When we hear reference to the word “sustainability” in business terms, it often refers to the company’s ability to manage its energy use, contain its carbon emissions and generally act as a good neighbor within society as a whole. We can unveil a whole new interpretation of the word, however, when it comes to the concept of buying an Internet business for sale. There are an increasing number of opportunities available to the entrepreneur these days as the Web becomes such a critical part of all of our lives. As more and more business is conducted via the Internet, expect to see an increasingly sophisticated array of Internet businesses available for purchase. It’s very important to understand however that business conducted over the Internet is essentially “virtual.” This is not a bricks and mortar operation and you may find it rather difficult to come up with a conclusive value. There are few benchmarks to refer to, either, as this business arena can be very dynamic. If you’re purchasing a restaurant for sale, you could often refer to averages and certain accounting ratios to help you figure it all out, but in terms of purchasing a website for sale, you may have to be a lot more creative when assessing its ultimate value, for you.

Take a cold, hard look before you buy a business such as this, and ask yourself exactly what it entails. Does it have a particular hold on any niche area; does it feature specific and more tangible products such as extensive content, for example? Are there loyal clients, and what methods of marketing are typically used to solicit them? You have to be able to see some depth and substance here and more importantly, there has to be a clear path ahead. Continuity and sustainability are your buzzwords, as you conduct your due diligence process.

More often than not, when you purchase website business assets, you are buying the creation of one particular person, the seller, and you must be careful that its continuity is not disrupted, nor the overall marketability of the business, when the seller departs. The whole thing could be linked to the personality of the seller. What if it revolves around some of the seller’s specific, maybe significant skill sets, without which it would not work? Maybe the seller will be willing to help you going forward, but you must be very wary of this as well. How are you going to come up with a noncompete? In a typical noncompete agreement, a geographical restriction is fairly easy to enforce, but in the world of the Internet, somebody can be virtually invisible and still have a successful operation. Think what would happen if the outgoing seller simply started again, with a third-party and effectively set up in opposition to your work.

It’s absolutely essential to engage the services of competent, legal counsel in this area to design a bulletproof agreement for you. The best approach may be to apportion some of the purchase price, so that it’s tied to the non-compete agreement. In other words, you will design a “note” allowing the release of funds over time, as soon as it’s evident that the seller is in compliance.

Article Source : Be Sustainable – How To Buy An Internet Business For Sale : ArticleBase

Richard K. Parker -
About the Author:
Richard Parker is the author of the How to Buy a Good Business at a Great Price series. As President and founder of Diomo Corporation – The Business Buyer Resource Center, his materials, seminars and consulting have helped thousands of business buyers realize their dream to buy a business. Want to find out more about business buying strategies that really work, then look no further than=> http://www.diomointernet.com

In dancing they have the 2 step. I was never very good at that. What I am good at is the website traffic 4 step and you can be too!

Here are 4 steps that will bring you guaranteed traffic if you will follow them over and over.

1. Write a 400 word article around a targeted keyword phrase. Include that phrase in the title, opening paragraph, and closing paragraphs. The search engines love it when you do that.

You do not have to write a masterpiece to get a lot of benefits from it. If you can talk you can write. Just learn a few basic article writing strategies and you are on your way.

You should make sure your spelling and grammar is correct. Errors in an article reflect badly on you.

If you do not want to write you can hire a writer to do it for you. There are many freelance writers and companies you can order from.

2. Submit your article online to various article directories. For sure get it into the top article directories.You can also use an article submission service to reach numerous article directories with one click.

It is important to get your articles out there where people and the search engines can find them. The more eyeballs you have on your articles the more traffic you are going to get.

3. Add your article to your blog and social bookmark it. You should have a WordPress blog linked to your website. You may even have your blog as your main website.

After you have added your article you should bookmark it to the top social directories. Use a service such as OnlyWire to reach several at one time. They will put your article on Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit and many more directories.

