Dish TV has seen sharp increase in collection due to digital transactions: Jawahar Goel

Direct to home (DTH) operator Dish TV has seen a sharp increase in its subscription collection due to recharges happening through digital platforms, Dish TV chairman and MD (CMD) Jawahar Goel has said.

Underlining the importance of technology in the company’s business, Goel said that the company will be harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) for marketing and predictive tools for churn management.

“We are witnessing a sharp rise in recharges also happening through digital platforms, which resulted in increased collections,” Goel said in a message to shareholders in the company’s annual report.

“AI and predictive tools are helping us in understanding customer behavior and developing and providing products suitable to customer needs,” he added.

Dish TV is trying to reach digital customer touch points strategically at every point of transaction. The company was the first DTH service brand to be listed on e-commerce giant Flipkart.

The partnership had strengthened Dish TV’s foothold on e-commerce portals and enhancing our reach, ease of use and additional comfort to our customers. Dish TV claims to have a 40+% market share ecommerce portals.

The company also said it has undertaken various search engine optimization (SEO) initiatives to optimise digital search platforms which have subsequently generated additional sales for the company. The company had initiate search options in Hindi language for its customers.

The company also revamped its website which has catalysed the growth in customer acquisition on the digital platform, most of which are new high definition (HD) subscriptions.

Goel also noted that Dish TV is using its technological expertise to bring about strategic collaborations in hardware and software, operations and data-based decision making across functions to improve customer experience.

“We are conscious of the fact that to remain a market leader, we need to ensure top class IT infrastructure and we are putting wholehearted efforts in deploying the best of technological advancements in our systems,” he stated.

He also said that Dish TV has commenced its journey towards creating a hybrid environment, with hybrid boxes which will provide live channels from the current setup and contents from the IP setup as well. “This would serve as a landmark customer initiative in the DTH industry,” Goel said.

Dish TV is also readying to launch its fully integrated over-the-top (OTT) service that would enable time-shift as well as live TV viewing of television content by Dish TV subscribers while on the go, through their smartphones/tablets etc.

The company will be targeting households with existing internet connections to build upon the existing infrastructure. It is also looking at collaborating with local service providers to ensure reaching the last mile.

During the fiscal, Videocon d2h had amalgamated into Dish TV to create India’s largest DTH platform. The company is eyeing cost synergies from the merger.