"We will provide
the best audio entertainment to our customers" -M Sebastian, Director-Business
Development, WorldSpace, India.
WorldSpace
(WS) is the first digital audio broadcast service of entertainment,
information and educational programming direct from satellite
for the audience world over. They have three satellites beaming
down over hundred channels of music and infotainment to just
about every country in the world, be it Cape Town or Cairo,
Dakar or Dubai, Bangalore or Bangkok. Of course, the choice
of audio-tainment is customized with Pop, Jazz, International
dance, Reggae, African, Country, Regional, CNN, BBC and other
channels to a wide populace with different tastes in different
countries.
WS started their Indian operations in September 16, 2000 from
their head office in Bangalore. Bangalorebest.com spoke to M
Sebastian,Director-Business Development, on the
response from Indian listeners and WS's plans to entertain them
with innovative services.
How is the response from the Indian community to WorldSpace
services?
Within three months of starting our services in Bangalore, we
moved onto Chennai, Hyderabad, Cochin, Delhi, Goa, Chandigarh
and Ahmedabad. All this happened because of the uniqueness of
our services. People started accepting this mode of entertainment
quickly in spite of the concept being new. Later, we thought
of launching our services in Cochin only. But the market expanded
to the extent that we were bound to provide services to many
other districts in Kerala. A similar response was seen in Chennai
and Chandigarh. WS is becoming popular and we are trying to
expand our market to different parts of India.
What about the response from other countries where your
services are provided?
WS is providing services only to Indonesia and India in Asia
at present. It will be difficult to comment on the response,
since we started our operations in both the places at the same
time. The response in Ethiopia and Kenya in Africa is tremendous.
WS is starting services to the American market in the coming
years, where it will find a potential market.
What are the copyrights criteria adopted by WS?
We are platform providers just like any other television channel.
We are associated with international organisations to see that
copyrights are well taken care of.
How do you contrast WS services over others traditional
ones like radios, CD players and online music?
WS service is unique in that it is equipped with hardware.
You need not have any music system to play CDs, as the WS
receivers offer a reception that is very close to a CD player.
WS scores a point over online music since there is no need
to be connected to a computer, which is very costly. WS receivers
are capable of downloading stuff from the Internet with adapters.
In contrast to radios, WS services offers unique twenty-four
hour non-stop channels that are dedicated to different kinds
of music like Pop, Jazz, International dance, Reggae, African,
European, Rhythm & Blues, Country, Regional, CNN, BBC and
regional ones like Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and others. We
have twenty-seven such channels, and we want to enrich our
'content bouquet' with the thirty best flowers (channels)
in the coming months. Apart from music, we have dedicated
channels for adults and children. While Letters targets
adult listeners with discussions on current affairs, Earz
targets children with story telling and other kid stuff.
How does WS take Indian music to the global audience?
It's a well known fact that the media plays a very important
role in showcasing talent. Since India has a rich pool of
talent, WS came out with a dedicated channel Radio India.
With this channel, we are promoting Indian talent and Indian
music the world over. There is music for every Indian occasion
and WS is popularizing folk, classical, devotional and other
traditional music via this channel.
Could you elaborate on the receiver range of WS.
We have four receivers - Hitachi, JVC, Panasonic and Sanyo
that are specifically targeted at different segments of customers.
Panasonic (Rs 11,990) has numerous features with very good
sound quality and is targeted at high-end customers. Sanyo
(Rs 9,990) comes with a remote and is compatible to play with
other music systems or home theatre. JVC (Rs 7,990) is an
all rounder that has AM, FM, Short wave, Medium wave, normal
radio besides WS channels. Hitachi (Rs 4,990) also has Short
wave, Medium wave and is easily portable and compatible to
other music systems. We have considered every segment of the
market and we are working to see that our receivers are made
easily affordable to customers.
What are the futuristic value added services that WS plans
to come out with?
Multimedia data providing service is on the anvil, which is
aimed at giving web-content to customers. They would be able
to down load stuff from the web onto their computer without
having a telephone line. All they need is an adapter, which
decodes the digital signal and enables them to go through
the content that we provide. We also plan to introduce PC
Cards that replaces a WS receiver to down load information.
Customers would be able to have all the WS services with just
a PC Card attached to a computer. We are also working with
the Gujarat government to come out with disaster management
services for fishermen. We want to give out weather reports
to fishermen who are at sea, where the receiver alone can
come in handy for communication.
Address : WorldSpace India Pvt Ltd,II Floor, Mitra Towers,
10/4, Kasturaba Road,
Tel. No. : 080-2202 0000 Fax : 080-22105030 / 22123483 E-Mail: sabraham@worldspace.com
www.worldspace.com
7:50:33 AM 
WorldSpace
(WS) is the first digital audio broadcast service of entertainment,
information and educational programming direct from satellite
for the audience world over. They have three satellites beaming
down over hundred channels of music and infotainment to just
about every country in the world, be it Cape Town or Cairo,
Dakar or Dubai, Bangalore or Bangkok. Of course, the choice
of audio-tainment is customized with Pop, Jazz, International
dance, Reggae, African, Country, Regional, CNN, BBC and other
channels to a wide populace with different tastes in different
countries. 
channel.
We are associated with international organisations to see that
copyrights are well taken care of.
