under Prasar Bharati’s Central Archives vertical, WAVES runs on a cloud-based infrastructure with DRM, encryption and an integrated analytics dashboard. It includes dedicated units for content ingestion, quality control, publishing, graphics, marketing and billing, and is distributed across platforms such as OTTplay, Tata Play and BSNL. The offering extends beyond video to include audio-on-demand, e-games and even e-commerce via ONDC integration.
Yet, the numbers reveal a core disconnect. Despite its scale, WAVES generated just Rs 2.90 crore in a market where India’s OTT industry crossed Rs 23,000 crore in 2024. A key bottleneck lies in monetisation infrastructure: subscriptions cannot currently be purchased within the app and must be completed via an external website. In a mobile-first country where over 95 per cent of OTT consumption happens on smartphones, this extra step creates friction that most users are unlikely to overcome.
Ironically, content is not the problem, it is the platform’s biggest strength. Prasar Bharati holds one of the world’s richest broadcast archives, including 45,154 hours of digitised Akashvani programming and 35,723 hours from Doordarshan. For WAVES alone, over 3,800 hours of archival content have been made OTT-ready, including classics such as Ramayan and Shaktimaan, alongside rare cultural recordings and historical broadcasts.
There are early signs that this library holds commercial potential. Revenue from archival content licensing rose sharply to Rs 3.38 crore in FY24, up from Rs 67 lakh the previous year. Meanwhile, free digital platforms continue to drive massive reach, the PB Archives Youtube channel clocked 119.78 million views and added 4,02,000 subscribers in FY2024–25, crossing 1.7 million in total, while DD News has over 5.84 million subscribers.
That, however, presents a strategic dilemma. While free distribution builds scale, it also conditions audiences to expect content at zero cost making it harder to transition to paid models. WAVES, designed as a hybrid AVOD-SVOD platform with advertising and subscription layers, is yet to fully crack this balance.
The broader challenge is not technological but strategic. In an ecosystem dominated by platforms offering seamless payments, aggressive pricing and high-budget originals, WAVES is still bridging the gap between being a content repository and a commercially viable product.
For now, the platform reflects both promise and paradox. It has the scale, the content and the infrastructure but until monetisation catches up, WAVES remains less a revenue engine and more a digital showcase of what India’s public broadcaster could become.