4. Use an article converter and create an article video. Anyone can get videos online with these. Article Video Robot even lets you create a video from your EzineArticles account with on click.

Once your article video is created you can submit it to YouTube and other shared video sites. Search engines like these videos and are ranking them just like a website, pdf file, report or article page.

As you can see you really can get a lot of mileage out of 1 article. The 4 steps do take some time to complete, but not as long as you might think.

Besides, what else do you have to do? You can only make changes to your website so often and then you need to get serious about traffic generation.

The more time you waste doing unproductive things the longer it will take to get website traffic coming to your site. You can get website traffic in 4 steps if you stick with it.

Article Source : Website Traffic In 4 Steps : ArticleBase

Jeff Schuman -
About the Author:
Jeff Schuman invites you to visit his make money at home website for free JV With Jeff training, Hands Off Article Marketing, and starting your own make money online business. Visit it now to find one real way you can finally make money online!

We have seen the collapse of some major corporate institutions because of one common failing – they made bad decisions. They failed to understand the unconstrained risk associated with new financial products such as CDOs and CDSs. They failed to consider the longer-term consequences of decisions that had short-term benefits. They failed to comprehend the risk of complex decisions and how decision risk can escalate. Some ignored making critical decisions, because they just never got around to addressing them. Like lemmings, some blindly followed the decisions of others.

While we need to learn the underlying lessons from these decision failures, we also need new strategies for making business decisions so we don’t repeat the past in a different form. Good decisions have always been fundamental for business success, but now this is more important than ever. In today’s uncertain economy, it is nearly impossible to make confident assumptions about the future when making decisions.  At the same time, there is less room and tolerance for bad decisions, compared to the previous decade when most bad decisions could be reversed, overcome or hidden with subsequent decisions. Today one bad decision can cause a major setback or even kill a company. To compete successfully in today’s economy, companies need to adopt new strategies for making decisions:

* Work harder on major decisions. While most executives usually intend to put sufficient work into their decisions, all too frequently they just don’t spend the necessary time. Today this is inexcusable. There is zero tolerance for poor decisions. Working on a decision is more than just worrying about it or talking about it. Executives must take more time to define clear objectives, work to identify all alternatives (particularly new, innovative ones), and more rigorously evaluate alternatives before reaching a decision. They should take the time to seek out the views of others experienced with similar decisions. In the past for example, executives might spend 10-20 hours on an important decision, today they need to spend ten times that amount of time.

* Understand decision risk. The recent economic collapse was caused largely by executives’ failure to understand the risk of major strategic decisions. Understanding decision risk takes effort and is not as exciting as visualizing benefits. We recently learned all too painfully about the consequences of failure to understand decision risk, and it is now irresponsible to say “I just didn’t consider that risk.” Decision risk is not easily understood; in fact, many executives have never learned techniques for sufficiently appraising the risk of their decisions.

* Take decisions step by step or try them on for size. Many major decisions are best made by adopting a step-by-step approach rather than making a full commitment up front. During the 1990s, many major corporations benefited tremendously by implementing a phased-based decision process for new product development. This allowed them the flexibility to make adjustments or even cancel a project early. This same decision-making philosophy applies to most major decisions, and now is the time to use it more broadly than just for project decisions. Another technique that is increasingly important is to try a decision on for size before making it.

* Develop decision making as a core competency. When you look at successful companies, they all share one common trait — they make good decisions. When you look at mediocre or failing companies, they all seem to have made bad decisions. Yet surprisingly few companies actively cultivate decision making as a skill set for their leaders and managers. When they have, such as the phase-based product development decisions mentioned above, the results have been extraordinary. Improving decision making can even become a competitive advantage.

* Don’t hesitate to make bold move decisions. Being cautious in today’s uncertain economy does not mean decision paralysis. In fact, now may be the best time to consider bold move decisions. The shifting economy provides many new opportunities for courageous businesses to make bold move decisions. These just need to be well thought through decisions.

