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Sony’s DTH service goes off the air in US

Sony Entertainment Television is off air on the direct-to-home (DTH) platform in the US as its franchisee partner has turned bankrupt.

The DTH provider, DirecTV, switched off the signal immediately after the Ethnic American Broadcasting Corporation (EABC) was declared a "bankrupt company." Sony Entertainment Television had a franchisee agreement with EABC to put the Hindi entertainment channel on the DTH platform in the US. Sony has decided to migrate to another platform following the development. "We are switching our distribution network in the US. We will decide on the platform provider by next week," said Rajesh Pant CEO, SET. Though Pant did not confirm, sources in the company said Sony is planning to move to the Echostar platform. B4U, a premium Bollywood movie channel which has a strategic alliance with Sony in the UK, is on the same platform.

"In the UK, we package our channel with B4U. We could have a similar arrangement in the US," a senior company official said. Sony, which was switched off for the DTH subscribers in the US, could not move to a new platform till the bankruptcy court had passed a judgement. With DirecTV deciding not to beam the Hindi entertainment channel, Sony was left in the lurch.
"We are now legally allowed to beam the signals to a new platform provider," Pant said.

Sony had, under the franchisee agreement, given the signal to EABC. While Sony would provide marketing expertise, EABC would uplink the channel and provide a subscriber management system to collect subscription revenue. Sony would be given a percentage of the spoils.

EABC had contracted with DirecTV and Sony was available to 12,000 DTH subscribers. But Ethnic American Broadcasting Corporation, which was offering a bouquet of language channels including Arabic, Chinese and Russian, went into chapter seven bankruptcy proceedings. The Sony channel was priced at $14.99 per subscriber. Sony is yet to recover the subscription revenue dues from EABC.

Sony’s cable subscribers, however, are not affected. The channel reaches out to 9,000 subscribers on the cable networks in the US. Though Sony is keen to be on the Echostar platform, it is not clear whether it can enter into a strategic alliance with B4U. "As Echostar is the platform provider, it will be up to them to decide on packaging our channel with Sony. We can’t have an exclusive arrangement with Sony as we are tied up in an agreement with Echostar for three years," B4U chief executive officer Ravi Gupta said.

Sony, which has grown slowly in the US, would like to tie up with B4U. Though an exclusive arrangement may be ruled out, Sony could do the next best thing: neutralise rival channel Zee TV’s advantage. By being on the Echostar platform, Zee is being offered alongwith B4U on a packaged pricing to selected subscribers.

B4U has become a popular channel in the US within a short time since its launch on March 15, 2000, and already reaches out to 30,000 DTH subscribers. "Sony and B4U would stand to gain if they are offered as a package," media analysts said.

Sibabrata Das