The DTH Operators Association of India has called for a relaxed satellite policy that would allow companies to use capacity from foreign satellites in order to expand their television offering, according to local reports.
The association has also…
The DTH Operators Association of India has called for a relaxed satellite policy that would allow companies to use capacity from foreign satellites in order to expand their television offering, according to local reports.
The association has also allegedly expressed concerns about technical snags suffered by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) satellites recently, which, in turn, impacted the supply of TV services.
Some of those DTH operators were even forced to switch to a foreign satellite, which comes at a cost, to continue providing services, reports claimed.
If amended to include an ‘open sky’ provision, the SatCom policy of 2000 would enable these companies to better compete with the cable industry, Harit Nagpal, the CEO of Tata Sky and president of the DTH association, was quoted telling the Financial Express.
Nagpal was not available for comment at the time of going to press.
India is home to six satellite pay-TV companies: D2H, Dish TV, Tata Sky (a JV between India’s Tata Group and Rupert Murdoch’s Sky), Sun Direct, Airtel Digital TV, and Reliance Digital TV.
Rumours of a wave of consolidation in the Indian DTH market resurfaced last month after it was reported that Videocon Industries was considering selling D2H to a rival satellite TV operator in the country.
The satellite broadcasting sector in the country has seen the number of DTH subscribers grow rapidly in recent years, jumping from 25 million in 2010 to 44.4 million in 2011, as India’s mobile population gain increasing spending power.