* Boards of Directors need to play a bigger role in major decisions. One of the biggest questions raised in the recent collapse of major institutions such as Lehman Brothers was “Where was the board of directors when these decisions were made?” Directors should not be involved in micromanaging a business, but they should care about the incentives, diligence, and skills applied to major decisions, and they should use their experience and wisdom to review major strategic decisions before they are made.

In many ways, the abrupt decline of the economy and its dramatic impact on business should serve as a wake-up call for better decisions and more focus on decision making as a skill, if not we will face even greater disasters in the future. It’s not a call for more sophisticated decision making but a return to the basics of diligence, common sense, and hard work.

Article Source : Good Decisions Are More Important Than Ever! : ArticleBase

Michael E McGrath -
About the Author:
Michael E. McGrath is an experienced advisor to executives, former CEO, executive chairman of Thomas Group, and author of Business Decisions! – How to Be Decisive While Reducing Risk in Today’s Economy.

Brand advertising has by no means been easier because of an ever rising range of promotional items supplied by specialist providers. These items range from promotional pens, corporate folders, promotional golf umbrellas and can stretch so far as electronics.

The reality is, that constructing a brand is one of the most vital things you can do for your small business or corporation. No matter what size your organization is, it could actually profit from having a great image in the eye of the public.

Why should I use promotional gadgets?

Why should you not? Think about this way, I am positive you are familiar with the famous Nike brand. In any case, the Nike logo recognized in the deepest regions of Africa, far-off from civilized neighborhoods. Promotional gear permits you to build your brand with intelligent, everyday instruments – they work on the subconscious of your target market, and since they are free giveaways people love to gather and keep them.

What if the budget would not allow me to use these tools?

In case you really feel your business cannot profit from giving each client a bunch of promotional pens, hand out some promotional golf umbrellas on the subsequent company event or delight your key purchasers with corporate folders, then you’re clearly not seeing the bigger picture.

When you look at cost versus advantages, you aren’t utilizing the power of brand name marketing. The reality is, this stuff are often retailing at less than a couple of cents per customer. When you purchase them in bulk you may often profit from discounts, which will make them reasonably priced for many businesses.

Where should I hand out these items?

That is entirely up to you. Some firms hand our promotional products at specific company occasions which can be also open to the general public. If for example you might be planning a big day trip on the golf course it will be the perfect place to hand out promotional golf umbrellas to individuals outside your company – fellow golfers. Every time it rains, they are going to gladly use your umbrella and chances are high that you’ll entice new clients from this advertising and marketing stunt. Plus it additionally helps to build your brand over time.

Different things comparable to company folders and promotional pens are straightforward to hand out at the office. Say you are an accountant, lawyer or insurance agent; it would be very straightforward so that you can hand one of these promotional items to a client. Since you’re making cash from any consumer it may be a value vs. revenue offset that’s straightforward to digest.

Promoting your enterprise is straightforward with the help of free giveaways. Individuals will come to know your brand due to the promotional gadgets you hand out at every opportunity. Make the most of it.

Article Source : Brand Advertising and marketing With Promotional Merchandise : ArticleBase

jonmtckbea -
About the Author:
Images Mattershas a wide range of promotional products, together with golf umbrellas available for purchase online.

Setting Up Marketing Plans

At some point in your business you need to slow down and put a marketing plan in order. At the end of the year would be a good time to look back and reflect.

First ask yourself what worked for me in my business last year? See how you can improve this for next year.

Then ask yourself what didn’t work for me in my business? You always learn more from failures than from your success. Just take time to reflect on them and learn from your mistakes.

Did you planned out all of your marketing tactics? Make sure your honest with yourself. Sometime we go with things that are thrown at us at the time. Sometimes this works, but to plan things out works better.

In the last year what change did your business go though? How will this affect your business? This question is probably the most important. You can’t do the same thing you did last year if this year’s economy is different. You would have to change something.

You have to set a budget for your marketing plans in order. This will make you prioritize your priories. This will even tell you how much to spend. We have seen so many other businesses go under. This could very much happen to you.

