Last Day of Worldspace in India [Post Mortem]
Worldspace India is shutting down its service from today onwards (i.e. on December 31st) and while we wait for the new owner to revisit their India strategy, lets look at Worldspace story in India.
8 years, 35 Channels, 4.5 Lakh (paying) subscribers, but are they enough?
50% of Worldspace subscribers came via Airtel DTH partnership – so that makes the first few years (or rather first 6 years) a market creation effort and essentially an unsuccessful stint.
Pricey Positioning
Radio is a mass medium and Worldspace focused on premium user segment to start with. Nothing wrong with it (that your GTM strategy), but even after 2 years, they never cared to break the myth that it isn’t a premium product. Or rather, they never cared to go beyond the premium segment.
Worldspace Radio - Who killed the DJ?
Off late, Indian consumers have started exploring newer consumption medium (products/services), but how many of them wanted to explore Worldspace? Were people talking about Worldspace in their school/workplace? Was there ever a community building exercise by Worldspace team? I don’t recall too many initiatives.
The notion of ‘bought into the receiver for lifetime’ was a big hindrance to adoption – and am sure there are multiple ways to break that notion.
Marketing Strategy (or the lack of it)
Worldspace India was creating a market for ‘niche content’ radio in India and you need hell lot of creativity to market your service, especially when you are the only one in that space.
Worldspace roped in A R Rahman as brand ambassador and did just a lip service to the partnership. Beyond Rahman partnership, there was nothing substantial about Worldspace marketing strategy. There was no attempt to acquire new customers or to enter new user segment.
Service too early for the Indian market?
Indian subscribers paying for radio content? Well, subscription based content doesn’t work so well with the Indian mass (free is the word). Even though Worldspace was ad-free, they probably left a lot of money on the table.
The basic hypothesis was value in the content – there surely was, but were they pricing it right?
Essentially, they created a filter (with premium pricing) and didn’t monetize the filter at all (I am sure a lot of Worldspace subscribers would have paid a little more for the value they were getting).
Even acquiring new customers would have been easier with entry pricing and a bit of messaging could have done the trick.
Roadshows would have helped – it’s all about exploring newer ways to reach out to customers, but the first step lies in understanding the real problem statement, i.e. a potential customer’s perception of the service.
What’s your opinion? How does it feel going back to ‘Bollywood crazy’ ‘free’ FM stations?
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About the author - Ashish Sinha is a Startup Mentor/Product Strategy Coach, and the founder/chief editor of pluGGd.in.
He has launched/managed couple of products (consumer as well as enterprise) in US and India, and now consults with startups/small businesses on their product/media strategy. He can be reached at: ashish (at) pluGGd.in [+91 98452 06443]
i agree with ashish, worldspace has not done propoganda of thier product. they have to target on government officials working in rural areas. network marketing was also an option. though worldspace was wonderfull but the customer service was worst. i really miss worldspace.mr ashish are there any hopes of restarting the service?
I have been an avid World space listener for years. It was probably the year 2001 when my dad got the Hitachi reciever and introduced us to a whole new world of ad free digital music. How can I forget channels like Voyager, Maestro, Gandharva etc. Those days the service used to be free!! Worldspace became a subscription service only in mid 2004. Now it is all ending. Nobody unfortunately cares about the niche crowd. You have to be loud,crude and crass to survive. This is the tragic reality of our times.
i sold my television (left viewing it) since i got worldspace. millionears from india cant purcase worldspace assets?
World Space was good enough for restaurants, Gyms, Hotels etc. Other “Free” FM stations don’t serve music but only “BAKVAS” of Dj’s.
However, it would seem from a reading of the various Court filings by the assorted lawyers to Worldspace that Liberty is firmly in the driving seat for the failed radio broadcaster and in effect controls the two somewhat tired Worldspace satellites (AfriStar and AsiaStar), both now nearing the end of their working lives. Afristar was launched in October 1998 and has solar-panel problems, and with an operational design life of just 12 years – which is close – although it could stay on station (+/- 1 deg) for a further 3 years or so. Asiastar was launched in March 2000, again with a 12-year lifespan, so this craft has a slightly longer “use by” date.
