NDTV, Discovery, Sony, enter into broadcast pact

Production house NDTV, Sony and Discovery finally tied the knot today after checking out their compatibility levels for over a year.

Starting on All Fools Day, by which time the NDTV-Star (NDTV providing content to Star) alliance will have run its course, the former will begin beaming its two channels — in Hindi and English as part of Alliance One — bouquet of three available at current rates — for the time being. With all the three channels intending to stay encrypted, the cost of the bouquet is likely to go up from the current rate of Rs 55 per subscriber — that is the money charged by the broadcaster from the cable operator.

While Roy said he was in the process of distributing Integrated Receiver Decoders (IRDs) to cable operators, it will take time. With Sony currently being seen in 26 million cable homes (CEO Kunal Dasgupta’s figures) — it remains to be seen if the viewership increases with the arrival of NDTV.

With NDTV coming on Sony platform, the entertainment channel would have filled a gap for a news channel to complete its bouquet. Roy’s channels will also turn local — with more local news on weather, traffic — through breakaway software — iredeto.