Picture a young person, 22-28 years of age, working in a private firm at an entry level position, modest means, unmarried and living in a big city with shining lights. Call him Shyam.
Picture a person who is 17 -22 years old, just finished school or probably in the sophomore year at the university college in a big city with shining lights, but belongs to a Tier 2 or a Tier 3 town, and is dependent on the pocket money provided by the parents. Call her Shaina.
I can visualize the puzzled look on the faces of both Shyam and Shaina, when they see an advertisement about a particular band performing live at Blue Frog or a Hard Rock Café. Both of them want to be there but are either financially constrained, or being first timers are shy of being in a live music performance club. Probably Shyam and Shaina would have been more comfortable if they had already seen and appreciated the bands belting out one number after another, in these live music performance clubs.
Now, is there a business opportunity here???
According to me it makes a novel offering for subscribers of DTH Operators. DTH being a regulated business, the only differentiators are technology and content. Technology is not indigenous, and what is available to DTH Operator A from a foreign vendor, is also available to DTH Operator B from the same vendor. Speaking of content, the television channels are the same, whether I get them from Operator A or Operator B. To differentiate themselves, the operators are now focusing on extending Value Added / Active / Interactive services to their subscribers to increase their Average Revenue per User (ARPU). DTH value added services is a major thrust area for the operators if one goes by the TV campaigns which focus on value added services and interviews of the top honchos, available in the public domain.
Either as live broadcast feed or as pay per view, watching some of the best bands performing at these music performance clubs / cafes, in the comfort of my home, with the Dolby surround feature of the set top box provided by my DTH operator, is a visual delight.
Everyone is a winner, Subscriber’s aspirational and differentiated content needs are satisfied, Live Music Performance Club gets a revenue share for each pay per view, thus compensating for the content and production costs, it also take its artist management and promotion services to the new level, DTH Operator becomes the first one to offer this content followed by other me too’s, the Band, reaches out to far more people outside the club.
Once the DTH technology matures and more reverse path (two way communication) applications emerge on the landscape, I can like the band, request a song, buy the album (Television Commerce or T-Commerce), the opportunities are just limited by imagination.
As always, I will request the readers of this post if you have time, please drop a line.