The DTH television market is set to see a new player with Sun TV booking seven of the 12 Ku-band transponders on the INSAT 4-B satellite due for launch on Sunday. Owned by Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran’s brother Kalanithi Maran, Sun TV will be the third private player in the market currently dominated by Zee’s Dish TV and Tata Sky, a joint venture between the Tata group and Star TV. This is the group’s second attempt at starting a DTH service — Sun Direct. They had booked seven transponders on INSAT 4-C as well, which failed during launch in July last year. The other five Ku-band transponders on INSAT 4-B have been booked by Doordarshan for its DD Direct Plus service. The 3025 kg satellite will be carried by European launch vehicle Ariane-5 ECA from Kourou, French Guyana, early on Sunday. “There is huge potential for DTH players in this country. We will soon see more players. Our endeavour is to make good infrastructure available to operators,” said Sridhar Murthi, executive director of Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of the Department of Space. Each KU-band transponder is capable of beaming 15-30 channels, depending on its frequency, and costs about 1.2 million dollars a year. If all is on track, Sun TV will be able to start DTH operations in the next two months.A host of other companies, including Reliance and Bharti, are vying for a share of the DTH pie.