Worldspace also has an ‘asset’ in the shape of Worldspace 3, a craft that’s sitting in a satellite warehouse in Toulouse. It would be unfair to call it DustSat, given that it is carefully stored in a temperature and humidity-controlled clean environment, but by any measure the satellite now has some tired components that would need replacement – and that costs cash.
This third Worldspace satellite will also need technical modification to permit it to more aggressively target Europe. Finally, a new owner needs to stump up the launch and insurance costs for WS3 – and this means real money measured in the tens of millions of dollars. Liberty Media’s satellite arm is going to have to fund this if it hopes to launch a real L-Band service across greater Europe.
To summarise, Worldspace has to emerge from Chapter 11, staff hired and battered relationships rebuilt. Cash must then be paid to fund the modifications of Worldspace 3, then a launch slot secured (and this is not easy) and insurance taken out. This summarised list is but the tip of an iceberg of challenges, and is by no means a pushover even for Dr John Malone.
“Worldspace India is shutting down it’s service from today onwards” – do not put an apostrophe in ‘its,’ unless you mean ‘it is.’
You also spelled ‘pricy’ incorrectly, at which point I stopped reading.
Worldspace not specific to India, they have filled for bankruptcy in US after its debt reached $2.1 billion.
“at the end 2007, it had a customer base of over 1.6 lakh in India — over 93 per cent of its world-wide subscriber base.”
Info: http://www.blonnet.com/2008/10/19/stories/2008101951240100.htm
yeah..thats a known info. they filed for bankcrupty in sep 2008
http://www.pluggd.in/shortcircuit/worldspace-files-for-bankruptcy-2925/
Tears are being shed in my home on the demise of Worldspace! For a family with eclectic taste in music and location in a rural area where FM radio has not penetrated it is a sad day! I have made a space in the showcase for keeping the receiver! In mourning!
miss the sound of worldspace which has occupied our listning space at home since last seven odd years. i recall buying the receiver with apprehension and then falling in love with it almost on day one itself. Is there no way it can come back. I heard some of the best sounds on worldspace. 2010 does not start the same for me and Rajshree.
Marketing Strategy (or the lack of it):-
I would like to explain the reason for decline of worldspace.
let the reason be known to the world.
It was one of the best products realted to music listning across the world.
It was just lack of marketing startegy:
Marketing headed by Mr. Harshad Jain (CMO-Worldspace)
Mr. Jain never took any initiative rather then just spending money on his own comforts.
Mr. jain was posted at HO Bangalore but was always found doing nothing at Delhi, No promotions , no Marketing event , just spending time with his family at his gurgaon residence.
every monday he used to fly back to bangalore and every thursday he used to again fly back to delhi.
At delhi he was not spending time on marketing strategies or market survey or any other marketing event.
He spent a lot of money on Delhi-bangalore-Delhi air tickets, He never went on to meet the dealers/distributors or customers at delhi/bangalore.
There was no Brand awareness being created amongst the common people, Mr. jain always that that the product is only for the higher classes-high income people.
The Marketing team never tried to hit the masses, there was no awareness created amongst the masses for such a good product.
Apart from Mr. Jain, Mr. Thomas phillips also could not help in incrteasing sales,Mr. Thomas Phillips was heading Sales across nation and had never been successful in increasing the sales,
They never discussed the things with their team ,and kept on shouting continously.
There was no planning on the side of Marketing and Sales.
Apart from this the Service being Headed By Mr. Souvik Basu also bombed.
The perception of Service amongst the customer become even worse.
The management (or the company owner-Mr. Noah Samara)sitting at the US was made fool by the top notch at india.
Mr. Noah always thought that something great is happening in India but the ground reality was something different.
