India's top direct-to-home (DTH<\/a>) television company, Tata Play<\/a>, is planning to voluntarily downgrade the subscription plans<\/a> of almost half of its subscribers.
The move, the first by any distribution platform operator, will result in monthly savings of ₹30-100 for subscribers, while further reducing the company's average revenue per user (ARPU). However, Tata Play believes that given the state of the economy and churn the pay-TV industry had witnessed in the last two years due to the implementation of the new tariff order (NTO), this decision would help it retain subscribers.
Tata Play, formerly Tata Sky<\/a>, claims to have 19 million active subscribers.
\"Lot of our subscribers are being erratic in their recharges. Some are only recharging when they have compelling content. Earlier, we had more people upsizing and less downsizing their plans, now it's the opposite,\" managing director Harit Nagpal told ET. \"So, after looking at all the data, we have identified that it's time to take some right measures to help our subscribers.\"
India's top direct-to-home (DTH<\/a>) television company, Tata Play<\/a>, is planning to voluntarily downgrade the subscription plans<\/a> of almost half of its subscribers.
The move, the first by any distribution platform operator, will result in monthly savings of ₹30-100 for subscribers, while further reducing the company's average revenue per user (ARPU). However, Tata Play believes that given the state of the economy and churn the pay-TV industry had witnessed in the last two years due to the implementation of the new tariff order (NTO), this decision would help it retain subscribers.
Tata Play, formerly Tata Sky<\/a>, claims to have 19 million active subscribers.
\"Lot of our subscribers are being erratic in their recharges. Some are only recharging when they have compelling content. Earlier, we had more people upsizing and less downsizing their plans, now it's the opposite,\" managing director Harit Nagpal told ET. \"So, after looking at all the data, we have identified that it's time to take some right measures to help our subscribers.\"
Starting Saturday, many Tata Play subscribers will start receiving messages from the company in batches, informing them about dropping certain channels or bouquets from their monthly packs and the overall savings. The subscribers, who wish to reinstate the packs, can do so via its app.
\"We are not doing this randomly; it will be based on customer's usage and only the channels\/ bouquets they don't consume will be dropped,\" Nagpal, also its chief executive, said.
Incidentally, over the last two months, Tata Play's call centre has almost stopped making outbound calls to upsell plans.
\"Earlier, out of every 100 plan changes, 70% used to upgrade, while only 30% of subscribers used to call to downgrade the plans. In the last two months, the number has reversed,\" Nagpal said.
Cable and DTH companies have been witnessing serious churn over the last two years, with almost over 1% of their subscriber base disconnecting every month. While on the top end, users are moving for OTT subscriptions<\/a>, the lower end subscribers are opting for DD FreeDish, the free-to-air platform of the government's Prasar Bharati.
\"Customers, who can afford pay TV, are not excited about just linear TV anymore. They want TV+OTT, which is where Tata Play and Airtel can still retain subscribers with bundled offerings. But it's a carnage for traditional platforms,\" said a senior distribution industry executive.
\"DD Free Dish has reached almost 50 million users, from 20-25 million prior to the NTO.\"
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