R-Com to introduce DTH service by March end

Reliance Communication of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group is going to launch it’s own full range of Direct-to-Home (DTH) service commercially under its subsidiary ‘Big TV’ by end of this month, one-month before the pre-decided scheduled of April-end.

It expects to cover more than 10-million subscribers across the country by offering distinctive subscribing plan, as an RCom official claim.

Big TV would launched the DTH service through offering set-top boxes at the minimal cost range of Rs.1,000 to 1,500 for its hardware charges while its monthly subscription charges would be Rs. 300 per month for introductory 100 channels.

Meanwhile, RCom is planning to later extend the channel up to 300 and then, it would be available to customer’s own choice basis and subscription prices will also be vary from selection of the packages but will remain under Rs. 325, as per R-Com’s planning.

Big TV has also offered the pay-per-view (PPV) subscription service under DTH scheme in which viewers can access maximum 30 PPV movie comprising Bollywood, Hollywood and regional films.

R-Com is also eyeing to launch customised DTH service in the regional areas as per customer’s demand. Initially it will launch the service in Hindi, English, Tamil, Telgu, Gujarati and Marathi. A pack of 5 movie channels and 3-4 kids channels will also be included in the general entertainment channel (GEC) package.

The arrival of RCom’s DTH will tighten the competition in the market which is primarily dominated by Dish TV and Tata Sky. Dish TV is the nexus of Essel group and Zee network while Tata Sky is the collaboration of Tata industries and Star network.

By the end of the year, several major players include Bharti and Sun TV is also planning to enter the market to hone the market competition.

At present, Dish TV has the largest customers of 3-million subscribers while Tata Sky has 1.7-million subscribers across the country. DD direct plus is the only public DTH players that offer mostly government channels of Doordarshan and All India Radio.

The market experts are estimating that the current DTH market is going to be extremely vital and it might reach to 16-million household from current 2.5-millions by 2010.