Candida Moraes

Television is the only affordable family entertainment option for the Indian middle-class. Tata Sky is set to take it to a new level with its world-class satellite television service

From the black-and-white thermionic valve TV sets of the 1970s to the colour revolution of the 1980s and multi-channel satellite cable TV in the 1990s, television in India has come a long way. But now, even that is passé. In August 2006, the quality of television viewing in India jumped up several notches with the launch of a new, world-class satellite television service from Tata Sky.

Tata Sky is an 80:20 joint venture between the Tata Group and the STAR network and offers a world-class television viewing experience through its satellite television service.

The company aims to be a market leader, and is putting together an aggressive marketing and roll out plan. Leveraging the global expertise of Newscorp, it has invested in proven and best-of breed technology for its uplink centre, IT back office, EPG design and secure middleware. It has also put rigorous processes, policies and procedures in place, to ensure that its audience gets a world-class viewing experience.

The strategy
"Our strategy is to capture the market by offering superior value," says Vikram Kaushik, managing director and CEO of Tata Sky. Consumer insight shows that television is the only affordable family entertainment option available for middle-class Indians today and they would appreciate any enhancement in their viewing experience. Add to this the evolution of television technology from the CRT tube to flat screens, LCDs, plasmas and now HDTVs.

What exactly is Tata Sky adding to the viewer's experience? Tata Sky, says Kaushik, gives people a new dimension in TV viewing, thanks to the 3Cs:

• Choice: It offers more than 100 channels, with DVD picture quality and CD sound quality.
• Control: Viewers can control the content; watch four news channels simultaneously, find out what's playing on all channels without changing channels and, most important, parents can regulate what their children watch.
• Convenience: The viewer gets seven-day programme schedules for all channels online, and reminders for favourite programmes.

There's also the X factor — the excitement of interactive services. Tata Sky offers a bouquet of interactive news, sports and games to subscribers (see box for details), all easily accessible with some simple hardware — a small 65-cm mini-dish to receive the satellite signals, a digicomp^TM that supports CAS, and a Digicard^TM.

Roll out to launch
Two months before the launch, the company tested its critical applications in over 1,000 homes of its employees across eight cities. The technology, systems readiness and integration, and the installation process were rigorously tried out. So was the customer service readiness for using the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. Over 250 technology, IT, service and process issues were identified, fixed and documented by the company. In August 2006, Tata Sky was launched at a special introductory offer of Rs200 a month for more than 50 channels. Two months post launch, the Tata Sky service was available at over 17,000 outlets across 3,700 towns. The company has been acquiring subscribers at a healthy rate. Accolades have been pouring in. "The market has responded positively to our service and our aim is to have one million subscribers by the end of a year. We are well on our way to achieving that target," says a delighted Kaushik.

The company has a pan-India presence and has equal footing in both urban and the up-country areas. To expand its distribution network, the company has tied-up with ITC's e-Chaupal, Godrej Aadhar, the ITC International Business Division and the Indian Oil Corporation. It also has B2B tie-ups with Infiniti Retail's Croma, Tata Indicom and Pantaloon Retail in urban India.

Tata Sky has a unique pre-paid subscription model, which not only reduces the credit risk factor for the company, but offers convenience to customers.

Ensuring customer satisfaction
"We rate customer service as the key differentiator that will carve a distinct place for Tata Sky in the market," says Kaushik. During the testing phase, the company undertook one of the largest-ever training initiatives in corporate India; in just five months it trained 2,500 people in field services, 1,000 in customer operations, 1,000 in IT and 20,000 in sales.

A dedicated team of over 3,000 trained Tata Sky engineers are responsible for installing the service in the subscribers' homes. "They also solve technical problems. If the problem can't be resolved immediately, the subscriber box is replaced on the spot," adds Kaushik. Three high-end 24x7 call centres, handled by customer care associates trained to answer customer queries in 11 different languages, deal with complaints. The call centres are managed by Group company SerWizSol*, which has dedicated Tata Sky teams at its centres in Pune, Hyderabad and Chandigarh. Subscribers can also email their feedback to help@tatasky.com

A 24-hour 'subscriber help' channel explains the features of the service, and a help desk application can be easily accessed on the television set itself. Tata Sky tracks customer satisfaction through a monthly survey of outbound calls. The company is also initiating an all-India customer satisfaction survey. "Our field service gets a very positive feedback from the subscribers. We are rated high on professionalism and courtesy," says Kaushik.

Future forward
The journey ahead is not without challenges. "We believe that satellite television is a new category and are working hard to educate customers about its benefits," says Kaushik. A 360-degree communication approach is used for customer education — through television, print, web, radio, outdoor media, call centres and direct mailers — both in urban and rural areas. The company is also demonstrating the service at high-traffic sites like airports, malls and exhibitions.

"We would like to be a benchmark for customer service and offer more value-added services to our subscribers," says Kaushik. The company is also keen to help the government formulate its DTH policy.

Tata Sky has climbed mountains and crossed the oceans in its first few months — literally — it has installed services in Ladakh, Leh, and Kargil; and also a first 'at sea' installation on an oil rig. Now this youngest of Tata Group companies is all set to scale greater heights. "Tata Sky will change the paradigm of television viewing in the country," Kaushik predicts confidently.

Uploaded on March 28, 2007

*SerWizSol renamed Tata Business Support Services in March 2008