Take the time to set your budget and marketing plans up. This will give you a head start for the new business year. Have your mind fresh.

James Hickey

Master Business Consultant

Article Source : Setting Up Marketing Plans : ArticleBase

James Hickey -
About the Author:
http://www.SDCCPRO.com
http://www.sd-entrepreneur.com
James Hickey is a top leader in the Internet Marketing industry. He provides his clients and students with a proven business model for retail, home-based or MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) businesses. He is an expert in Social Networking Web 2.0 Marketing, dominating Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, LinkedIn and many more.

Making a website is something that is an easy task. Yes, that is the impression that many people have about it. Yet, the thing that people do not understand is that once you make the website, the job is not done. You have to keep on looking after it otherwise people will stop visiting it. Even while making it, it is not very easy because you have to know all the inner details about how to go about making it, and not many people know how to do that.

Since all that gets very technical, people tend to just forget about this idea of creating a website in order to support their business on the internet. However, you must not get disheartened because it is not something that only you cannot do. There are many people all over who want to set up an internet business but have no idea as to how to make their own website.

People are under the impression that making a website would mean putting in a lot of investment in terms of effort, time and money. However, what they do not know is that even they can become experts at creating their own websites without having much money or knowledge about the same. You just need some amount of money in order to purchase the programs that will help you to make your own website in a step by step manner.

It is very easy and all you need to do is find such a program on the internet. Many people have used this and have been successful and they say that they have found this entire program very useful. Another plus point about this is that if anything happens to the website, then you will know how to fix it and do not have to keep calling someone who will come and do it because that could lead to a lot of time and money gone waste.

This step by step process will show you how to create your very own website in no time at all so that you can start earning quick and easy money with as well. You can also use the feature of adsense and put up advertisements all over the website. Through this, if someone clicks the ads, then you will earn some amount of money which will get delivered to your adsense account.

So this entire business and process of making your website is very lucrative because it teaches you how to make your website, gives you helpful tips and also in the process helps you earn all the money that you wanted to earn.

By: By: Arne Larsen

Hi, my name is Arne Larsen and I have been dooing offline marketing for many years. The last few years I have dicovered the power of online marketing, and are proud to present to you an Instant Website Creator that makes it a breeze to create an unlimited numbers of affiliate websites, products and graphics included. No HTML needed, perfect for beginners who wants a quick and easy start there online marketing business. Visit now: www.yourowninstantsitelauncher.com

Article Source : Quick And Easy Creation Of Your Own Website : ArticleDashboard

As a small business owner, you may sometimes feel like the wrathful patron deity of your company. There’s no need to feel bad about it. The amount you have on your plate is enough to make anyone’s internal wiring run hot. Luckily, there’s some external wiring that you can use in order to make your world a simpler and thereby happier place. These are just five of the utilities you can use to make precisely that happen for you.

5pm
If you’ve familiarized yourself with project management systems, you may have come to the common conclusion that they frequently do more harm than good. 5pm is a web based project management system that actually decreases the amount of work being done rather than increasing it. For your employees, the utility will enable scheduling, project sharing, and a simple as Zen structure that is instinctive to use. For you, 5pm will provide report generation software that allows you to see exactly where employee time is going, what the pitfalls seem to be, and how the ebb and flow of productivity is behaving in your company.

InDinero
InDinero specializes in, you guessed it, money. More specifically, they provide a web-based solution to managing your company’s finances. Since you are likely to have your resources divided out among bank accounts, business credit cards, and your PayPal account, you may already be familiar with the headache of diverse financial management. InDinero acts as the Excedrin to that migraine.

Box.net
If you work in a technology heavy industry, it’s likely that you’ve had issues with file sharing or document collaboration at one point or another. Box.net replaces your standard file transfer protocol with a cloud based internet application that allows you to share your documents and larger files more quickly and easily. Box.net shows even more versatility by providing the ability to manage projects around files, create virtual workspace, and view documents in your browser.

