DTH space hots up, Tata Sky launched

The direct-to-home market got hotter on Tuesday with the launch of Tata Sky Satellite Television service.

The direct-to-home DTH market got hotter on Tuesday with the launch of Tata Sky Satellite Television service. Tata Sky Ltd, an 80:20 joint venture between Tata and Star will provide its service in 300 cities in India.

Tata Sky will provide its service for a one-time fee of Rs 4,000 towards procuring hardware and activation charges, followed by a monthly subscription charge of Rs 200.

Tata Sky is gearing up to face challenge from existing players 8212; Essel Group8217;s Dish TV and Prasar Bharati8217;s free-to-air DTH offering, DD Direct Plus 8212; which currently cater to 1.25 million and 2 million subscribers respectively. This market will hot up further when Sun TV and Anil Ambani8217;s Reliance Bluemagic foray in.

8216;8216;It took nine years for cable TV to make its way in India, since the colour TV revolution in India of 1982. The bombardment of our senses through the visuals of the Gulf War, perhaps, made cable TV service providers too complacent with their achievements to look for further innovation,8217;8217; said Vikram Kaushik, MD and CEO, Tata Sky Ltd.

Today the number of households that have access to TV, stands at 110 million, and there is an equal number of homes which do not even have a TV set. It is this section of the population that will provide the niche market for Tata Sky8217;s service, Kaushik said.

With over 3.25 million subscribers, DTH penetration is roughly 5 per cent of the 61 million cable and satellite homes.

With several add-ons and innovative features like Actve Newsroom, Actve Sports, Tata Sky has alloted itself a period of 2 years to break-even. However, for now, the company says it8217;s facing a capacity constraint due to limitation of transponders on the host satellite. Tata Sky will offer 55 channels to begin with which will go up later.

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As things stand, Tata Sky has not included Zee TV8217;s channels in its bouquet. It has moved the TDSAT against Zee8217;s terms for providing its bouquet of channels.