Dish TV is set to become the country's first Direct-To-Home provider offering gaming services as a special feature on its set top boxes.
Promoted by Subhash Chandra owned-Essel Group, the private DTH player has tied up with US-based Open TV for transferring this technology at a consideration of $100 million over 5 years.
Playjam, a gaming product from the Open TV stable, would be rolled out by the end of this month.
"We are going to launch Playjam on our platform by the end of July. By 2007, we would have another gaming package. We are also looking to have a range of interactive content in movies, music and sports too", said Jawahar Goel, business head, Dish TV.
The Rs 50 crore- (Rs 500 million) Dish TV is looking to increase its revenues tenfold by 2012 and is looking at value added services like interactive gaming, film and music content as major revenue drivers.
Though Dish TV would be the first to introduce VAS, Tata Sky, Sun TV and Anil Dhirubhai Ambani DTH ventures, may follow suit as competition heats up, stated a media analyst.
Moreover, with Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's regulations denying content exclusivity, providers would increasingly have to depend on VAS as an important differentiating factor.
"With the parity in content, DTH players would have to compete on the basis of price, brand, quality of service and VAS. It would be like the Telecom companies, all of which provide voice and text connectivity, but still compete and VAS is a crucial parameter", commented Goel.
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