In a bid to expand its presence and create buzz around its direct-to-home offering, Tata Sky is now initiating a massive school contact programme.

"We have just started with the exercise and hope to deepen it further. The 'Active Whizkids' offered by us was based on a consumer survey that indicated parents seek an interactive platform for pre-schoolers and beginners when it comes to learning," says Vikram Mehra, head consumer marketing, Tata Sky.

Tata Sky is already claiming a presence in over 300,000 homes. "We believe our market share in the CAS market is between 30-45 per cent. What's helped us push our presence in the CAS areas is the availability of boxes and equipment at a short notice," claims Mehra.

He attributes this to tie-ups with Thompson and Humax that are among the top-three makers in the world and have set up their production base in the country.

"If the need arises we might consider brand ambassador or a celebrity endorser in future," he says, adding: "We are not a discounted brand and had launched the offer for free viewership for the first six months in CAS areas only to aid initial trials. However, we will be competitive and offer our service at a comparable rate henceforth," he said.

Aiding its initiative to reach one-million subscriber base by August 2007 is the massive distribution and demonstration drive. For instance, it is already retailing from more than 3,600 cities with a network of more than 20,000 dealers.

Its hardware and pre-paid recharge vouchers are available through popular consumer electronic stores and the recharge vouchers are also available at neighbourhood grocery stores and mobile phone outlets. It has also partnered with LG, ITC and IndianOil outlets all over India.

That's not all, it also looking at 360 degree media and has started communicating with NRIs for gifting a Tata Sky service and "thanks to this within a short time our site recorded maximum page views and became the 6,700 top-viewed sites in the world," says Mehra.