The company continously kept on to see a 50% decline in the revenue collection in india , but it was made to feel the US management that India is on track ….
It was all lost in india in 2008 mid and then the company noticed the decline.
It would have been a very successful journey for WorldSpace in india if the top Management (in India) has not just thought of making money for their own pockets, and would rather have worked honestly for the Brand.
If the company would have worked on the feedback given by the customers, it would have been a very successful story.
The answer to Who killed WorldSpace in india is now known.
Mr. Noah Samara … are you listning????
Since you seem to be an insider, is there any hope that WS will be revived?
There must be Indian entrepreneurs who should sniff an opportunity— the emotional response of so many loyal listeners is testimony to the fact of how wonderful a product it was. The WS program and RJ team that worked to generate such loyalty is also worthy of being treated better— it must be awful to have the rug jerked away from under your feet like this. You could feel the passion and emotional attachment of these Rjs as they presented their programs… it was wonderful…hats off to them. And what of the great database of music that had us listening everyday? Is it to be totally wasted?
No hope dear…
Liberty has taken the back up of content(music-data).
it was purely running in losses due to some…..
indian partners not interested….reasons:-
they are not int to buy it for whole world…etc etc.
It is really sad to know that the transmission of Worldspace satellite radio has stopped in India.I am listening the radio especially channel 45- old hindi songs throughout the day. Last month I gifted the connection to my close relative who likes to hear old hindi songs & in a very short time it has stopped.
Do we keep hopes to restart very soon?
We pray with the God.
there is thin line of hope `liberty media` a us company may purchase the assets of the company
Ever since I subscribed Worldspace (some 7 years ago) I felt at home in spite of being out of India. I will miss Gandharva, Farishta and Umang. When Indian music (classical, folk music) is dying, Worldspace is (was) the only radio who were keeping alive. I am disappointed…
Anonymous appears to be an insider who knows the full details of what was wrong with WorldSpace India. As a customer of WorldSpace from its inception in India, I find it strange that their marketing head had the feeling that only the higher classes can afford a capital expenditure of Rs 2000/- odd and a recurring monthly expenditure of Rs 150/-. Probably he had not heard of the 300 million (or is it 500 million?) strong Indian middle class and the millions who are fond of classical music and old Hindi film songs (without the grating ads!). No wonder the brand failed. And it is we, the subscribers of WorldSpace in India, and old Hindi movie song addicts, who are left high and dry. For me, mornings before going to office will not be the same again!
Is there no Indian entrepreneur who is also a music buff and can take over the Indian operations of WorldSpace?
Yes,
you are very true, I know each and evey detail of the failure of worldspace.I am an insider but along with that I am a music lover.music has died in india, from where we could listen to quality music in india.
Farishta….falak… jhankar… orbit rock.. etc. etc.
And the persons resposible are nowhere in the news…enjoying their life with a new job with a new DTH provider.
DTH owners are you listening??????
Keep away from these three money makers…
Dear Anonymous,
I used to listen to Farishta, Spandana and Shruti. Since 1st Jan, the spark in life is gone. Convey my thanks to the RJs for brightening our life. It is definitely one music product that if one listens once will get hooked for life. If I had the money, I would have saved Worldspace for the sake of fellow music lovers.
Ravi
Very sad to know the sad demise of World Space. As every one is of the view that World Space has failed due to bad Marketing Strategy, I too feel same about it. They don’t have any marketting strategy at all. The marketting head is solely responsible for its sad and untimely demise. It is a very classical channel without any disturbance of advertisements. Instead of punishing it with death sentence, they could have gone for advertsing mode and kept the channel on. Even this would have been accepted by the customers. Advertisment had the good opportunity of reviving the Channel. AI feel the channel head had no head at all. Music will never die in India. Insead of collecting small fees from customers, they could have gone for Advertisemnt mode and made the channel free of cost.
Nonsence decission.
