Rural Remixed

A sight caught my attention when I was traveling by train between Mumbai & Kota (in south Rajasthan). The number of miniature dish antennas that I saw on many rooftops amazed me. This was even more as we passed through smaller stations (where the train did not stop). Many of these dish antennas carried the Dish TV logo..
Upon checking I realized what could be happening. Companies like Dish TV and I am sure some other direct to home (DTH) satellite entertainment service providers as well, are focusing on smaller towns and semi urban markets. These markets have poor Cable & satellite (C&S) connectivity and thus ready targets for DTH services.

With DTH for entertainment and VSATs for communication rural & semi urban India is set to evolve into well a communicated and equally entertained population cluster.

It is not just media reach, but the cumulative impact of this clubbed with growing incidence of organized retail (Chaupal Sagar etc.) that would make rural remixed!

Rural remixed would directly impact marketing communication targeted at them. Life would become more exciting & complicated than the classic ground promotions, haats, van activity etc.

Imagine a young boy of 16 in a village near Mehsana getting exposed to the same fashion and entertainment as his counterpart in Mumbai.
Or a homemaker in close to Lakhimpur Khiri getting to see the same Slimming Tea promotion on TV as her sister in Ludhiana.
Visualize a rich farmer’s daughter |in Baitalpur, near Gorakhpur, watching the Fraknfinn Airhostess Academy TV Commercial on prime time just like a girl of her age sitting in Andheri in Mumbai.

Would this turn the rural consumer into another urban consumer? I do not know.
Would this lead to more homogeneity of markets? Likely, but not certain.
But one this is certain, as Nicholas Negroponte mentioned over ten years back, that social and cultural divide created by the rise of information rich and information poor societies is only in our minds.
The only divide that would remain is the generational and perceptual.
Increasingly entertainment is not just about recreation; it is also empowerment, for a viewer can be the next Indian Idol.
Similarly computing is not just about computers; it is about living, for a farmer can get the best price for his produce.
In future, the line separating the urban from the rural would be perceptual, not real.