Bharti scouts for agency for its DTH services

Bharti will have to fight it out with existing players such as Dish TV, DD Direct and Tata Sky

The Bharti Group is expected to roll out its DTH services, Bharti Telemedia, by the end of this year. agencyfaqs! has learnt from reliable sources that the group is scouting for agencies for the new venture.

Sources say there are three agencies currently in the fray for the business and among them are JWT and McCann Erickson. The name of the third agency couldn’t be ascertained. The size of the business should be quite large, considering that it’s coming from the Bharti stable.

Previously, it was decided that Bharti Telemedia would be a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, the telecom business of the group, to leverage the support of the broadband services. But later, it was declared that the DTH venture would be a wholly owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel. Bharti’s manufacturing arm, Bharti Teletech, will produce the set top boxes for the DTH services.

Bharti scouts for agency for its DTH services

Although the DTH space is still nascent in the Indian market, quite a few players have had the first mover advantage and been able to establish themselves. Among these are DD Direct, the Zee Group’s Dish TV and Tata Sky. Reliance will also join the bandwagon soon with Blue Magic. So, establishing itself in the market will be a challenge for Airtel.

The creative duties for Tata Sky (the 80:20 venture between the Tata Group and Rupert Murdoch’s Star) are handled by Rediffusion DY&R, and the media is looked after by Maxus. Lowe is in charge of Dish TV, Madison is its media agency.

It is not known whether the Bharti Group is also looking for a media agency for its DTH venture.

Have news to share? Write to us atnewsteam@afaqs.com

Bharti Bharti Telemedia