DIRECT-TO-HOME TELEVISION IN INDIA

Direct-to-Home (DTH) television is a method of receiving satellite television by means of signals

transmitted from direct-broadcast satellites.[1] The Government of India permitted the reception and distribution of
satellite television signals in November 2000. The first DTH service in the country was launched by Dish TV on 2
October 2003. DD Free Dish, the first free DTH service in India, was launched by public broadcaster Prasar
Bharati in December 2004.
India is the largest DTH market in the world by number of subscribers. As on 31 December 2017, there were
67.56 million active pay DTH subscribers in the country.[2] These figures do not include subscribers of free DTH
services. The market is serviced by 4 pay DTH providers and one free DTH provider.

HISTORY
DTH services were first proposed in India in 1996. The proposal was not approved to due to concerns over
national security and negative cultural influence. In 1997, the Government of India banned DTH services
when Rupert Murdoch-owned Indian Sky Broadcasting (ISkyB) was about to launch its DTH services in the
country.[3] After deliberations among groups of ministers, DTH services were permitted by the NDA government in
November 2000. The group of ministers was headed by Home Minister L.K Advani and included Information &
Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley, Information Technology Minister Pramod Mahajan, Finance
Minister Yashwant Sinha, Defence Minister George Fernandes, Communications Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and
Law Minister Ram Jethmalani. The ministers made four key recommendations to govern DTH services:
 No single entity, either private or state-owned, should be permitted a monopoly in DTH services.
 The vertical integration of DTH and cable television services should be monitored in order to prevent
the formation of a monopoly in television distribution.
 The vertical integration of DTH operators and television channels should be avoided in order to
ensure fair competition among TV channels.
The new policy announced in November 2000 required all DTH operators to set up earth stations in India
within 12 months of receiving a license. DTH licenses were priced at $2.14 million with a validity of 10 years. The
FDI limit in the DTH sector was capped at 49%, and the company operating the services was required to be headed
by an Indian citizen.[3]
The first DTH service was launched in India on 2 October 2003 by Dish TV. The company decided not to
compete against entrenched cable operators in metros and urban areas, and instead focused on providing services to
rural areas and regions not serviced by cable television. Jawahar Goel, who led the launch, recalled 10 years later,
"We hardly had four transponders and could offer only 48 channels, compared to analog cable that was giving 60
and was much cheaper. And, STAR refused to give its channels. So, we decided to go slow and concentrate in
cable-dry and cable-frustrated markets, rather than cable-rich markets and build the market step by step." Dish TV
acquired 350,000 subscribers within 2 years of the launch.[4]
Public broadcaster Prasar Bharati launched DD Direct Plus (now DD Free Dish) in December 2004. The service is
free and offers only free-to-air channels.[5] Tata Sky was incorporated in 2004 as joint venture between the Tata
Group and the British Sky Broadcasting. Tata Sky launched DTH services in August 2006. Unlike Dish TV, Tata
Sky focused on metros and large cities hoping to attract customers away from cable by offering better picture and
audio quality and wider selection of channels.[4]
Following bitter legal proceedings between STAR and Zee, in 2007, the two companies called a truce and
began offering their channels on each other's services. This decision and Dish TV's acquisition of more transponders
enabled them to offer 150 channels on their service, more than any other DTH service in India at the time.[4]
Sun Direct and Airtel digital TV launched services in 2007 and 2008 respectively. Reliance Big TV
(now Reliance Digital TV) was launched in August 2008.[6] The service acquired 1 million subscribers within 90
days of launch, the fastest ramp-up ever achieved by any DTH operator in the world.[7] Videocon d2h launched its
services in June 2009.
The total number of DTH subscribers in India rose from 1.5 million in 2005 to 23 million in 2010.[8] Sun
Direct became the first DTH provider to offer high-definition(HD) channels in early 2010.[9] Tata Sky began
offering HD channels later that year.[10] Other DTH providers subsequently began carrying HD channels.[11]
The price of set top boxes (STB) in India has plummeted in the decade since DTH services were launched. A
standard STB was priced at ₹3999 in 2003, but dropped to ₹500 by 2014. In the same year, a DVR box capable of
recording television programmes was priced at ₹2500.[4]
In September 2012, the Union Government raised the FDI cap in the DTH sector from 49% to 74%.[12] The
government permitted 100% FDI in the DTH industry in November 2015, with 49% through the automatic route
and higher investments subject to government approval.[13]
Videocon d2h began offering a preview of 4K Ultra HD content on its DTH service in July 2014, and
launched India's first 4K Ultra HD channel on 26 January 2015. The channel is not dedicated to single genre and
instead broadcasts video on demand (VOD), lifestyle and travel content, sports, infotainment, concerts
and Hollywood films. The channel also telecasts 4K content created by international broadcasters. The first
programs telecast on the channel were live broadcasts of select matches from the 2015 ICC Cricket World
Cup.[14][15] Tata Sky also offered live broadcasts of select matches in 4K.[16]

Subscribers Ownership
S. No. Service Provider Launch date
May 2018[37][38]

 Dish TV October 2003 15.6 million Essel Group (55%)[38]

1  Zing Digital
 Videocon d2h [39]. June 2009 12.5 million Videocon Group (45%)

Tata Sons (60%)

2 Tata Sky August 2006 14.3 million 21st Century Fox (30%)
Temasek Holdings (10%)

Bharti Airtel Limited (80%)

3 Airtel digital TV October 2008 12.5 million
Warburg Pincus (20%)[38]

Sun Network (80%)

4 Sun Direct 2007 6.2 million
Astro Group (20%)

5 DD Free Dish December 2004 22-24 million[40] Prasar Bharati

Independent TV August 2008 Pantel Technologies

6
(formerly Reliance Big TV) (relaunched in 2018) Veecon Media group

72 million
Total Subscribers