Even today there is a good scope for bringing back the channel alive if some one changes its strategy of Adfree world. When you make the channel free for the end user, he won’t crib of advts. The music companies can takeover the channel and run it easily.
yes,
u r right
I was a subscriber to worldspace and was over-awed by its usefulness, sound and programming. The mistake as pointed out by others is the unwillingness to adapt to customers’ needs. If bouquets were offered (free & pay channels) or the facility to tick off what you needed, probably more would have signed up to worldspace as subscribers.
Not all enjoy all genres of music. But the customer care never would listen when I say for example: my need is just BBC World & Maestro! Why would i need to pay for nearly 40 odd channels when i was very clear with what i wanted?
Apart from the mismanagement from the top brass I am pretty sure they didn’t price their product right. Statistics show that most of their customers came from Airtel DTH (10 channels). This means the number of people who really had the recievers is quite small. Moreover it really doesn’t make much sense to pay 150 bucks for 45 radio channels when you get 100+ TV channels for 200! Also, most were surely put off by making an additional hardware purchase.
What they should have done is taken their radio to other platforms like DTH, digital cable, etc and brought down their subscription fees. The increase in number of listeners would have made up for the decrease in revenue per user, but then, alas, staying afloat wasn’t very important for them, was it?
it is very sad news for the music lovers in india…we were hit by floods in ap recently and our receiver got spoiled. i myself being a btech student fixed it up… on 26th dec’09 worldspace was back into action in my home. on 31 morning my receiver showed ‘TDM GONE’ i thought my receiver got trouble again.. i checked connections receiver internal parts… but no way… today i read in a newspaper that worldspace shrank into black-hole of bankruptcy . it is realy a bad news on a new year.. i wish if any indian crorepathis buy it and start it again… i miss the channels spandana, jhankaar, maestro, amore, top40, the system…
dats seriously true!!!world space had amazing music!!!….especially..it was advertisement free!!which had no bakvaas of those Rj s and non ending advertisements!!!
i miss Worldspace a looooootttt!!!!!!!!!!
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worldspace working . asia dev, sai global harmony, preview channels are workig,,,,,,mob 9420673371
I had been listening to world space for only an year. I work from home it was the one thing that kept me glued to my chair working and not crawling into the bed. It was also a the only thing that could pry my daughter away from her favorite cartoons and we spent many afternoon dancing to the great (and advertisement free) music.
I am sure that with a little creative marketing it can become a great product – after all what FM offers is VJ who talk endlessly , tons of advertisement and one or two songs thrown in. There is no competition – O please some one take this business opportunity – I wish I had the money !
Very sad to know the sad demise of World Space. As every one is of the view that World Space has failed due to bad Marketing Strategy, I too feel same about it. They don’t have any marketting strategy at all. The marketting head is solely responsible for its sad and untimely demise. It is a very classical channel without any disturbance of advertisements. Instead of punishing it with death sentence, they could have gone for advertsing mode and kept the channel on. Even this would have been accepted by the customers. Advertisment had the good opportunity of reviving the Channel. AI feel the channel head had no head at all. Music will never die in India. Insead of collecting small fees from customers, they could have gone for Advertisemnt mode and made the channel free of cost.
Nonsence decission.
I was very disappointed when i came to know that they were stopping their services.Worldspace was a perfect entertainment to my whole family.It had music that had refreshing music for all ages.worldspace was a gift by my dad to my mom,who is a house wife.It brought a great quality entertainment to my mom.She loved listening to farishta,gandharv,shruti ans spandana.My dad listened to moksha,voyager.My brother who is a patron of rock music was a regular listener of orbit rock ,spin , voyager.I was a great fan of top 40 and jhankar.jhankar at first had some real good shows.later on,the serives were really bad…i miss all those wonderful channels.
we really miss the music of worldspace…….
I hope they start there services back!!!!
is there any possibility to work again or not.if it possible then when and how.i am really upset.
