In May, 2016, the lead content manager of the GS Group holding company, Ms. Anna Shutilova participated at the World Content Market conference in Moscow. During the conference, the speaker outlined the content policy of RealVU, the first satellite Pay TV operator in Bangladesh. The project was implemented by the GS Group holding company in partnership with the local diversified conglomerate BEXIMCO.
Ms. Anna Shutilova, the lead content manager at GS Group, unveiled how the nationwide RealVU DTH platform’s smart content policy turned into one of the key competitive advantages of the operator. Content strategy of RealVU is based on the formation of a balanced proposal, which takes into account the genre preferences of the population and the linguistic characteristics of the country. Competitive analysis demonstrated the disadvantages of the local analog, digital cable and illegal Indian satellite operators, currently working in the market, which are low penetration and poor signal quality.
Despite the fact that illegal Indian satellite operators broadcast over 300 channels, they neglect the local Bengali channels. Many regional Indian channels are broadcasted in dialects not spoken by the locals, such as Telugu, Tamil, Marathi and others. In terms of language criteria, Bengali TV channels can be divided into seven groups: local Bengalese, international channels in Bengali, international channels in Hindi, international channels in both Hindi and English at a 50/50 ratio, international channels in the so-called language of Hinglish (70-80% in Hindi, 20-30% in English), regional Indian channels and channels in other languages. It was decided to focus RealVU on TV channels in Bengali, Hindi and Hinglish. Similarly to language criteria, content genres have also been analyzed where focus was made on popular entertaining genres, Bollywood films, TV series, sports broadcasting and educational and children’s content.
Thus, the final content proposal was formed which is highly in demand in the Bangladeshi market. The package includes local and top-rated international channels: localized majors’ TV channels – Discovery Networks, Sony Corporation, Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), Viacom, well-known channels of the Indian television holding company Zee Entertainment Enterprise, Stars India TV network and others. In total, RealVU offers to its subscribers 105 digital channels at an affordable price: 100 SD-channels and 5 HD-channels. Short-term plans of the operator include increasing the number of TV channels and expanding the HD package.
“We took into consideration the local specific features while drafting a content offer since Bangladesh is primarily a Muslim country and broadcasting certain types of content is forbidden. The license grant procedure for TV channels in Bangladesh is far from easy and includes several stages. Channels have the right to apply for broadcast permission solely with a distributor and a broadcaster. The RealVU operator has become a pioneer at obtaining broadcast permission of certain channels including the major networks such as Disney, which haven’t been formally introduced to the market before” – Ms. Anna Shutilova, lead content manager at GS Group holding.
The RealVU TV operator was launched by the GS Group investment and industry holding company and the local partner in April of 2016. GS Group acts as a supplier and integrator of its in-house hardware and software solutions for the operator’s functioning in accordance with the modern standards of digital television. The first DTH-platform in Bangladesh will ensure nationwide high-quality digital broadcasting to 165 million population.