Interview with Vikram Mehra, Chief Marketing Officer, Tata Sky

Tell us about the gaming section on Tata Sky
Tata Sky has introduced a new breed of high tech gaming on the DTH platform with the launch of Actve Games last year. This service provides a unique playground experience in the comfort of your home on your TV Screen. All games featured on Actve Games caters across every age-groups offering multiple genres such as sports, action, adventure, arcade, cards and racing. The catalogue of games is constantly updated by Tata for its growing subscriber base of over 6 million connections.

As a company’s policy we do not share the revenues. However, Tata Sky Actve Games has been a part of our overall objective to offer greater value to our subscribers. Since its launch, the service has received tremendous response from our subscribers especially housewives who spend a substantial amount of time playing games in the comfort of their home.

What kind of games is working on the DTH platform? What is the current Tata Sky game library like?
As mentioned earlier, Tata Sky Actve Games is offering a complete new gaming experience to its subscribers who can enjoy these games in the comfort of their homes with every member being involved. Besides multi-genre games, we have also introduced celeb games like the Yuvraj Singh Cricket Championship and Bipasha’s Fitness Gym Game across various age segments.

The Actve Games service provides over 50 different games throughout the year on Tata Sky Actve Platform, with at least 6 of them to be enjoyed daily. The games cater to all age groups across multiple genres such as sports, action, adventure, arcade, cards and racing. Tata Sky constantly updates the catalogue for its growing subscriber base of over 6 million connections.

What is your target audience demographics like?
Tata Sky is a host to a variety of interactive programmes through its Actve platform. The Actve series is aimed at a varied audience - children between the ages of 3-12 years, housewives, adults and senior citizens — with programmes ranging from educational modules and cookery and shopping.

What is the collaboration between Hungama and Tata Sky? Is Tata Sky developing these games in-house or outsourcing it?
Tata Sky has always collaborated with pioneers in the industry. For Actve Games, we are working with the Leader – Hungama Digital Studio. They have made noticeable and significant inroads into the world of gaming; recalibrating the benchmark in DTH gaming, redefining and trendsetting the gaming experience, cornering the mobile gaming market, and being an established player in internet gaming. Thus, with an aim of making home the new playground, Tata Sky Ltd and Hungama Digital Studio have joined hands to launch exciting games across a wide variety of genre like Sports, Action, Adventure, Arcade, Cards, Racing amongst many more that would keep the players totally gripped. The games are created by Hungama Game Studio especially for Tata Sky subscribers.

What kind of future do you see foresee for games on DTH platforms in India?
Gaming on the DTH platform is a comparatively new concept and gradually gaining momentum. Gaming is starting to spread to smaller towns and cities and has a chance for becoming bigger than movies among the youth. We have targeted women and kids. For kids, we use Disney characters to impart education like maths quizzes and pronunciation exercises. For housewives, our focus is on content on the TV. They just have to press a button and start. A new game is given to them every day. Our content is refreshed hourly. This is much better than somebody paying thousands of rupees on game software that the child might get bored off quickly. The Actve Games service is targeted to all age groups and includes various kinds of games which are refreshed on regular basis. Our attempt is to provide better and interesting games which can further attract a larger subscriber base.