According to me Worldspace was listening to clear digital music, but the songs were mostly repetitive. Same songs were played over and over again. The 80s channel never had a song from Madonna, Michael Jackson or Wham. You dont want to hear same song again and again it was like playing your cd.
Till date I was thinking of a local problem which would get resolved and music would once again flow. I am hurt, WorldSpace could have informed the loyal customers about their closer in advance.
I have paid my subscription fm Dec 2009 for the next 1 year. Can anyone tell me how I can get a refund of my subscription.
thanks in advance
It is sad that no one even contemplated that World Space was a NRI Company out of the USA and would be hit one way or the other, given that their model did not rely on advertisement, and the spate of Chapter 11 Bankruptcies in that Country. Made good sense for music lovers, but bad commercial logic. Superb music of a wide variety and all at a reasonable cost, if you were a music lover. Now what do with the electronic junk of these receivers??? Does anyone know if the Tata sky or the ZeeTV or even Reliance would step in and make it a commercial model and still have a fine balance to pipe out more music and less noise?? Where there is hope, there is life !!
i am taking them to consumer court – if i don’t get my money back!
shdoufldjf dfjakdfjslk
Read this on twitter:
“If you own a Worldspace receiver and are in India, point your antenna SW at 45° and your radio will live again, though not too many channels.”
Plz give us details of channel you can hear and whether your subscription is still valid.
Same doubt Nilesh – What are the channels that come now
The SouthWest 45 degree recommended is to latch on to Afristar which still pumps out NPR, BBC WORLD, and a few other channels. May not be much just about 4 to 6 channels -but atleast some information flows by a sheer miracle! May be after reading this those would be locked down as well!
I was listening to worldspace from the second day it was launched. It was a free service at that time. Later on, suddenly, they levied a subscription charge! That should have been warning enough that these short stint corporates are actually up for a gamble, anyway we Indians learn late. However I found out that there is another service called 1 Worldspace. Did it suddenly grow up after the demise of Worldspace or was it there? How come the channels listed are the same as those of Worldspace? I smell a foul play somewhere. Will someone find out and let us know?
Anyway these days you get infinite music from the internet, who cares for an electronic junk! The sets will be up there in some artist’s installation!
Sad that great people like A.R. Rahman was also pulled into the deception game…
I miss my Shruthy. I have been a suscriber from 1995 and now it is all gone!
hope some one buys the assest and Shruthy is back again.
regards
is there is any way to get back the money . the paid amount or the security deposite. as i am a distributor
Hi!
Agree that they should’ve marketed it better… I miss my wrldspace radio stations… they were a class above the “free” stations
What can I do with my Sanyo unit ? This one was the most expensive and audiophile grade unit to be sold by worldspace.
Why can’t the worldspace unit in India simply use all their content and programing and turn it into a web based, online radio station? With almost everyone now having net access on their phones this could have been a way for them to keep their programming going for their customers. Only now, they don’t need to bother about receivers and satellites. All they need is a very good Internet connection. They cut their costs, introduce some advertising (in place on the web channel) and can easily monetize their listenership. Are the worldspace folks listening?
Abrupt stopping of the Worldspace transmission has put me to inconvenience and lss. The hardware has become useless. Compensate me adequately before I seek legal recourse.
Hi all Worldspace fans. I have been trying to persuade a friend of mine who owns a music company to take on the franchisee for worldspace. Hopefully he will explore the possibilities. If that does not work out then I would request all worldspace fans to form a group and approach the US company that owns it and persuade them to start the Indian operations again. Maybe that will motivate them to search for an Indian partner again. Even if it starts with adds I don’t think it will be free. Ya they could start with channels with add and also premium channels for music lovers who dont want that nuisance. And man am I mad at these guys who were at the helm of marketing WS and botched it up. Any suggestions?
worldspace ws my life….and many of my friends were addicted to it to….im jst hoping it comes back soon….