Sun Direct HDTV on DTH launched
Sun Direct HD TV services have gone on air, the first commercial launch of HDTV on direct-to-home television (DTH) in India. Initially, only a select few channels will be available on the Sun Direct HDTV. Sun Direct already has a DTH service in many parts of India. Sun plans to add about 45,000 users for its new HDTV service by the end of this financial year.
Sun Direct has also tied up with Samsung for HDTV on DTH. Samsung Electronics will make the set-top boxes for Sun’s HDTV. Samsung will also promote Sun’s HD TV DTH service at all its exclusive outlets in India. Samsung is a mass-seller of HDTVs among LCD TV vendors in India.
However, Sun’s HDTV DTH will not be cheap. The installation and first year subscription will cost Rs 9500-10,000. There will be no special charges for the new settop box, Sun Direct said. In contrast, currently, DTH subscribers pay Rs 2,500 for an year’s subscription to Sun DTH.
Initially, only five HDTV channels will be available in Sun Direct DTH. This is because converting a single channel to HDTV format costs Rs 1.5 crore, and beaming hundreds of DTH channels in HDTV format would be very expensive for the company. Besides, every channel will not have an audience among HDTV aficionados either. Related story: 2010 Commonwealth Games HDTV broadcast
HDTV programs have better video and audio quality than conventional digital TV broadcast. In India, though a several models of HDTVs are available, the broadcast quality still does not match up to the output potential of the television. Sun Direct hopes to tap into those TV viewers who demand better video and audio quality in their living rooms. Related: Looking for HDTV models in India?
India’s DTH industry has several operators like Dish TV, Big TV, Tata Sky and Airtel DTH. However, Sun Direct will be the first to offer the technologically advanced HDTV service in India.
Sun Direct has been conducting trials of its HDTV service since April 2009. The company already has about 1,000 customers for its HDTV service.
The channels which will be offered under HDTV will come under: Hindi GEC, Tamil GEC, English Movies, Kids, Educational and Tamil/Telugu Movies.
“We believe that in the constantly changing viewer-ship dynamics, to keep the viewer continuously happy and engaged we need to offer them new and exciting options and HD is another first from the Sun Direct stable. We believe that HD is the future of television and as far as viewing is concerned it is a visual delight. Samsung is a great brand and they are globally the experts in the television technology venturing with Samsung as our support and manufacturing partners will pay rich dividends. We have added more customers than any other DTH player in the last one year and in the coming days we will be adding more innovative features and value added services on our platform,” Mr. Tony D’Silva, COO of Sun Direct said at the launch of Sun Direct HDTV on its DTH platform.