Reliance Blue Magic

It appears that Insat is indeed cheaper. Also ISRO is making efforts to increase available transponders on Insat and to get space on foreign satellites.

Article mentions that India has largest no. of DTH operators! And that Videocon (VIDEOCON??) wants to enter the category. Take a look

The Hindu Business Line : DTH: Reliance Blue Magic to get space this year

Do you mean commercial launch by that term ? You are right in saying that foreign satellites are available but they are very costly and i'm sure you need to get clearances from the government for using them which takes a lot of time.

Yes I mean commercial launch to general public. I think Govt comes in the picture only at that stage. If you are doing field tests, then govt clearence is either not required (Or can be obtained by pying small bribes 😉 )

Why the hell would Videocon?Anyways... when is this launching?

Realistically probably end 2008. (if you mean reliance blue magic). If you mean Videocon, hopefully never 🙂

I doubt if hardware manufacturers can succeed in this space.

Yes I mean commercial launch to general public. I think Govt comes in the picture only at that stage. If you are doing field tests, then govt clearence is either not required (Or can be obtained by pying small bribes 😉 )


I thought any foreign sat clearance had to be anyways routed through Dept of Space and negotiated through ISRO. Our laws are pretty archaic still!

hardware manufacturers cant do well in service sector?wipro was i think a vanaspati oil making company. they are now one of the leaders in IT.microsoft is a software company. they did extremely well with the xbox.bharti is going into retailing... and is expected to do very well...videocon is not just another hardware company... they have managed to survive well in india despite the competition from south korean companies like LG and samsung... they certainly have the potential to do well... provided they take the right steps.

Completely agree that companies can go across sectors and do well - but media space is, I feel a different ball game. Control is divided along two lines - the guys who provide platform/ access and the guys who provide content. Which is why internationally, this space has pretty much been the preserve of one or the other. Videoocon has certainly held their own - but I wonder if they have the muscle to drive growth in this space. Its gonna be the really big guys with the really deep pockets who can sustain here - Airtel, yes - Reliance - Yes, Videocon - not really sure...What do you think?

I thought any foreign sat clearance had to be anyways routed through Dept of Space and negotiated through ISRO. Our laws are pretty archaic still!
Technically yes, but not in practice. You can go ahead and start doing things and govt liaising will take care of things magically. works as long as you keep things quiet.

Like our Airlines that manage to fly planes without "pilots" I.e. technically you need govt clearances before foreigners can fly in India but airlines have them get into planes on passenger boarding cards and plane flies "magically".

Thank god for the magic or most things (not just planes!) would never have taken off in this country!

Videocon are not fools to enter such a competitive field which will require huge investments and carries considerable risk. There is demand and dth has a lot of untapped areas. Besides Videocon being an electronics company can offer a bundled package of color televisions/LCDs with their dth and it has potential to throw up a surprise. Their already present expertise in electronics segment will give them an added advantage. The only negative i see is the relative delay in starting the venture.Just yesterday i read an article about chandigarh,punjab and haryana lapping up to dth in a big way with CAS not been made mandatory in those areas. Personally imo the government is trying to kill the local cable operator by not making CAS mandatory and are colluding with the big dth companies and i agree with that. Cable industry is a fragmented , unregulated and anarchic demon which needs to be sorted out.Don't forget that it was the BJP-Shiv Sena who shot down CAS in order to protect the cable operators and their dodgy money. With DTH gaining rapid momentum the small operators will be forced to sell to organizations like hathway, siticable , wwl etc which will eventually sort out this cable mess.

So anybody have a date for when they will start their service?

there is no transponder space left in sky i guess. so first ISRO will launch satellite. then allocate them space then it wud be tested and then launched.

So next year?

ADAG and Bharti have each sought eight transponders to start with. Blue Magic would be accommodated on Insat-4CR, due around July this year; Bharti Telemedia would get space on Insat-4G, which is planned towards 2008-end. This should take the Indian DTH tally to 49 transponders. (Quote from article in Hindu that I had posted in this thread) If all goes well, Reliance may be here by end of this year. And it appears, earlier than Airtel. Airtel in any case would I think focus on launching their IPTV offering first, since they have seem to have an edge in the broadband space already.

airtel are idiots. they have been testing iptv in gurgaon since almost 2 years i think and they still have not launched it properly... their broadband service sucks and their telephone instruments are pathetic.i am planning to go for Tata Sky coz dish tv quality sucks and i tend to stay away from anything reliance.except for their stocks of course.

??? I thought you were all for Airtel...what has happened recently to put you off it? Not been reading the Airtel Forum, so don't know....Anyways buy Reliance (Mukesh) stock but not ADAG stock 🙂