DTH
Wise Move by Tata Play as AI Owl and Donkey Bring Smart Savings Home
MUMBAI: Looks like wisdom has feathers and sometimes, long ears. Tata Play’s latest campaign, Samajhdar Bano, Tata Play Lagao, brings a wise owl and a witty donkey to the screen, using humour and AI-powered storytelling to help viewers make smarter entertainment choices this festive season.
India’s leading content distribution platform has once again flipped the script on conventional advertising, embracing generative AI to create two unforgettable characters who do what humans often fail to simplify DTH pricing with clarity and wit.
The campaign focuses on Tata Play’s Dhamaka Offer, which ensures that every rupee of the subscriber’s Rs 3,600 upfront deposit goes entirely towards content consumption. In return, subscribers also receive an HD set-top box, dish antenna, remote, and free installation essentially transforming the deposit into full-value entertainment. The films also spotlight the ease of curating one’s own channel bouquet through the Tata Play Mobile App, giving users complete control over what they watch and pay for.
Conceptualised and executed by Ogilvy, the brand films use the banter between the owl and the donkey to cut through the clutter of jargon and confusion that often surrounds DTH offers. In their quirky yet relatable exchange, they bust myths around hidden costs, driving home Tata Play’s promise of transparency and unbeatable value.
Tata Play head of marketing communications Krishnendu Dasgupta said, “This campaign is anchored in a simple yet powerful insight when it comes to entertainment, people crave clarity over clutter. While choices are many, the confusion is even more. Through our witty owl and donkey duo, we’re making decision-making feel effortless and fun. The use of generative AI adds an innovative layer, enhancing the storytelling Tata Play is known for.”
The nationwide ATL rollout spans key television genres and channels, with special focus on Hindi-speaking markets, Maharashtra, West Bengal, and all four southern states. The campaign also extends across digital and social platforms, ensuring it meets viewers wherever they watch, scroll, or stream.
Ogilvy India chief creative officer Sukesh Nayak added, “It’s smart to choose Tata Play because it truly delivers the best value for money. Our wise owl and witty donkey serve as unlikely gurus of entertainment, showing that whether you’re brainy or braying, the smart choice is Tata Play.”
With its smart storytelling, Gen-AI magic, and genuine value proposition, Samajhdar Bano, Tata Play Lagao isn’t just another festive campaign, it’s a reminder that in the age of endless options, clarity and a little humour go a long way.
Viewers can avail of the offer via tataplay.com, the manage section of the Tata Play Mobile App, or their nearest dealer.
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.
