How Rural Audience has More DTH Subscription in India?

Gone are the days when entertainment was limited to only urbanites. With the availability of the internet, entertainment mediums are expanding faster in rural areas. However, there is a huge untapped rural audience who are still looking for a better cable connection. Soon after India permitted to start DTH network, many major players are often targeting the Tier II and Tier III cities. 

One of the leading DTH players ran a campaign lasting for 30 days and notched up 5,000 subscribers, in a rural area in Andhra Pradesh. If you live in the Tier II or Tier III cities and looking for a new DTH connection, consider Dish TV, the leading DTH provider in India. If you want to watch your favourite channels in HD, buy Dish TV HD online. Check out the key expansion strategies of major DTH players in India:

Regional Channels to Appeal to More Audiences

Tata Sky shifted its strategy to focus on the rural markets, instead of capturing a larger urban audience. Tata Sky's Active English service is promoted to make it available for people in rural areas of India. These kinds of campaigns are beneficial and promote education through various mediums. 

Identifying the Niche in Rural Viewership

For the last few years, all the DTH operators in India have been aggressively marketing their products in non-metro cities. Of the total 134 million TV households in the country, 50% are in the rural areas, as per the figures released by television audience measurement agency TAM Media Research. Also, 30% of the 70 million TV households in rural India do not have access to cable and satellite TV. This data further revealed that the market for digital TV is bigger in rural areas and is growing at a much higher rate than in urban areas. 

Dish TV India penetrated the rural market early on. It set up a distribution network in small towns and cities to capture the regional market. Among the various packages and recharge options, It began in the year 2000 when the government approved DTH services in the country. The cost of a DTH license was $2.14 million and the operator also had to pay 10% of its gross revenue as an annual license fee to the government. Currently, there are six players in the market with a combined subscriber base of around 20 million and nearly 1 million new subscribers signing up every month. Besides Dish TV, Tata Sky, Airtel Digital TV, there’s Sun Direct, which has primarily concentrated on the DTH market in the south. Interestingly, all of them have a broadcasting/entertainment business or a telecom company, the benefits of which are being leveraged to the maximum.

While the DTH subscriptions are increasing in both rural and urban India, it is interesting to note the increase in rural areas.