airtel digital TV records the fastest 5 million customers

The 5th entrant leads industry net additions with over 2.8 mn customers already in FY 2010-11

NEW DELHI — airtel digital TV-the DTH service from bharti airtel today announced that it has crossed the milestone of 5 million customers on its platform. Coming in as the 5th operator, airtel digital TV today has been leading industry additions with over 2.8 million customers already in the first 10 months of FY 10-11. The achievement in just 21 months of full scale national operations, is the fastest anywhere in the world. As of January 31, 2011, airtel digital TV had over 5.1 million customers.

The rapid growth has been a result of airtel’s consistent focus on the fundamental elements of superior technology and content, service, reach and availability. Today airtel digital TV is available in areas covered by over 21,000 of the country’s approximately 27,000 pin codes. Over 70% of its customers today are coming in from towns with a population less than 100,000. This has made airtel digital TV the clear leader in share of new customers’ addition every month in 10 of the 19 state clusters in the country.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Ajai Puri, Director and CEO-digital TV services, Bharti airtel said, “We are humbled by the customer response to our services. The 5 million customer milestone is a significant step in our journey of making airtel the most preferred choice of customers on all three screens – Mobile, PC and TV. While on one hand, we made a conscious decision to invest in the latest MPEG4 DVBS 2 technology and created industry leading partnerships for content and service delivery, the power of brand airtel and its distribution reach, enabled us to get immediate access to a large retail base. In doing so, we have consistently garnered a larger share of the category over the last 6 quarters, thereby gaining critical scale in short time. We are now well placed to realize our vision of becoming the most preferred brand for customers in the DTH category.”

As the fastest growing DTH operator, airtel digital TV has made significant inroads into the category with Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and the North East emerging as its biggest markets. Over the last 6 consecutive quarters, 1 in every 4 DTH customers has come onto the airtel digital TV platform. Unique differentiators like remote recording via the mobile on its Recorder and Digital Dolby Plus 7.1 surround sound experience on HD, have helped airtel garner leadership in new customers in both the Recorder and HD categories. Over 15% of new customer additions for airtel digital TV over the last quarter in top metro markets, have been coming through the HD platform.

airtel digital TV was voted the favourite DTH service by customers in key metros in the 2010 customer satisfaction survey by MaRS on India’s Favourite DTH Operator. Conducted across 8 cities, airtel digital TV emerged on top in 4 of the 8 parameters of the survey, like Availability of other payment options, Innovative Services and more crucially Uninterrupted Services and Complaint Redressal.

airtel digital TV – The DTH service from Bharti airtel – has over 5.1 million customers and is one of the leading national level DTH service in the country which offers its customers MPEG 4 with DVBS 2 – currently the most advanced digital broadcasting technologies available in the world after HD broadcasting. Additionally, airtel digital TV was the first to bring many firsts to the DTH segment in India including a Universal Remote which operates both the Set Top Box and TV set as well as several unique Interactive Applications. airtel digital TV recorder was the first to offer the capability to record live television, anytime, anywhere and recently added HD services to its portfolio. Users can also update themselves on the latest stock news. All this is backed by 24×7 customer care. airtel digital TV launched its services in October 2008.