Airtel digital TV to air cricket world cup in High Definition

New Delhi : airtel digital TV customers can now watch the much anticipated entire cricket World Cup in High Definition. Available for just INR 150+tax, ESPN HD will enable customers to enjoy all matches including the opening ceremony, right up to the finals on April 3rd, 2011, in High Definition. All that airtel digital TV HD customers need to do is, SMS add 223 to 54325 for activating the Channel on 223.

airtel digital TV also has Economy Sports Pack for sports enthusiasts, which entitles new airtel digital TV HD customers to enjoy the full cricket season till September at INR 3190. As part of this offer, customers can now have 7 leading sports channels as part of this pack. Customers get a 3-month free subscription to the Economy Sports Pack that has 148 channels from different genres and 2 interactive services.

Sugato Banerji, Chief Marketing officer – airtel digital TV, Bharti Airtel said, "We expect that a major sporting spectacle as this will see many customers going in for a technology upgrade to HD. Ours is a four pronged HD campaign, that has the relevant HD content through our tie-up with ESPN, a set top box bundle with Sony Bravia, a powerful Economy Sports Pack and our new campaign that brings alive the power of HD on airtel. This, we believe is a very powerful combination that will help us further consolidate our consistent share of one in every four new customers in the category."

airtel digital TV - The DTH service from Bharti airtel – has over 5.1 million customers and is one of the leading national level DTH service in the country which offers its customers MPEG 4 with DVBS 2 - currently the most advanced digital broadcasting technologies available in the world after HD broadcasting. Additionally, airtel digital TV was the first to bring many firsts to the DTH segment in India including a Universal Remote which operates both the Set Top Box and TV set as well as several unique Interactive Applications. airtel digital TV recorder was the first to offer the capability to record live television, anytime, anywhere and recently added HD services to its portfolio. Users can also update themselves on the latest stock news. All this is backed by 24x7 customer care. airtel digital TV launched its services in October 2008.

Airtel Digital TV HD chooses non-cricket route for new campaign

With the season of heavy-duty cricket just a couple of days away now, the advertising for anything that will improve the viewing of the game can only escalate. A new Airtel Digital TV HD TVC is currently on air, and speaking of the timing of the campaign, Sugato Banerji, chief marketing officer, airtel digital TV, Bharti airtel, said, "The first  thing is that with every event- whether it's the Football World Cup, the IPL, the '82 Asian Games or the Commonwealth - the TV technology changes, people tend to change their TV and upgrade or it becomes the reason to possess a TV in the first place. With the World Cup taking place in India this time, and with India expected to reach the later stages of the game the way it's playing, we expect the purchase of high definition televisions to burgeon. ESPN will broadcast the matches in high definition and sales of HD TVs are expected to be 6-7 million out of 14 million this year. If that is the case, we needed to be ready with a high-definition product if we have ambitions to tap this opportunity. Our economy sports pack offers Indian cricket right up to September. We have a tie-up with Sony televisions. Therefore, now a campaign for the efficacy of the HD product."

Unlike other campaigns on air though, this commercial recreates a scene from the movie 'Kurbaan' and sets it in a living room, to show how realistic the viewing experience is. 

Watch the TVC (story continues below)

Banerji explained, "We are an entertainment product and Bollywood and cricket are the bigger drivers in the category. We have Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan as celebrity endorsers for the past 2.5 years now, and that gives recognition to the brand. At the moment, we're competing not just with DTH, but also with televisions and everybody else and  we don't have a celebrity cricket player; also the ICC has stipulations against ambush marketing. So we think we're on a stronger wicket by not having a cricket-themed campaign then."

Priti Kapur, executive creative director at JWT, the agency that created the TVC, added, "We were quite lucky to have Kareena because we had a clever little idea that high definition brings pictures to life - we dropped the TV altogether and it's like the movie is playing live in your living room. We went through lots and lots of footage for something that was dramatic and then we had to completely recreate the sequence from 'Kurbaan'."