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 […]

Den Networks to introduce 4K, gaming box this year

Den Networks, one of India’s top three cable companies, is planning to introduce4K services and ‘open’ set-top-boxes with gaming support this year, CEO S N Sharma said. “We definitely are aware that 4K is also around the corner and the box development is already in progress may be in next three to four months’ time,” […]

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 […]

RCom to rebrand Reliance Digital TV as Chois HD?

Anil Ambani group’s Reliance Digital DTH may be rebranded to ‘Chois HD’, according to a twitter user, who also tweeted some photographs of the upcoming brand. Reliance Communications’ Reliance Digital is arguably the weakest candidate among the five private companies that compete in India’s DTH space. The DTH business is dominated Dish TV, Tata Sky, […]

Reliance LYF brings 4K UHD TV models ahead of Jio launch, price Rs 55k

Reliance Retail, sister company of upcoming telecom operator Jio, is bringing out two 4K UHD smart TVs in India, sized 50 inch and 65 inch. The 50-inch model will be priced Rs 55,900, while the 65-inch model will be a premium one with a tag of Rs 1.55 lakh. Both prices are before discounts, and […]

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 […]

Samsung launches TV with built in DTH from Airtel Digital

Years after Videocon first tried it, Samsung and Airtel Digital TV are giving the integrated DTH TV concept another shot. The two launched Integrated Digital TV (iDTV), under which Samsung’s range of SmartDirect TVs will come designed with an in-built Airtel digital satellite tuner which will enable DTH signal reception without the need for customers […]

TRAI says new rules won’t increase cable, DTH bill, or hurt LCOs

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has dismissed the “fabrications and concoctions” being circulated on social media about the new tariff rules that will come into effect on December 29. In a statement, the regulator countered two broad concerns on the upcoming tariff scheme — that consumers will have to pay far more to watch their […]