Team-BHP - Satellite Radio - Works in India ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by emkay456 (Post 1228631)

Worldspace is in a tight corner because that are not able to make enough revenue nor increase their footprint in the country. Only option is for the Govt. to permit airing commercial advts on the channel and they making some revenue in the process to upgrade quality.

Er..what footprint are you talking about? Which beam?
And surely they are not depending on any ONE govt for approvals?

Mathur-sab, I think @emkay means "presence" or "market penetration", not antenna footprint associated with your beam. WS covers almost all of India right till the border areas all around.

Do they need Govt. approval for airing ads? One would have thought a license to operate commercially covers that. The only novelty of WS was ad-free content. If they put on ads now they will not be able to get urban audience at least, and rural audience wouldn't care much for their content anyhow.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DerAlte (Post 1229145)

Mathur-sab, I think @emkay means "presence" or "market penetration", not antenna footprint associated with your beam.

Ah so!
And yes, if WS goes 'commercial' we'll all just forget about it!
As it is, they have a very small audience in India. It's mainly the cross section that is largely uncatered for by our FM stations (mainly music with a foreign hand in it!). :D

Quote:

anupmathur

: And yes, if WS goes 'commercial' we'll all just forget about it!
As it is, they have a very small audience in India. It's mainly the cross section that is largely uncatered for by our FM stations (mainly music with a foreign hand in it!). :D

True. Any ads on it, and I may as well switch off WS.

WS seems to be feeling the pinch so much that they 'desperately' call for renewals. After the renewal is done, they will not hassle you for the next 10 months. A-la Country Club.

One place they can tighten up without giving any one cause for complaint is the renewal period start/end point. The passwords seem to expire every quarter end. So if my password expires April 2 (even 2 days into Q2, I can keep listening till Jun 30 without having to renew the password. This gives customers a loop-hole to a 25% 'discount'. Tweak the start/end point to every month end, and they get an instant 16% increase in subscription revenue.

Another way to reduce costs would be to play the full songs - dont know why they clip the start & end part, like radio channels to. Play the full song - and they can cover more air-time with content, and yet pay for 'lesser' content while still covering the same air-time.

Ads may get them revenue, but they will lose their USP and also leave hardly any difference between them & local FM channels that play with irritating & downright silly ads. And one would have to pay to listen to these ads !

Quote:

Originally Posted by condor (Post 1229440)

And one would have to pay to listen to these ads !

Don't worry, Condor. None of us is silly enough to pay for radio with ads!
What I have always found amusing is the ads they run for WS on their own channels! If you've already bought the radio, why do you need any more promotion of WS on a WS channel?!

And it seems their best radio has been discontinued - the Tongshi DAMB-R. I had plans to buy that.
Though I am still using my Y2K model Hitachi KH-WS1.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DerAlte (Post 1229145)

Thanks for your right deduction about the footprint. I just used the phrase to convey the message meant in the subject !!
As regards Govt. regulations, I had read somewhere that Worldspace does have issues in this regards. May not be specifically advertisement related. One of the issues was that Worldspace wanted to get Indian news and views channels on board other than the borrowed ones from NDTV etc. It seems Govt. regulations dont permit it on Satellite service !!

Anyway the bottomline is that Worldspace is not making much of a headway in increasing the consumer base. Even I regret having spent Rs. 5000+ five years back on the BPL receiver which just costs Rs. 1500 now. I am using the same one with the remote going kaput and no service being provided either by BPL or Worldspace. WS tells me to just replace the whole set.

Quote:

Originally Posted by emkay456 (Post 1229523)

...with the remote going kaput and no service being provided either by BPL or Worldspace. WS tells me to just replace the whole set.

Very telling!
Having started with four Japanese companies as the ONLY licensed manufacturers for the WS sets, they discontinued the Japanese ones and went to Korea. Then China and India! :Frustrati
Where will they go from here?!

I didn't renew the subscription last year, since it was not VFM anymore.

The content upload part is always tricky w.r.t. the Govt.'s perception of security and unwanted propaganda, especially for areas that are sensitive. NDTV can be monitored and expected to be responsible, since they are India-based and news content is their bread and butter business. The same cannot be said for WS.

Quote:

DerAlte

: I didn't renew the subscription last year, since it was not VFM anymore.

Now they are increasing fees, And How !

My subscription was a Feb-to-Feb, but last year I wasnt in BLR & hence the unit was lying idle. I renewed subscription in April 08, after returning to BLR. This year, WS kept pestering me for about 6 weeks starting in Feb, to renew my prescription. The way they kept calling & not heeding any feedback/response, it looked like they were truly inspired by Country Club.

I finally did an online renewal on 1st April. Payment via Credit card. Time to generate password is 48 hours. Price : 1800/- for 1 yr, 3250 for 2 yrs. The post transaction call comes in yesterday. "Sir, I am calling from WS. Yesterday you have done an on-line renewal. But due to a technical problem, the subsription fees is actually 2000/- and you must pay the balance amount before we can renew the subscription".

:Shockked:.
Technical problem ! The web-site said 1800/-for 1 yr, when I was renewing it, on April 1. And they have the gall to call and ask for additional money.

Technical problem, my foot! They have been pulling such stunts for a long time - blame the IT guys, blame the telesales person, blame xyz... If they have forgotten to update their website, it is their problem - they cannot ask a consumer to pay more AFTER a transaction has been done.

Just report the buggers to Consumer Court for unfair business practices. Ask for refund and damages (psychological, social, etc. etc.) for their ill-thought action. If not already paid to WS, ask your credit card guys to cancel the payment also.

Hi

I will add another dimension to this whole topic. Worldspace does work when moving! I'll tell you how.
I was in the army and we were coming from the north East and going to new location in rajasthan. This was in 2003. We were on the Military Special train and I had my BPL Celeste receiver with me. We also ahd a open BOM behind our AC first Coach.
All I did was that when the train had stopped on a station I aligned the antenna. Thereafter even when we were moving, the reception was perfect. Only when we passed through tunnels or where there was no clear LoS it interrupted. It also disconnected when the track alignment changed drastically. According to me if we are moving in a strainght line the antenna is constantly in line with the satelite. After a very large distance only the bearing to the satellite will change. Ideally it will remain the same for some thousand kms. (Some physicist may give the correct thoery to this)

What I could draw from this was that all the railway stations are constructed keeping in mind the directions. Thats why you have East Cabin, North Cabin etc just before approaching the stations. Aslo the tracks are pretty much aligned East-West in a straight line.

I'll try to find the picture of my Antenna and the train journey.

regards

Capt Rohit Saxena

Quote:

Originally Posted by dhondusaxena (Post 1268677)

I will add another dimension to this whole topic. Worldspace does work when moving! I'll tell you how.

Ideally it will remain the same for some thousand kms. (Some physicist may give the correct thoery to this)

Dhondu, let me augment the dimension!
The tolerance of the Yagi antenna (which is worse than the patch antenna, BTW), is at least 40 degrees in both the azimuth and elevation!
I too have used the patch antenna for long uninterrupted listening on GT road with the patch simply looking out the rear glass of the car while heading north towards the hills from Delhi and vice versa on the return.

I have also used the Yagi for days on end on ships at sea while we maintained almost constant heading! Even in moderately rough weather, with the ship rolling, pitching or yawing, the reception was usually perfect! :)