According to reports, Tata Sky, the leading direct-to-home (DTH) company and a joint venture between the Tata Group and the Walt Disney Company, has decided to drop ‘Sky’ from its brand name after an 18-year run in a rebranding initiative that will see the company rechristened as Tata Play.
Tata Sky, which claims over 19 million active subscribers, feels its business interests have grown beyond just DTH service and now include fiber-to-home broadband and Binge, which offers 14 OTT services, the report said.
“While we originally started as a DTH company, we have now fully transformed into a content distribution company,” Harit Nagpal, MD & CEO, Tata Play, told ET. “As the needs of a small base of customers were changing, and they were consuming content on OTT platforms, we wanted to create a platform and provide them with a unified experience. So, we launched Binge. We also offer a niche broadband business.”
The CEO said that while DTH would continue to be their fastest growing and largest business, OTT was also going to be big, and thus it was time for a brand identity that resonated beyond the DTH business, the report said.
Tata Sky started operations in 2004, after it was launched as an 80:20 joint venture between Tata Sons and Rupert Murdoch-owned 21st Century Fox. Subsequently, Fox and the Tata Group formed TS Investments, which acquired a 20% stake in Tata Sky.
That gave Fox an additional indirect stake of 9.8%. Later, when Murdoch sold Fox’s entertainment business to The Walt Disney Company, the stake in Tata Sky was also transferred to the Mickey Mouse company. (Economic Times)
