With direct-to-home slowly gaining popularity in the country, Dish TV, the DTH venture from the Essel group, has decided to move to the next level and make movies available on pay-per-view.
The 'movies on demand' move - the first such initiative in India - will be launched next month. Viewers will be asked to place their orders for movies either via SMS or through the Essel group call centres.
"Internationally, any movie is first released at theatres; at the second stage, it is available for home viewing followed by pay-per-view and finally, comes satellite release. We will follow the same pattern in India," Sunil Khanna, CEO, Dish TV, said.
The movies available will go beyond the existing ones in the Zee library and include new releases. The movies would cost the viewer around Rs 40 per view, which works out to be a much better deal than renting a DVD or VCD that costs between Rs 50-100 depending in which city you are in.
However, unlike this venture, video libraries do not lend DVD or VCD of new films. Of course, one would need to be a Dishtv subscriber to be able to access this facility.
DTH venture subscriber base has swelled only recently. Khanna attributed this to increasing marketing activities over the last three months. During this period, Dishtv's overall subscriber base grew from 150,000 to 450,000.
Describing this as the fastest growth ever for any digital platform globally, Khanna said the business would continue to grow close to 100 per cent. "We hope to touch one million subscriber base by the end of this financial year," he said.
In a bid to reach the target, and keeping the festive season in mind, the company has announced some special deals that ensure a holiday voucher equivalent to the cost of the dish to every subscriber.
Though there are still some problems with certain broadcasters not allowing their content to be telecast on DTH, Khanna expressed hope that this would be sorted out soon.
"The quality offered by DTH is far superior to what is currently offered by cable operators. Besides, this is also more efficient for the increasing amount of floating population in the country," he added.