Sun Direct Pvt Ltd, an 80:20 joint venture between the Maran family and Malaysia’s Astro for offering direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting service, plans to go national by November end.
NEW DELHI: Sun Direct Pvt Ltd, an 80:20 joint venture between the Maran family and Malaysia’s Astro for offering direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting service, plans to go national by November end. Launched in Delhi on Wednesday, Sun DTH was predominantly a South-based service till recently, and subsequently reached Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat.
Tony D’Silva, chief operating officer, Sun Direct told DNA Money that the company’s current DTH subscriber base of 1.7 million is expected to touch 3 million by the end of March 2009. Has Sun hurried up its national plan because of the surge in competition in the DTH space? D’Silva said, “No, actually, our plan got delayed because of the huge demand in the South.”
While the marketing budget for the current fiscal is around Rs 150 crore, there’s an additional cost of around Rs 1,200 crore for providing set-top boxes and dishes free to its subscribers. Under the introductory offer, a Sun subscriber pays Rs 1,999 towards 10 months of subscription fee and installation charges for a basic package of 130 channels. The add-on packages will be charged at Rs 10 to Rs 115 per month. Sun Direct wants to offer high-definition television (HDTV) to its premium customers as soon as broadcasters get approval for the same. Currently, there are no HDTV channels in India, and at least three broadcasters are learnt to have applied to the government for licence to offer HDTV content. Discovery, National Geographic Channel and some sports channels have applied for HDTV licence, it is believed.
Even as this DTH venture claims to have most channel bouquets, sports biggies such as ESPN and Star Sports are absent on the platform over pricing issues. Sun Direct is contemplating to move the telecom dispute tribunal (TDSAT) against these two sports channels if the issue is not resolved within a month.
m_nivedita@dnaindia.net
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