Airtel facilitates recording TV programmes through mobile phones

Bharti Airtel has launched Airtel Digital TV Recorder, which facilitates remote recording of live television through mobile phone from anywhere in the world. It is said to be the first time in India that a telecom service provider has come up with such a facility. This paves the way for further convergence between mobile and TV and could be in a way called the next generation DTH with enhanced Set Top Box (STB) having an option to pause, rewind and forward live television.

Speaking on this service, Sugato Bannerjee, Chief Marketing Officer – DTH, Bharti Airtel, said, “We are expecting a fabulous response because of our very powerful and a unique differentiator. We are covering the time-challenged segment of people who have very busy lives and have to juggle multiple things at the same time. For example, a homemaker is a mother to a four-year old, she has to instruct the maid, go grocery shopping, changing her role every now and then. We want such people to continue working in their style and not miss any TV programmes at the same time.”

On how the Digital TV Recorder is unique, he said, “The distinguishing feature is the mobile recording. It has been introduced for the first time in India and we are amongst first 10 DTH operators in the world to have come up with this feature.”

In order to avail of this service, the customer needs to upgrade the existing Airtel DTH set-top boxes to Airtel Digital Recorders. The customer’s mobile number would then be linked to the customer ID of the recorder, which may or may not be an Airtel phone number. Other operators are compatible, too, and three more numbers could be mapped with a single customer ID.

According to Bannerjee, the kind of revolution that DTR could bring about was not confined to just TV-watching habits in Indian households, but also in the way the television industry functioned.

“We believe the adoption of this will bring about a lot of changes. Firstly, this in a way will be marrying of mobile with TV, a true convergence would happen as one can command TV from mobile and people will start using recording facility more. Secondly, viewers would start watching more of niche programmes. Thirdly, this would push TV industry to manage the afternoon air time, since the repeat telecast would almost to come to a halt. About 30-40 per cent households in the US have already got converted to DTR homes. Additional TRPs will go down, while TRPs for main programmes will go up. Last, but not the least, the conflict of channel surfing in almost every household will come down,” Bannerjee explained.

He also disclosed Airtel’s plans to promote DTR across all possible mediums. “We will go for complete 360 degree coverage starting with a TV campaign during the on-going IPL, which would be flashed on lifestyle and infotainment channels. Thereon, we will take it to web, do outdoor advertising, radio advertising with contextual RJ mention, Internet and SEO marketing, contextual OOH campaigns at coffee shops, airports, theatres, etc.,” he added.

Speaking on the ad campaign, Bannerjee said, “We will be dominant enough when it will come to advertising for DTR. The Kareena-Saif ad campaign would run for another 4-6 weeks. And afterwards, we will start focusing on other aspects of DTR.”