Jotnot
Jotnot is a virtual scanner application for use with your iPhone. You start by taking a picture of any word or text based item, including white boards, receipts, and printed documents. The application then converts the file into a PDF document which can be shared, uploaded to Google Docs, or otherwise manipulated or stored.

Microsoft Exchange
Exchange hosting is one of the most thoroughly tested ways to combine efforts on any file based project. Exchange allows you to access your business email from any web browser, share and collaborate on files, synchronize schedules, and otherwise stay eye to eye with your employees. You will be able to use the advantages of Exchange on any device that can access the internet, including tablet computers, mobile devices, and standard computers. This collaborative environment can be used for communication purposes, storage, project management, and more.

Productivity is about more than just profit. It’s about creating something viable and positive that you can feel proud of. Following that same line, productivity tools like these do more for you than simply making life easier while increasing your lucrative possibilities. They make your company, and thus your presence, more meaningful.

Top Marketing Question Number 1 That Business Owners Ask In Canton MA: Is Marketing Advertising?

QUESTION: Is marketing advertising?
ANSWER: No. marketing includes everything you do to attract buyers to come and buy from you. That includes the name of your company, the way you dress, your pricing, the way you answer a phone.

Advertising is only one part of your marketing: advertising is any action you take to broadcast your message, using newspapers, billboards, radio, telephone and people shouting on street corners.

ACTION: Now here’s a quick and easy action step you can have fun with right now. This minute. You’ll learn the difference between marketing and advertising. And you might get yourself a new customer:

Who’s your best customer? Whatever name came up just now is perfect. Now imagine she or he’s in front of you now, and you’re laughing at a joke they just told you. And you ask, gene, what do you like most about my service? I mean, ,Why did you buy from me? Price, quality, speed, reliability, something else? What comes up for Gene??

1- Choose a single quality that Gene told you, or the first one that comes up for you, or just choose one. and think of a bitesize special offer for that one quality. If its price, offer gene a special onetime discount. If its speed, offer a special onetime instant service. If its reliability offer a special onetime 101% guarantee.
2- Now imagine you go your way and the next day you call up Gene, and you say: Gene, I’ve been thinking about you, because you are one of my best customers. So I prepared a special offer designed just for you. It’s my once a year to Gene offer’” And Gene goes: WOW.
3- OK LETS RECAP: When you asked Gene why he bought from you– that was market research. When you made Gene a special offer that fit her reasons for buying from you and not someone else– that was marketing. When you called gene up and notified her you had a special just for her–that was advertising.

So now go ahead and do this with the Gene of your business.

Article Source : Internet Marketing FAQ 1 In Canton MA: Is Marketing Advertising : ArticleBase

Nitsan Gaibel -
About the Author:
Nitsan Gaibel created Market Leader OnLine to help local businessmen grow their businesses by becoming the leader of their local market niche. Particularly using video, dominating Google, branding, and word of mouth marketing. Phone: 888-356-0246. See http://marketleaderonline.com/

Product analysis is something that most companies today take for granted and never seek the services of those who carryout this service. The main reason being that most companies do not know what product analysis involves. Many people today just think it is a waste of money, but those that have tried it are ripping the fruits or the benefits of this service. Well, let us go through what product analysis is and hence give you an understanding of how it can best benefit your business. This service is very much beneficial to new companies or rather companies that are about to bring a new brand or product onto the market.

Product analysis is basically the testing of a product whilst looking at certain aspects that need to be covered by the product. For example when looking at food, aspects of health and safety need to be considered. They will have to carryout tests that ensure that the food does not contain too much of something and also note whether or not it contains something that poses a health threat. These tests are normally carried out by professional food scientists in laboratories. They will ensure that the product does not in any pose a threat to humans when it comes to both shelf life and storage conditions.

