Video-on-demand service & Catch-up TV on Tata Sky soon

MUMBAI: Direct-to-home satellite television service provider Tata Sky is set to launch two services that none of its competitors is offering in the country, allowing its subscribers to watch content on demand and to download TV shows after they have been broadcast.

Tata Sky aims to double its private recorder base over the next two years following this initiative, says chief executive officer Harit Nagpal.

While the company has a total subscriber base of about eight million, market sources peg the number of those with private recorder at about 400,000.

Video-on-demand (VoD) service, aimed at subscribers of both its regular and high-definition services, will allow users to choose from nearly 1,000 titles comprising Bollywood and foreign flicks, among other content across languages and genres.

“The initial feedback received from our internal study is extremely encouraging. With such a big library, which we plan to increase daily, we really see a surge in customers opting for our service,” says Vikram Mehra, chief marketing officer.

Over a million of Tata Sky’s subscribers are already paying Rs 15-40 a month for value-added services, which have already been a key differentiator for the service provider.

“There are so many people in the demographic of, say, 50 plus in smaller towns who cannot access movies of even Raj Kapoor, for whom this will be a boon,” says Mehra.

Catch-up TV, on the other hand, will help subscribers to watch select TV shows after they have been broadcast and that too without recording them because these shows will be available for download.