According to Vikram Kaushik, Managing Director and CEO of Tata Sky Ltd, his company intends “to revolutionize Indian pay-TV viewing by offering superior digital quality picture and sound.” Last summer, when Tata Sky launched, it joined together the Tata Group, India’s most trusted operator, and Star TV, India’s leading entertainment company.

Vikram Kaushik has more than 30 years experience in consumer sales and marketing. He worked for some of India’s largest international companies, and has participated in their operations in Asia, Europe and the US.

Kaushik has set impressive goals for himself: “We want to have one million subscribers at the end of our first year of operation,” he says. He recently spoke to World Vision about his company and the Indian digital pay-TV market.

World Vision: Would you give me some background about Tata Sky, particularly how and when you got started?

Vikram Kaushik: Tata Sky is a joint venture between Tata and Star. After a “soft” launch in June 2006, our commercial launch was on August 8.

World Vision: Presumably the potential of the Indian market is based on its size. Obviously you can’t corner the entire market. Where do you see Tata Sky’s niche both now and in the future?

Kaushik: There are an estimated 115 million terrestrial television households in India in addition to another 68 million cable and satellite homes. This means we are a low margin/high volume market.

Having joined one of India’s most trusted broadcasters with one of the leading entertainment groups, we started in a leading position and plan to stay on top.

World Vision: Who is your target audience?

Kaushik: By offering a wide variety of news and entertainment options in different languages, we really try to reach out to every television home in India. We reach out to the entire country irespective of topography. This includes both urban and rural areas.

World Vision: Please describe your platform.

World Vision: Do your interactive offerings include more than news and games?

Kaushik: Absolutely. Taking news first, we offer Active Star News which is a new-age interactive service that really puts the viewer in control. Viewers can choose from four screens that give them current news, headlines, top stories and features. They can also scroll down to get weather forecasts in 35 cities and a stock ticker.

We have a second news offering, Active Khabar, which features four Hindi news channels on a single screen. This service is also available in English.

World Vision: What about games and other interactive applications?

Kaushik: We’re actually very proud of our games because many platforms only offer games for children, but the Tata Sky platform features games for viewers of all ages. Also, all of our games can be played with our regular remote. Viewers don’t have to invest in additional hardware.

For sport fans, we feature Active Sports which adds exclusive features to enhance cricket matches. Viewers have a choice of commentators, they can view game highlights on demand, and they can access player statistics – all with the push of a button.

We also offer Active Wizkids, the world’s first educational games for children between the ages of three and six, and Showcase, a pay-per-view interactive movies service offering the best from Hollywood and Bollywod.

World Vision: Who are your competitors and how do they measure up to Tata Sky?

Kaushik: There are currently two other players in our market: DD Direct which is government-owned and broadcasts only free-to-air channels, and Dish TV. But Tata Sky’s state-of-the-art infrastructure, as well as our brands, customer service and interactive offerings have put us ahead of the competition.

We also offer convenience. First, we have exclusive features like pay-per-view. But we also have customer service 24/7 that plays a part in our success. This includes direct installation by about 3,000 service engineers who are trained by Tata Sky as well as customer service associates who are trained to answer queries in 11 languages.

In addition to all of these features, we benefit from the [attractiveness] of both the Tata and Sky brands.

World Vision: In addition to size, what makes the Indian pay-TV market different from other markets?

Kaushik: First, the high penetration of cable throughout the country. In addition there is the general lack of addressability  and the lack of exclusive content – which we are now developing.

World Vision: What future directions do you see for Tata Sky?

World Vision: How has NDS helped you realize your goals – past, present and future?

Kaushik: NDS played a key role in providing the end-to-end architecture to launch Tata Sky. In addition, the VideoGuard® conditional access system provides the superior broadcast security that enables Tata Sky to offer multiple programming and pricing packages.

For more information:

Tata Sky