DTH
Tata Sky to ‘un-box’ entertainment with new STB; launches digital ad campaign
MUMBAI: On the move video consumption is growing at an aggressive rate in India thanks to the lightning fast penetration of smartphones, tablets and other alternative screens. Addressing the growth, direct-to-home (DTH) operator Tata Sky is set to launch its new upgraded set top box (STB) – Tata Sky+ Transfer, which will enable users to transfer the recorded content onto alternative screens.
While this service immediately raises concern of piracy and content security, Tata Sky has taken care of that aspect. Tata Sky chief communications officer Malay Dikshit says, “The content will be available on the app and will not be transferred as a video file, so sharing that file or uploading it for mass is not possible. Moreover, the content is self destructive, the duration of the content varies from broadcaster to broadcaster, but after a certain period the content will get destroyed automatically.”
All that the new STB needs is a Wi-Fi connection. All other devices connected to the same Wi-Fi network can access the recorded content. Not only that, consumers don’t need to lose hefty chunk of their data (bandwidth) to get the recorded content transferred on their mobile devices. The content gets transferred through the wireless local area connection to the locally connected devices. To transfer 30 minutes of content, the preparation procedure takes 30 minutes of time. The resolution is automatically selected by the app as per the infrastructure of the device the content is viewed on. Thirty minutes of content occupies around 200 MB of storage.
The STB, which is priced at Rs 9300, is targeted towards metro centric consumers. Existing Tata Sky customers, can purchase the new STB for Rs 7200.
To generate awareness amongst the DTH subscribers, Tata Sky in association with Ogilvy One, will be orchestrating a digital campaign called Transferkars. The campaign will have one main film, which will be launched on 4 September. Three teasers will grab consumer attention until then.
The campaign introduces Tata Sky’s latest product the Tata Sky+ Transfer, which enables the STB recording to be available on the subscribers’ tablets and phones.
This campaign uses Tata Sky’s trademark style of using hyperboles and humor to drive home the product messages in an interesting manner. The protagonists Transferkars are a TV addicted family of six, each madly passionate about their shows. The campaign is a series of films that will bring alive the lengths that they go to carry their favourite TV shows with them. The commercial portrays Tata Sky+ Transfer as an innovative product, which solves these problems by enabling subscribers to transfer recorded content on their mobile devices and view it at their convenience. Hence, the campaign concludes with the sign off ‘Record. Transfer. Carry.’
“We already have around 60,000 views in an hour and we are expecting to cross the 100,000 mark today itself. We want to have 400 million impressions for this campaign, which will run for next three months,” added Dikshit.
Shedding light on the consumer behaviours that drove this innovative campaign, he said, “Today, time comes at a premium. The consumer is increasingly finding it difficult to be constrained by fixed timing and location for viewing even recorded content. Thus there is demand for convergence and portability of content. The rapid increase of Wi-Fi enabled homes open up new possibilities and potential for new offerings. The Tata Sky+ Transfer box delivers on this sweet spot allowing subscribers to use their connected homes to enjoy their space and identity. Our focused digital-approach with this new campaign along with the launch of an interactive micro-site would surely intrigue existing and prospective subscribers.”
“It is just the beginning of our endeavours to un-box entertainment for our subscribers,” he added.
Talking about the campaign’s creative, Ogilvy One senior creative director George Kovoor said, “Tata Sky has once again set the benchmark through this unique digital first campaign. At the heart of the campaign is a family of obsessive TV show fans who not only engage the consumers but also demonstrate the Transfer product in a simple yet entertaining story. Fans can follow this family and their quirks on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and even an interactive microsite.”
Differing on the perception that digital content has no production cost and comes free, Kovoor said, “We have used a lot of resources to bring the best out of the campaign. A lot has been spent on the campaign and I hope the creative piece makes a mark in the audiences’ mind.”
“The task for us was to create a high impact campaign centered around digital devices like smartphones and tablets, demonstrating clearly and in in a memorable way how to and in what situations this product is used,” he said.
Campaign Credits:
· Creative Agency: Ogilvy & Mather
· Creative Team: OgilvyOne Worldwide senior creative director George Kovoor & creative director Anand Gharat
· Account Management Team: OgilvyOne Worldwide president Vikram Menon
· Production House: Corcoise Films
· Director: Bhavesh Kapadia
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.
