DTH
Tata Sky launches first ever DTH Karaoke service in the World
MUMBAI: In a global first, Tata Sky, the leading DTH player today announced the launch of a new video-based music service, Karaoke in partnership with Hungama.com. This innovation, gives Tata Sky subscribers a fun way to spend time with loved ones this Valentine’s Day.
Commenting on the launch, Mr. Vikram Mehra, Chief Commercial Officer, Tata Sky said: “The love for singing & dancing is epitomized by Bollywood movies. Be it wedding celebrations, a picnic or a night out with friends, singing our favourite Hindi songs in loud chorus adds tremendously to the fun factor of any evening. Capitalizing on this sentiment, Karaoke enables our subscribers to share a few laughs and great moments with family & friends without the need for an occasion. Simply, tune into the service any time of the day for non-stop entertainment.”
Unlike other traditional Karaoke services, Tata Sky’s Karaoke service showcases music videos along with lyrics which enhance the overall singing experience. A distinctive feature of the service is the ‘Sur Meter’ that rates an individual’s singing performance and provides for interesting competition opportunities. The song library will be refreshed on a monthly basis to keep boredom at bay.
Neeraj Roy, Managing Director, CEO of Hungama.com also emphasized that, “Hungama’s relationship with Tata Sky has been deep rooted with the vision of providing entertainment to their consumers.
Music is a derivative of films that generates mass appeal and now we are presenting a new innovation to the consumer giving them the ability to watch and sing music with Actve Karaoke. A first in the industry this should prove to be a game changer of how the masses will enjoy music.”
Karaoke systems available in the market are very expensive. At just Rs 1990 for a mike & annual subscription, the Tata Sky Karaoke service is affordable and definitely worth the investment. The service will be available from 20th February 2014 and can be enjoyed by subscribers with the Tata Sky+ HD box.
Salient features
• A Karaoke mic along with 12 month subscription will cost Rs.1990
• On-going annual subscription will cost only Rs. 600/-. One album will always be available free for subscribers to sample the service
• Albums available on the service include popular songs of Salman Khan, romantic hits, party hits and a range of foot tapping nos. from Sonu, Shreya & others
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.
