@ksh@T 20 Report post Posted October 1, 2005 Celling your way to glory Operators Partner TV Channels To Offer Interactive Service For Reality Shows Diya Seth & Meenakshi Verma NEW DELHI 25 SEPTEMBER IF you thought your cell phone was all about making calls and sending SMS or MMS, think again. It’s is your ticket to earning loads of quick moolah or becoming a singing sensation overnight. Cellular operators have launched marketing strategies in partnership with reality television shows to enable their customers to become rich and famous. This is paying off for the telecom service providers in terms of building brand preference and contribution to growth in their revenues. Major players like Airtel, Hutch, Idea as well as regional ones like Spice have joined the bandwagon. While Airtel launched an interactive voice response service for the music based reality show, Indian Idol and the game show KBC, Hutch is partnering MTV for an interactive chat show and a global travel reality series on National Geographic. According to Naveen Chopra, corporate vice president, Hutch, “Reality TV shows are high involvement programmes and indirectly help to strengthen the brand presence amongst the customers.” These alliances are pushing revenues for the operators in a big way. For instance, the Airtel-Star partnership for KBC2 saw 3 crore calls being received in the first two weeks itself. Airtel envisages an increase of 10% in value added services(VAS) usage with the Indian Idol arrangement. Spice Telecom which dominates the Punjab region, has seen a 10-15% increase in revenues from the VAS stream with its mobile Tambola offering. Banking on the popularity of these programmes, telecom operators are also hoping to capture a larger market share. Idea Cellular officials reported an increase of 10% in their subscriber base with this particular strategy. Of course, it’s a win-win situation for the subscribers as well with the mobile being transformed from a utility to being an entertainment medium. The tie-up with Sony Entertainment Television will enable Airtel customers to gain direct entry into the Indian Idol audition in their quest to become the next Indian Idol, after Abhijeet Sawant. guys why is not RIM showing interest in this regard to participate with tv channels..look at the striking revenues of airtel ...HUTCH and IDEA! and Spice tooo...... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
amitbt22 2 Report post Posted October 1, 2005 rim showing interest in putting their logos in most of the news channels Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chandramauli 0 Report post Posted October 2, 2005 just wishing that reliance info shudnt join this bandwagon !!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
@ksh@T 20 Report post Posted October 2, 2005 why shdnt rim be in it..whats wrong with that..if some ppl can give a hell lotta bucks for calling a min or so why shdnt cRIM encash it Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
amitbt22 2 Report post Posted October 3, 2005 agree with u akshat.Rim can have tie ups like airtel & 2nd indian idol by kicking also BSNL & MTNL Landlines premium service Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
@ksh@T 20 Report post Posted October 3, 2005 but why aint lil Ambani understands this.....he is emptying users pocket for money when .......he can get a lotta frm here..... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Utsav 0 Report post Posted October 3, 2005 RIL is quite happy f**king the clients! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
amitbt22 2 Report post Posted October 4, 2005 After there previous postpaid billing issues they r eager to build & maintain the "affordable" prepaid company .Since reliance & Bsnl hav same status (being late to introduce VAS compared to other telcos) of "affordable". .behind this reliance has ril support & status & BSNL has GOVT support. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RajanPERT 0 Report post Posted October 4, 2005 I don't think that Reliance Info never tried for this type stuff. They will tried for it but did not find any positive response. The marketing team of Reliance Info is very weak. They have very good plan but do not have a way to convey these plans to people. Same may be apply for TV Channel's official sponser. Thanks and Take Care! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chirag 5 Report post Posted October 4, 2005 The marketing team of Reliance Info is very weak. 43059[/snapback] Yeah? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites