Direct-to-home service provider TataSky is looking to expand its offerings of interactive entertainment such as its Actve services. These include cooking channels enabling users to get recipes from select videos, attend live darshans streamed from temples across India, engage in game-based learning and so on. Only last week, the company added Actve Fitness to the mix, allowing viewers to peruse the provided information at their leisure and receive suggestions on lifestyle.
TataSky plans to have at least 16 such interactive channels up and running by the end of this financial year, that’s March 2016. Just recently, it had launched a Transfer service for subscribers who wish to watch recorded feed on their mobile devices. Apart from this, the company has ambitions in the manufacturing space too. It wishes to get involved in co-production of set-top-boxes (STBs) and is looking out for vendors while keeping quality of the product in mind.
Another big area which will need major investment is the delivery of high resolution content. TataSky claims to have a limited number of 4K customers right now, reports PTI. But the situation is changing as more and more OEMs introduce 4K-capable TVs and the prices decrease accordingly. The service provider has poured Rs 800 crores into upgrading from the MPEG2 format to MPEG4. It has been able to introduce 80 new channels since summer by enhancing its compression technology.
Also see: Tata Sky unveils new set-top box with Wi-Fi streaming
Speaking about 4K, Nagpal states that 4K is perched on the same spot HD was at 5 years ago. TataSky currently has over 400 channels on its platform, out of which 50 are in HD. The company also has a different subscriber base to attend to now. It has more than 10 million active users, 60 percent being from urban areas and 40 percent residing outside cities. The trend is being reversed slowly, as 60 percent of its new customers presently are from non-urban regions instead.