Well DD Direct Plus or lets say DoorDarshan Direct Plus is the country's only Free To Air (FTA) direct to home (DTH) service run by Prasar Bharati that provides satellite channels and audio programming. They are currently providing only 59 FTA channels, most of which are DoorDarshan's own. Also the All India Radio channels are included in the package. At present DD Direct reaches 6 million homes, while private DTH operators cater to 14-16 million homes. Officials expect its reach to expand to 30 million homes within months of launching the new product. What is it that will give it a 30 million home connection? Its the new package. Wondering what this new package got? Its the upcoming Free 200 channels that DD Direct is planning to launch in the end of this year. The idea behind this initiative is to make the DTH service more viewer friendly and adequate dose of popular entertainment channels will make it more attractive.
The recent news about this service really brought a shock to most private DTH Service providers. Paying a huge amount of security and other charges along with daily monthly rent for getting more than 100 digital channels looks costly when you have such a great offer, where you pay only for the set top box (STB).Obviously you will opt for the free one. India is a place where a simple "SALE" tag attracts a lot of audience and when you get something for FREE then you can imagine what an amount of customers DD Direct will get. [POLL] Would you continue paying private DTH for the same channels that you are getting for free?
Well looking at the other side of the coin, the question that arises is that will the payed channels let their channels be telecasted for free? Will they agree with Doordarshan? DD Direct must be having a plan for making these paid channels go with them. I guess yes! I read HT report on this, saying :
The moot question is whether some pay channels will be willing to turn free to take advantage of the huge viewership DD Direct expects to offer, making up in advertising rates what they lose from subscriptions. Officials said they offered another incentive: the carriage fee — annual price of beaming a channel — Doordarshan charges is lower than private operators. "If DD Direct can put together a good combination, it will have a good market," said Uday Shankar, CEO Star India. "But I doubt pay channels will shift."
Some other things that DD Direct need to have in order to attract its customers are a good collection of applications. With Tatasky, dish TV etc having gaming applications and lot more to offer , DD Direct too need to get solution or lets say some good applications.
Don't know whether it will be possible or not for DD to bring 200 Free channels. All we can do is wait for the year to end and check it out what happens. Keeping my fingers crossed and waiting for this Game changer.
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