Two months after leasing more spectrum on an additional satellite, Dish TV has doubled its total number of channels to 297, including 30 high definition ones. The firm had increased its total spectrum from 432 megahertz to 648 megahertz in December by buying additional space on a satellite adjacent to NSS 6, its original home.
At 300, Dish’s total channels is 50-100% higher than those of competitors, while the 30 high definition channels is three to five times what others offer.
Saddled with an old, spectrum hungry technology, Dish was facing problems in competing with new DTH operators such as Big TV and Airtel that were offering around 200 channels with less spectrum than Dish had.
Jawahar Goel, Managing Director, Dishtv India took a potshot at his competitors who offer 5-6 HD channels. “The availability of one or two HD channels on various platforms did not impact the market. Now, with the launch of 30 HD channels, Dishtv is officially scripting the HD revolution in India,” he said.
Unlike the others, Dish has added the ESPN sports channel to the HD bouquet, which will cost Rs 125 per month for 15 channels.
The HD channels on offer are HBO, Movies Now, Discovery, National Geographic, Animal Planet, Times Now, ET Now, Cartoon Network, POGO, Ten Sports, AXN, MTV, VH1, WB, Pix, TLC, Ten Cricket, UTV Action, UTV Movies, Sony, Colors and another ten channels from the Zee stable.
