Direct to Home TV sweeping India

When I landed in Bangalore in November after a span of 10 months, the first thing that struck me was the advent of new plastic dishes atop roof tops across Bangalore. Direct To Home (DTH) technology had finally made its presence felt in Bengalooru.

As I dumped my luggage on the door steps of my cousin's home, I saw one dainty dish adorning his home's roof too. The first question that escaped my lips was not "How are you?" when he opened the door. Rather it was, "How is the new DTH service?". "See for yourself", he said and switched on the TV.

With close to 110 channels on offer in crispy clear digital mode, the Tata Sky DTH service really took my breath away. I was most impressed by the cool browsable categorised menu of channels. Another laudable feature was the language facility that enable a channel like National Geographic to be viewed in either English or Hindi.

With three DTH business namely Dish TV (by Zee Group), Tata Sky (by Star TV and Tata group), and DD (by state owned Prasar Bharti) making waves and more players like Blue Magic (by Reliance), Sun Direct (by Sun TV) and Bharti joining the race, the customer can expect a slew of sleek offers along the way

What does the customer have in DTH that he does not already have with the local cable man's offering?

1. Freedom to choose the bouquet of channels one prefers
2. Freeedom from being charged a flat fee for the 50 odd channels being offered by the local cablewallah
3. Crispier Digital Signals
4. On Demand programs available : The chief strength of DTH is the ability to cater to individual tastes. Pay per view and On demand broadcasting will be the next big wave sweeping India.
5. Pay the same rates as the cablewallah charges for 3 times as many channels.
   

Today's news also features educational houses like 24x7 Guru tying up with DTH players to provide on demand educational subjects to student and adults alike. This might be a further boost to India's literacy efforts and also an opportunity for people to further skills at home and promote a new class of small time home entrepreneurs across India.

To speed up things further, ISRO's recent INSAT series satellite launches have made up for a lack of K Band transponders that are necessary for the DTH relays. Indians are in for a big treat in the days to come.

The other day when Mom was complaining about having to pay Rs 150 every month to the local cablewallah and still suffer poor transmission quality, change in channel sequences as per the cable guy's whim and wish. My brother shouted out a solution to her from the bathroom, "Tata Sky amma"