New Delhi: Dish TV has today announced that it is in the advanced stage of deploying return path data technology in its Hybrid Set Top Boxes. Till date, Dish TV has deployed around 3 Million Hybrid Set Top Boxes in the market. Upon implementation of the return path data (RPD) technology, Dish TV would be able to gather real time and accurate data on viewing patterns of the customer, across all the regions of the country.
Dish TV has set pioneering and unconventional examples in the broadcasting and distribution landscapes, and this move is yet another endeavor to help the industry make better business decisions in this increasingly competitive landscape. Presently, Malaysia is the only market that is measuring the viewership with RPD and Dish TV’s initiative will be a first of its kind in India.
BARC Not Benefiting:
The move doesn’t benefit BARC India as the data collected through this technology will essentially be used by Dish TV for its own usage, to understand TV consumption patterns on its platform. Currently, BARC data is the measurement matrix for acquiring Channel’s for the DTH platform. The data which Dish TV will acquire through the return path will bring clear picture about the real choice of the customers in various regions of the country.
Currently, Dish TV is having 16 million boxes out of which 3 million boxes are hybrid boxes that are eligible for RPD Measurement. Eventually, the data collected by Dish TV through RPD will be a robust one in terms of Sampling when compared with the data that is being collected by the joint-industry body BARC from 30,000 boxes approximately
Further, Dish TV will also make this data available to Marketing Agencies and also to large corporate houses which will enable them to judge the customer viewership choice accurately and decide on the Advertisement spend on the channels.
It may be noted that BARC India was trying to rope in MSOs and DTH operators to scale-up its sample size using RPD technology. It also announced partnership with DEN Networks for Measuring Viewership during last October 2017. However, Dish TV’s announcement to go solo will be a set back for BARC India as it is loosing the opportunity adding 3 million boxes across the country for measurement. This much volume of addition will have a major impact on BARC’s efforts to bring down the relativity error issues in niche genres.
Dish TV will kick-start the Measurement Process after installing the PRD Technology in all its Hybrid Boxes in the near future.