Today, there are quite a number of companies that provide the essential product testing services for all sectors of the industry. This includes; structural testing, motor testing, chemical testing and many other tests that need to be carried out by both product manufacturers and retailers. These testing services will ensure that the product is ready for the market. Some products just make their way to the market and later the manufacturers find themselves facing huge penalties because their products have either caused a threat to people’s health or safety. Well, you need to make sure that this does not in any ways happen by ensuring that you get the right services from the best.

The competitiveness of a product is always based upon certain elements and these include effectiveness and safety. The testing service company will try as much to isolate every property of the product and try to note whether it does benefit the user in any way. In the case of the food you will need to make sure that people are either satisfied by the taste, smell and appearance.  If you are lacking in any one of these then certainly you need to get advice from the best.

The product analysis company aims at ensuring that the manufacturer gets all the pointers to why that product is not competitive enough. If your product is also failing to meet the requirements of the product as seen in the legislative laws then the testing company may advise you on how to improve the product and thus bring about customer satisfaction. This could also be a way to ensure that a product gets certified easily as these companies are certified to carry out product tests.

Article Source : Product Analysis- Ensuring that Your Product is Ready for the Intended Market : ArticleBase

Jared D. Ingram -
About the Author:
Are you looking for more information regarding Product Analysis ?  Visit http://www.exova.com today!

Tariff should be Technology Agnostic

Lt. Col K K Sharma (Retd)

Prior to 1994, there were no pay channels and thousands of cable operators provided video as well as FTA channels to the masses. When Pay channels were introduced, broadcasters demanded operators small lump sum amounts like Rs. 1000-2000 per month. The operators had requested the government at that time too to allow these channels to be distributed only through addressable systems which is the norm all over the world but the request was ignored.

Consumers were too happy to get more and more content without paying additional money for that and the operators had to bear the burden to keep their business going as there was no addressability. The average tariff in cable TV has almost remained the same since then where as the pay channel rates have increased more than 1000%. Pay broadcasters knew that the people will get addicted to their content and so kept on forcing the operators to pay for these channels or face the wrath of the public as the government was too reluctant to control the broadcasters. Not only this, these few popular channels were bundled with newer and not so popular channels forcing operators increased bouquet rates but operators could not force the subscribers to pay more.

Even when CAS was legislated in 2003, it were the pay broadcasters who convinced the government that the people were not prepared for such a technology in-spite of it having been cleared by both the Houses of Parliament. It is this aspect of cable TV operation which has lead to the present state of chaos in the industry.

Although late, but Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has finally woken-up to resolve the issue of tariff in satellite and broadcasting industry in India in a comprehensive manner. This time, the regulator has come up with three consultation papers for deciding the tariffs for cable TV services in CAS areas, in non-CAS areas and for digital cable through HITS. The cable TV industry has been experiencing a period of uncertainty for many years due to ad-hoc regulations introduced either on the directions of the courts or for crisis management. This has hampered the growth of the Industry compared to its competitors like DTH, IPTV and Broadband, which from the beginning started in a regulated manner.

Cable TV Tariff in CAS areas

It is good that the authority is reviewing the tariff for Cable TV Services in CAS notified Areas now after three years of its implementation. However, market competition increased by introduction of DTH and IPTV is not fair to Cable. When all technologies compete in the same area under similar conditions, everyone gets a chance to compete on equal terms. But by restricting the CAS areas to a small portion of the three metros, growth cannot be expected beyond a certain limit. Saturation will reach sooner or later and curb the growth any further. Thus, operators are not motivated to invest more.

Tariff of Pay Channels has to be technology agnostic. Consumers of all addressable systems (Digital Cable, DTH, IPTV or Broadband) must get the same deal from pay channels. Consumers are not much affected when they shift from Analog to digital networks as far as the pay channels are concerned. Since migration from a non-addressable system to an addressable one brings no major hiccups to consumers, there is no need for working out separate tariff as it will make regulations ineffective in the long run. These tariffs should also be applicable to voluntary CAS areas. This will give choice to consumers and encourage digitalization with CAS making the system transparent and more accountable.

