India's third largest oil firm plans to use its 1800 LPG distributors, covering about 20 million consumers, for marketing of DTH and is targeting 30 percent of the over eight million DTH consumers expected by 2010, a BPCL official said.
To provide digital content distribution service to subscribers at a very affordable price, BPCL may form a joint venture with a partner dealing either in cost intensive areas like content, transponder space and STB or a financer.
BPCL has acquired in-house expertise in satellite uplinking and optimization of precious space segment in satellite.
It acquired experience in hub implementation at integrated data centre at Greater Noida for connecting 300 offices and 3,000 users all over the country, he said. With revenue sharing between cable operators and broadcasters at 83 percent and 17 percent, BPCL hopes to rope in broadcasting community as there is a huge revenue loss to them.
Distribution of content being a major bottleneck for the broadcaster, any organization which has the capability of doing it effectively and also managing the customer segment - customer acquisition, equipment logistics, first-level call handling and monthly collection of subscription - can play a major role in filling the gap.
"BPCL's advantage of being a 'Neutral Service Provider' will encourage content players to willingly share their contents with BPCL at market determined prices," says a company proposal which envisages taking on a joint venture partner.
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