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Bharti DTH service launched in Gurgaon
More choice to the consumers at competitive price points is in the offing in the direct-to-home (DTH) segment as Bharti Telemedia, the DTH licence holder company of Bharti Airtel, has entered the space with a ‘test-launch' of its services.
According to sources, Bharti has seeded about 80-100 set top boxes of its DTH services to select homes across Gurgaon for the test-phase, which will be followed by the nationwide commercial launch sometime in August-September.
The entry, according to experts, is likely to lower the entry-level price for DTH subscription, currently Rs 2,490 (for Dish TV) and Rs 2,674 (for Tata Sky).
Between the two existing DTH players—Dish TV and Tata Sky—the market has over 5.3 million subscribers. Both the companies continue to add about 100,000 subscribers on a monthly basis.
To avail the DTH services, the consumers have to shell out for the set top box (basic hardware required to access the DTH services) and then opt for the monthly subscriptions (differ from each DTH subscribers). The monthly subscription starts with Rs 160 and Rs 175 for Dish TV and Tata Sky respectievly.
Even Anil Ambani-owned Reliance ADAG's BIG TV, which has already undertaken a soft launch for its employees and friends, is set to commercially launch its services within months. From primarily a two-player DTH market, the consumers will get to choose between four to five DTH companies soon.
"Bharti is in the final stages of closing its interconnection deals with various broadcasters. It is expected to offer over 220 channels once commercially launched," a Bharti executive said.
Currently, the Bharti DTH is offering about 10-channels in the test-phase using the MPEG-4 channel compression technology. The MPEG-4 is the next generation technology to MPEG-2, currently offered by Dish TV and Tata Sky.
The compression technology refers the channel-hosting capacity on the Ku-band transponders that are required for DTH transmission.
The DTH transmission involves a direct reception of digital quality television channel from satellite to the consumers home.
Under MPEG-4 compression technology, about 22-25 channels can be hosted per DTH transponder (hosted on-board the satellite) as compared to 15-17 channels that can be hosted using the MPEG-2 technology.
On a head-to-head comparision, the consumers get a better viewing experience in terms of picture and sound quality under MPEG-4 services as compared to the MPEG-2 technology, experts say.
However, the set top boxes of MPEG-4 based DTH services are upto 40 per cent more expensive than the MPEG-2 based DTH technology.
Apart from Bharti, the DTH services of new entrants Big TV (Reliance ADAG) and Sun Direct (Sun Network) are also using the MPEG-4 technology.
"It should be pointed that MPEG-2 technology is the most widely used DTH channel compression technology while MPEG-4 is relatievly newer technology that is still being tested in part of the world. However, the difference in quality of picture of sound to the end user can only be experienced on a high-quality television sets," a technical expert on DTH services said.
Between Dish TV, an Essel Group company and Tata Sky (joint venture between Tata Sons and Star TV), there are over 5.3 million DTH subscribers and the DTH market is set to cross 12 million subscriber mark within the next 3-4 years.
BIG TV is also in the test-launch phase since last couple of months but due to some technical problems in its set top boxes, its commercial launch has been consistently being pushed since the begining of the year.
"There were some technical snags with the Big TV's set top boxes as they were consistently ‘hanging'. About 50,000 Big TV boxes have been withdrawn from the market to fix the problem," a source in the DTH industry said. However a Reliance spokjesperson declined to comment on the issue.
More choice to the consumers at competitive price points is in the offing in the direct-to-home (DTH) segment as Bharti Telemedia, the DTH licence holder company of Bharti Airtel, has entered the space with a ‘test-launch' of its services.
According to sources, Bharti has seeded about 80-100 set top boxes of its DTH services to select homes across Gurgaon for the test-phase, which will be followed by the nationwide commercial launch sometime in August-September.
The entry, according to experts, is likely to lower the entry-level price for DTH subscription, currently Rs 2,490 (for Dish TV) and Rs 2,674 (for Tata Sky).
Between the two existing DTH players—Dish TV and Tata Sky—the market has over 5.3 million subscribers. Both the companies continue to add about 100,000 subscribers on a monthly basis.
To avail the DTH services, the consumers have to shell out for the set top box (basic hardware required to access the DTH services) and then opt for the monthly subscriptions (differ from each DTH subscribers). The monthly subscription starts with Rs 160 and Rs 175 for Dish TV and Tata Sky respectievly.
Even Anil Ambani-owned Reliance ADAG's BIG TV, which has already undertaken a soft launch for its employees and friends, is set to commercially launch its services within months. From primarily a two-player DTH market, the consumers will get to choose between four to five DTH companies soon.
"Bharti is in the final stages of closing its interconnection deals with various broadcasters. It is expected to offer over 220 channels once commercially launched," a Bharti executive said.
Currently, the Bharti DTH is offering about 10-channels in the test-phase using the MPEG-4 channel compression technology. The MPEG-4 is the next generation technology to MPEG-2, currently offered by Dish TV and Tata Sky.
The compression technology refers the channel-hosting capacity on the Ku-band transponders that are required for DTH transmission.
The DTH transmission involves a direct reception of digital quality television channel from satellite to the consumers home.
Under MPEG-4 compression technology, about 22-25 channels can be hosted per DTH transponder (hosted on-board the satellite) as compared to 15-17 channels that can be hosted using the MPEG-2 technology.
On a head-to-head comparision, the consumers get a better viewing experience in terms of picture and sound quality under MPEG-4 services as compared to the MPEG-2 technology, experts say.
However, the set top boxes of MPEG-4 based DTH services are upto 40 per cent more expensive than the MPEG-2 based DTH technology.
Apart from Bharti, the DTH services of new entrants Big TV (Reliance ADAG) and Sun Direct (Sun Network) are also using the MPEG-4 technology.
"It should be pointed that MPEG-2 technology is the most widely used DTH channel compression technology while MPEG-4 is relatievly newer technology that is still being tested in part of the world. However, the difference in quality of picture of sound to the end user can only be experienced on a high-quality television sets," a technical expert on DTH services said.
Between Dish TV, an Essel Group company and Tata Sky (joint venture between Tata Sons and Star TV), there are over 5.3 million DTH subscribers and the DTH market is set to cross 12 million subscriber mark within the next 3-4 years.
BIG TV is also in the test-launch phase since last couple of months but due to some technical problems in its set top boxes, its commercial launch has been consistently being pushed since the begining of the year.
"There were some technical snags with the Big TV's set top boxes as they were consistently ‘hanging'. About 50,000 Big TV boxes have been withdrawn from the market to fix the problem," a source in the DTH industry said. However a Reliance spokjesperson declined to comment on the issue.