Greycells18 to tutor students via DTH

For students appearing for their class 10 and class 12 board exams across the country, help is at hand.

This week, Greycells18 Media, a company formed by media professionals, is launching a curriculum-based television channel aimed at students in classes 9 to 12.

Called Topper, the channel will offer lessons in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. To supplement the information provided on-air the company has also launched an educational website called topperlearning.com, where students can access additional study material or submit queries.

Topper will be available on two DTH platforms -- Dish and Tata Sky.

Speaking to Business Standard, Greycells 18 shareholder and CEO Sunil Khanna said that the channel will be available free of cost during the examination period.

"This will encourage sampling as well as be a service to students sitting for board exams," he said. However, later Greycells 18 looks to introduce a subscription fee of around Rs 1,500 per annum.

"It's a product whose time has come," said TV 18 Managing Director Raghav Bahl, who has invested in Greycells through Network18's private equity initiative Capital18.

"Greycells has been conceived as a full service education company. There is a huge opportunity in digital education. Worldwide, channels such as Discovery Schools and BBC Curriculum are doing well," he said.

It is not difficult to see why Greycells is keen to tap the business opportunity in school education. There are 300 million children studying in various schools in India and nearly 66 million are expected to take the board exam this year.

The company sees a gap in consistency and quality of education across India. And television, being a visual medium, lends itself to education.

Khanna said that the timing is also right for an education channel in India. The broadcast industry is moving towards addressable boxes making the venture feasible for two reasons. One, collection of subscription is possible and two DTH boxes allow limited interactivity important for a genre such as education.

"Of course, once digital cable and IPTV, which are fully interactive media, roll out, we could exploit that opportunity as well," said Khanna.

Currently there are 4.5 million DTH homes between the two private operators. By 2012, India is expected to have 20 million DTH homes.

Topper's USP will be that it promises to offer tutorials by highly-qualified teachers including professors in universities abroad.

"Parents won't mind paying for such quality education," said Sricharan Iyengar, a former ESPN executive and Greycells co-promoter. Iyengar said that Topper is bound to have the first mover advantage as well.