Finally, DTH takes off with 2 lakh subscribers

The public broadcaster becomes the second DTH operator in the country after Zee-promoted ASC Enterprises’ Dish TV, which has managed to corner around 1.5 lakh subscribers in about a year’s operations. Sarma said DD’s DTH would telecast only free-to-air channels, also airing All India Radio channels as an add-on.

‘‘So far, we have 17 DD channels on the platform and 12 private channels, including BBC World, Aaj Tak, Headlines Today, Zee Cinema, Zee Music, Splash TV, Aakash Bangla, Sun TV, Kairali,’’ he said.

The platform, which just entails an initial cost of about Rs 2,500-3,500 for the dish and the set-top box, will also offer about 10 radio channels to begin with and plans to increase it to 19 in the coming months. These radio beams would include regional radio channels. The service will initially target non-cable and non-TV coverage areas, ‘‘including J-K and North-Eastern areas.’’

Prasar Bharati had begun trial run for the DTH platform for the last few months, but is awaiting a formal inauguration by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

A Prasar Bharati official said about Rs 160 crore have been spent on the venture so far. ‘‘The rest of the investment will be made in the coming months for upgradation as well as other expansion programmes,’’ he said.

With the public broadcaster looking like securing large rural market and Dish TV trying to make inroads into urban areas, it will be a competitive field for the Star-Tata promoted Space TV, which is expected to get a final government nod for its Rs 1,600 crore venture by this year-end.