As far as consumer is concerned, he wants to pay the same amount for a particular channel of his choice whether he views it on an addressable system like CAS, DTH or IPTV or on non-addressable system like the analog cable in non-CAS areas. What will differentiate is the experience of service if any. Digital cable, IPTV and DTH can provide on-demand services and more value ads. There can be 3D or HDTV version of a channel or a sports channel can have a multiple angle viewing experience, for which a consumer may like to pay more.

The data given by TRAI for the existing CAS areas in the Consultation Paper and the survey report of CMS done for TRAI which is placed on the TRAI Website speaks volumes of what is required in the tariff regime.  They tell us about the existing scenario and how to go ahead for the benefit of all.

The following points emerge from the survey done by CMS:

1. Competition from DTH has forced Cable Operators to reduce their subscription from Rs. 200  to Rs. 185.

2. Lowest Subscription is in Chennai (Rs 106) and it is the only city with total CAS area coverage.

3. 75% Subscribers get the receipts from cable operators.

4. Majority of subscribers are not willing to pay more for better services through digitalization.

5. People who want to pay more want to migrate to DTH. Initial installation charges for DTH, of course is also a deterrent.

6. Better Quality and fast redressal of complaints are two factors for which some people are ready to pay more.

7. Channels watched by an average household range from 7-15 only.

Thus, to achieve a consumer friendly tariff for cable TV service the following is required:

-         Tariff for services as well as pay channels have to be affordable by majority of the existing subscribers, preferably below Rs. 200/-.

-         Operators must be given adequate incentives for digitization to extend the CAS implemented areas.

-         CAS must be implemented in the whole country without any delay.

-         MSO/Operators must be able to differentiate their services from others.

-         Customers connected to an addressable system anywhere in India (Cable, DTH or IPTV) should pay the same price for pay channels. Only basic service charges should differ from platform to platform.

-         Manufacturing of digital equipments including STBs in India should be encouraged.

-         29 Million addressable market is adequate for the Premium Pay and Niche channels. As brought out above, digital addressable cable has been confined to a universe of mere 5 million TV households where as, DTH and IPTV have been given 140 million TV households to be exploited. They have already reached a connectivity of 23 million and 1 million till date. This means that the addressable market in India has 29 million subscribers. This should be adequate for the high priced channels which can be placed in the premium category. Rate of these channels can be left to the broadcasters. If they can create a demand, they will get the payments. All channels which need to be priced more than Rs. 5.35 can fall in this category.

-         It is not practical to have pricing according to genres. There may be differentiation within a genre too. Hence to be fair to all kinds of broadcasters, they need to be given the freedom to choose their own pricing if they feel their product is of premium quality. This calls for Broadcasters to declare to the Regulator if their channel is FTA, ‘Normal Pay’ (which can be part of a bundle and with a-la-carte rate not more than Rs. 5.35), ‘Premium’ to include special and niche channels (not to have a regulated tariff) or Value added Service, to include VoD, ‘pay per view’ (like movie premiums) etc. Thus the system will work the same way as the Public Distribution System of the government which caters for the masses selling at controlled prices.

Thus, the tariff structure can be divided in to three different frameworks as follows:

-         Non-addressable analog market (Non-CAS)

-         Non-addressable Digital market (Non-CAS Digital)

-         Addressable Digital market (CAS Areas, Voluntary CAS areas, HITS and IPTV networks)

Addressable Digital Market

In the addressable markets where CAS is used, the pay channel tariffs can be based on the MRPs and the revenue share system can continue as it is today. The system also should be made applicable to all areas where voluntary CAS has been implemented or the same pay channels are being distributed through DTH or HITS or IPTV. Also, dual feed of analog for FTA and digital for pay channels must continue on cable networks till CAS implementation in the whole country is completed.

