Dish TV boxes to get support for Internet apps by December

Dish TV, India’s largest direct-to-home satellite television service, said it will send out software upgrades to over 4 mln (40 lakh) of its users that will enable them to install apps to watch Internet content on their TV by December. “There are almost 4 million boxes that we have which we can convert into connected […]

Sun Direct unveils India’s cheapest HD packs at Rs 2.50 per channel

Sun Direct, the satellite TV service from Sun TV group, has started offering the cheapest high-definition channel packages in India. The DTH service, which used to offer HD channels only as part of ‘base packs’ that came with a large number of standard-definition channels, has now started offering smaller packs comprising only HD channels. The […]

Dish TV completes merger with Videocon D2h

Dish TV India said it has completed the legal process of merging itself with rival Videocon D2h. Dish TV said it has filed all required documents with the Registrar of Companies, Mumbai, Maharashtra today. With this, it said, “the companies have completed all the steps pursuant to the aforementioned scheme read with NCLT Order and […]

Star India issues disconnection notice to Videocon D2h

Star India, which recently won the rights to the Indian Premier League by offering to pay a whopping Rs 16,348 cr over five years, has issued a disconnection notice to Videocon D2h DTH service. This follows a similar warning issued to users of Tata Sky and Airtel Digital — India’s biggest TV content distributors by […]

Verdict expected next week in Star India vs TRAI bundling case

The verdict in the crucial case filed by Star India against the sector regulator’s move to control a-la-carte pricing of television channels in India is expected to be delivered next week, a key industry official said. “The judgment has been reserved by the Madras High Court. There has been a representation by the Government, TRAI […]

Dish TV says will go ahead with D2h merger despite Videocon insolvency cases

Zee Group’s DTH arm Dish TV said it intends to go ahead with its merger with rival Videocon D2h, having made an assessment of the possible impact of bankruptcy proceedings against D2h’s promoter group by banks. It said it will make further filings with the Registrar of Companies on the merger. “Upon evaluation of the […]

Sun Direct becomes first DTH in India to start HEVC transmission

Sun Direct, a unit of Sun TV, has become the first DTH or cable operator to start transmission using next-generation HEVC compression technology in India. The company has introduced two HEVC — short for high-efficiency video codec — channels on its GSAT-15 beams. HEVC, also known as H.265, requires only 55%-60% of the bandwidth compared […]

Airtel Digital increases HD channels to take on Tata Sky

Airtel Digital has bounced back into reckoning in fast growing high-definition DTH market by adding capacity from the newly launched SES-9 satellite and could emerge a strong challenger to Tata Sky in coming days. The SES-9 satellite was launched last year and new transponders were made available to Airtel earlier this year. Over the last several […]

Dish TV slashes basic pack rate to Rs 33/month to take on DD Free Dish

Dish TV, India’s oldest DTH operator, has unveiled an offer that is by the far the cheapest from any private operator in India. Under the new ‘DishTV Non-Stop Offer’, the company is offering a clutch of free-to-air channels to its subscribers for three years in return for a one-time payment of Rs 1,149. To compare, […]

New TRAI rules to make HD channels cheaper by 70%, HD access fee illegal

New rules on the pricing of television channels are likely to make the viewing of HD and sports channels in India cheaper and make charges such as ‘HD Access Fee’ totally illegal. The rules were issued on Friday and will come into effect within six months of it being published in the gazette. The most important […]

With 90 HD channels, Sun Direct set to overtake Tata Sky as No.1 HD DTH player

Sun Direct,  the DTH arm of Sun TV Network, could soon emerge as the No. 1 provider of HD TV channels in India, according to a distributor privy to the company’s plans. The DTH operator has recently acquired several transponders on a new satellite owned by the ISRO, the Indian space agency, next to its primary […]

Sun Direct overtakes Dish TV, Videocon D2h in HD movie channels in English

Sun Direct, the DTH operator from the Sun TV group, has added several new High Definition channels over the last several days, and has now overtaken rivals Dish TV and Videocon D2h in terms of the number of English movie channels on its HD platform. The move comes more than a year after ISRO launched the […]

Doordarshan Free Dish adds 50 new channels, total 113; DD encryption may hurt Dish TV

Doodarshan Free Dish has added a whopping 50 new channels on the new MPEG 4 technology within 20 days of moving to its new home, GSAT-15. Most of the new additions are movie channels, but some are still in testing mode. The new channels include Movie House, Manoranjan Movies, Khushboo TV, Houseful Action, MM Multiplex, RT Movies, […]

GSAT-15 could boost Sun Direct, Tata Sky’s HD channels

Today’s launch of GSAT-15 communication satellite over India will be a big boost to DTH operations over the country, especially for HD channels, and will benefit players like Sun Direct and Dish TV. The launch will more than double the DTH capacity of India-owned satellites over the country. Though India gets a higher level of preference […]