(Translated from Koran Jakarta Digital Edition; article dated September 7 2011)
Original text at: http://koran-jakarta.com/index.php/detail/view01/70653
JAKARTA – Pay-TV Operator, TV Aora, has managed to hook up 100 thousand subscribers up to September 2011, thanks to a subscription package at an affordable price.
“We managed to run fairly high subscriber growth since the first quarter of this year thanks to an affordable subscription package strategy. An estimated 60 percent of the total users are buying this package,” said Director of Marketing and Sales for Aora TV Guntur S Siboro in Jakarta, yesterday.
Guntur says the largest customer bases are in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi, West Java, and Sumatra. “We are optimistic that the number of customers will continue to grow as current pay-TV penetration is only 2.5 percent of the total population that has a television, or about 60 million households,” said Guntur.
He said to further expand sales, the company will target remote areas. Currently Aora is focusing on Jambi, Sulawesi, Manado and Balikpapan. “The challenge for Aora TV marketing is to change the mindset of people about pay-TV. Currently the community is still seeing pay-TV broadcasts as more expensive than free to air,” he said.
Guntur explained that in the future the company will also begin targeting higher-income segments by providing a High Definition (HD) service before the end of the year. It also plans to develop 3D services and pay-TV on internet TV. .
Aora TV first aired on August 8, 2008 under the name PT Karyamegah Adijaya with an initial investment of Rp 40 billion. The company in 2008 had attracted considerable market attention because it obtained the exclusive broadcasting rights for the English Premiership (Classic Premier League) season 2009/2010.
Since late August 2009, Aora TV decided to stop broadcasting the Premier League. Abandoned by many customers, Aora TV was lost and at the end of 2009 had to lay off 90 percent of its employees and cease broadcasting.
The harshness of the competition in the TV paid made a rough path for Aora TV, which has been used by competitors in their marketing communication in recent times.