KOLKATA: Pay TV meanders along in India, even as the near future will expectedly watch digital adoption accelerating at a rapid pace of disruption. The legacy direct-to-platform (DTH) players are taking note of the shift in consumer habits to keep up with the trend. Tata Sky has been one such player to embrace streaming services to retain consumers.
The leading DTH player has recently extended its OTT content aggregator service to a mobile app, Tata Sky Binge Mobile App that offers a single subscription and a one-time payment proposition alongside numerous titles across entertainment apps on one single platform.
“Over the last year, our subscribers said that they wanted the on-the-move experience of Binge. We know that a lot of the OTT content consumption is happening on mobile. Hence, the subsequent step was to broaden the offering through a mobile app, and make it available to a wider audience segment, enabling them to watch their choice of content individually on their mobile phones,” Tata Sky chief commercial & content officer Pallavi Puri explained the rationale of the move.
The company has launched the app with a product film on Tata Sky’s channel 100, along with a social media campaign #KhojoNahiDekho, Puri stated. The campaign spotlights how people spend a lot of time toggling on the apps and searching for content to watch, and yet often end up watching nothing.
Hence, the focus of the communication is to encourage people to stop searching and start binge-watching content from across multiple entertainment apps with a one-stop solution - Tata Sky Binge mobile app, she explained further. “We have a robust and phase-wise marketing strategy in place to scale up the product as we go along,” Puri said.
In the beginning, the company wants to popularise the app, establish its benefits, rather than focusing on target numbers. Through this app, Tata Sky is targeting every Tata Sky subscriber who has a smartphone. Audience segments that prefer a more personalized content viewing experience, that can be accessed on-the-go, will like and gain from this app, Puri noted. Moreover, the company has introduced the Rs 149 mobile-only plan to appeal to a larger audience.
Puri is of the view that the launch of this app has strengthened Tata Sky’s OTT aggregation portfolio. Subscribers can now avail the Binge offering through Amazon FireTV Stick – Tata Sky edition, Android-enabled smart set-top box, Tata Sky Binge+, and the very latest Binge Mobile app basis their choice of device and convenience.
Notably, Tata Sky’s arch-rival Dish TV also has its OTT app Watcho that has already crossed 15 million subscribers. The app provides original content, even woos users with user-generated content. However, Tata Sky wants to focus on OTT content for its app at this point. Based on insights from its subscribers, it may further enhance the overall Binge proposition.
“The initial traction has been very encouraging. We are seeing great traction from non-metros – DAS 2, DAS 3 cities. With its first-rate end-user interface, unified search, and a seamless hyper-personalised content recommendation and viewing experience, we are hoping Binge will become our subscribers’ favourite very soon,” Puri commented.