In CAS notified areas retail tariff should comprise of

1. Basic Package. (Min 50 FTA + 5 DD channels for Rs. 100/-). This is so because the number of FTA channels have increased and digital networks can carry much more channels than analog. Also, this additional revenue will be an incentive to move to digital in the non-CAS areas.
2. Normal Pay channels. Could be bundled (at Rs 5.35/ MRP as suggested by TRAI) and sold to subscribers in bouquets. However, they should be made available a la-carte as well if the consumer so demands.
3. Premium Channels. Since the pay channels have adequate addressable market now, let the broadcasters decide if they want to sell their channels to an elite addressable audience or to mass audience. While selling to the masses, they gain in viewership and get more ad revenue whereas, selling to selected addressable audience they market to a fully accounted market with no worry of under-declaration and a market which will pay them for their content, technology like HDTV and 3D and value added services.
4. Value Added Services. These services depend upon the platform operators and can have no regulation of tariff.

There should be a relation between the a-la-carte price and the bouquet price of a Normal Pay channel to avoid any perverse pricing. The ratio should not be more than 1;1.5. That means a-la-carte price should not be more than 50% higher than the average price of a channel in a bouquet.

Time to Look after the LCO

Now, we have to move fast to a total digitalization era so as to compete with other technologies as well as move to triple play and other broadband services. It is the last mile operator who suffers the most in carrying services of broadcasters and MSOs. He does not get any carriage fee while carrying these services. Also, the quality of the service of both broadcasters and MSOs depend mostly on the performance of the last mile networks. They get no financial help for upgrading their networks. They have been upgrading their networks with their own money to carry more and more channels without any financial benefits for the last 16 years. Hence, we feel that the revenue share between broadcasters, MSOs and LCOs should be 40:25:35.

All MSOs run many video channels (even up to 10 or more in some cases). They do not yet pay any registration to the government for them but earn a lot in terms of ad revenue and sponsorships. They must pay carriage fee to the LCOs so that they can upgrade their network’s channel carrying capacity to carry these additional channels to the subscribers. Since MSOs earn ad revenue from the viewership provided by the LCOs, this revenue should be shared between the MSOs and LCOs in the ratio of 50:50.

While deciding the tariff issues, TRAI should also take in to account the number of subscribers who only watch FTA channels? There may be millions of them. There is also a need to take in to account the number of black and white TV sets or old colour TV sets in India which receive only 11-30 channels out of the 500 odd channels available in the country? Five Doordarshan channels are mandatory to carry by all Cable Operators which leaves only 6 private channels for these subscribers. A similar argument applies for old colour TV sets which can receive not more than 30 channels.

The Democratic Operator

In case of cable operators, who try to provide all popular channels to all their subscribers, they charge a differential pricing at the retail level without the content being different to accommodate different types of subscribers. Moreover, as the operators belong to those areas, it is difficult for them to ask the same price from a consumer having a large 42 inch LCD TV and another having a black and white TV having a limited channel reception.

Thus a cable operator in the non-CAS areas has been selecting channels and subscription fee for his subscribers in a very democratic way considering-

• Consumer Choice.
• Affordability
• Language of the region
• Type of TV set owned

Non-Addressable Digital Markets

Basic Tariff- Should include a minimum of 50 FTA+5 DD channels for Rs. 100/-

and also cover the cost of distribution on the network.

Normal Pay TV – Should include a minimum number of Pay channels at a fixed cost but    number of channels and the cost to be more than the Analog networks.

Premium Channels- Left to the choice of the operator.

VAS- Left to the choice of the Operator.

Wholesale

Pay TV –Normal Pay channels to be available a-la-carte. Decision to accept the bouquets on the Headend operators. A cap of Rs 2.40 to be made for these channels to be paid to the Broadcaster.

Premium Channels- May be introduced by the Headend operator on his own choice to increase the value of his network and differentiate from others. If his area is higher income group, he may demand more subscriptions from his subscribers.

VAS- As per the wish of the Headend Operator.

Website:www.cable-quest.in

Article Source : Tariff should be Technology Agnostic : ArticleBase

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About the Author:
Lt. Col K K Sharma (Retd)