The festival season has sparked of a price war among direct to home operators trying to get a share of the market.
After Tata Sky brought down the price of its set-top box to Rs 999 last month, almost all players have slashed hardware prices between Rs 890 to Rs 1,200.
However, it is unlikely that DTH operators are going to burn a hole in their pockets by selling the boxes at a low price.
"Operators are smartly marketing themselves now.
"Earlier, the prices were high as the set-top boxes were sold bundled with channel packages. Now they are targeting the customer with a promise of low hardware cost," said an analyst with a consultancy firm -- having a tie up with a DTH operator in formulating strategies -- on the condition of anonymity.
On Monday, Dish TV -- having the largest subscriber base -- launched its Diwali offer -- set top box at Rs 990 (Rs 200 for installation) and recharge vouchers worth Rs 990 free.
"Our offer makes the boxes available for free to the customers," said Salil Kapoor, COO, Dish TV.
Sun Direct has gone a step further pricing its set top box at Rs 890 and offering the basic subscription package at Rs 99 per month.
Similarly, Videocon D2H is offering its set top box for Rs 888. Customers opting for the offer will get Videocon D2H set top box and one month of diamond pack worth Rs 292 free.
Industry observers believe that the smart marketing moves will bring in new subscribers while at the same time it would not increase their subsidy burden.
"Tata Sky has not reduced the price of its channel offerings. It has merely bundled them according to genres. While the basic channel pack is available for Rs 150, a household where sports, kids channels and English news channels are consumed would end up paying over Rs 270.
"It is smart marketing and they are not subsidising the set-top box any further," the analyst said.
Tata Sky has launched 'Truchoice' which brings in genre-specific pricing of packages.
"Subscribers are forced to pay for content that they don't watch or often do not understand. North Indian subscribers, for instance, complain about having to pay for south Indian regional channels and vice versa," said Vikram Kaushik, CEO and MD, Tata Sky.
Dish TV introduced four new packages on Monday with a movie-on-demand pack, a recharge voucher priced at Rs 360 each, an a-la-carte voucher at Rs 225 and an upgrade voucher at Rs 45.
India's total television viewership is close to 135 million, of which 80 per cent have access to cable and satellite.
The total DTH subscribers are over 22 million. DTH has a market share of approximately 20 per cent.
According to various industry reports, the subscriber base for DTH is poised to reach 40 million by 2013.
