Staying true to its track record of introducing the latest technology in Nepal, Dish Home has started a handy credit facil-ity for its customers. If customers run out of balance, then with a single SMS, they can resume the service on credit. Customers can then clear the credit within three days by using E-sewa, Paypal, or the company’s recharge card.

The company is also launching an app than can be used to check the balance and availability of credit or to refresh the set-top box. In addition to this, the new app will allow users to top up their balance using their SCT or Visa credit cards. 

“Our main objective is to increase our interaction with the customers,” says Dish Home’s DGM Kalyan Adhikary.
In 2011, Home TV and Dish Nepal (the first DTH operators in Nepal) merged their businesses in view of the size of in-vestment and the costs involved in running satellite TV services. 

In the light of this quick merger, starting the business without gathering enough information was a mistake, admits CEO of the company Sudeep Acharya. 

“Merging the two companies was the right decision. Otherwise it would have been really difficult for us,” adds Acharya. 
Later in 2012, the company invited Taiwan and Hong Kong-based company, Sandmartin International Holding Ltd, as an investor. “We have reached our break-even point and the company is slowly, but continuously growing. We are moving ahead in a planned way,” says DGM Kalyan Adhikary.

The rural market has embraced our product easily as people there have no other alternative and the cable providers were not able to provide good service. But we are now strongly penetrating the urban market. We are trying to attract customers to make the switch to our service,” says CEO Acharya. 

The service has been a success in individual houses where a family has a single TV. The company is now trying to attract households that have more than one TV, says Adhikary. Dish Home provides multi TV offers at discounted monthly subscription cost and can be connected to any number of TVs at a very reasonable cost, he added. 

The increase in sales of LCD and LED TVs has made customers opt for DTH, as the experience of watching TV is far better on DTH than that of traditional cable TV. 

The government’s decision to make the switch to digital by December 2015 has raised the company’s hopes of getting more customers on board.

 The company offers Premium high definition (HD) channels and all standard definition channels. It carries premium channels such as Star Sports HD1, Star Sports HD2, Ten HD, Sony Six HD, HBO HD, HBO Hits HD, HBO Signature HD, Star Movies HD, Discovery World HD, Colors HD, Life Ok HD, Star Plus HD, Zee TV HD, Zee Cinema HD, Zee TV HD, Star Gold HD and M-Tunes HD. Dish Home carries all legal contents and strictly adheres to Digital and Piracy Policy. Viewers can watch content on HBO Signature, at the same time as viewers in the US.  It also has movie on demand services that offers customers to watch Nepali movies on daily basis.

“The main strength of our product is clean and crisp picture and sound quality, No other provider can beat us with that” says Adhikary. In addition to this, Dish Home offers various facilities like dual language mode, programme recording and time scheduling. The set-top box also comes with a media player which allows customers to play media from pen drives and other USB devices.  The technology is improving and Dish Home is embracing it to bring the world class experience to the customers. Dish Home is investing massively into customer support automation and customer experience touch points to enrich customer service.  

Packages
The company has different packages for different demographic segments. “We have packaged our product in such a way that it fits the interests of the different segment of consumer and their budget,” says Adhikary. 

The company has segmented the packages into Standard Definition and High Definition. Standard Definition segment has 3 packages: basic, medium and deluxe. Similarly High Definition segment also has 5 packages: Basic HD, Medium HD, family HD, Sports HD and Lifestyle HD. Lifestyle HD is the most premium package with all standard Definition and High Definition channels and costs Rs 700 per month.

Marketing Plan
Dish Home’s marketing plan comprises of two main objectives. One is to consolidate the rural and semi urban market by constantly adding value to the products offered to customers. Dish Home has added movie on demand services for this market. Similarly Education channel is also in the pipeline. The other is to aggressively attract the urban customers through High Definition and clean feed channels. 

The company is launching ad campaigns targeting different geographical areas. The marketing plan for the hilly region is different from that for the mountains and the Terai region, and vice-versa.  

Service
Dish Home has service partners in all 75 districts. There are almost 3,000 centres that provide after-sales services. 
The company, whose slogan is ‘Delightful Lifestyle’, has 8,000 outlets that sell recharge cards. The company wants to reach 70-80 per cent of households in the country in the next five years. 

Human Resource and Policies
As the company is the first and only DTH service provider in the country, the staff members are getting first-hand experience in the field. The company has sent its employees to India to learn from companies like Airtel, Videocon and Tata. “We create growth opportunities for our employees through in-house grooming,” says Adhikary.

With more than 120 full-time employees, the company has 5-6 thousand people associated with it in the form of technicians and distributors.

“Workforce diversity is our main strength and we are providing employee benefits at par with Nepal’s best corporate houses. That we have a young workforce and the company is investing in training and development has helped us build a dynamic team,” explains Adhikary.

CSR Activities
The company’s service in rural areas has increased rural people’s access to information. “We believe in community-based CSR and work at the grassroots,” says Adhikary. 

Dish Home provided free service to its customers for almost a month after the April quake. It launched a massive relief operation in Bungmati and Khokhana immediately after the earthquake.  It also provided free service to people living in Tundikhel and other shelters after the disaster. The company has supported various post Quake initiatives from various organizations. “We believe in socially oriented business and will be there to support anything that is for betterment of society” says Acharya.