Kicking off a fierce battle in the direct-to-home (DTH) sector, leading DTH player Dish TV is ready to roll out their services in sports utility vehicles (SUVs) in India. The company is learnt to be in talks with car manufacturers such as Tata Motors, Honda and Ford Motors to provide services in their new SUVs. These car manufacturers have done succesful trials Dish TV?s services. This additional facility is priced about $1,500 per vehicle in India.
Dish TV has already provided services in special trains of Indian Railways and Kingfisher Airlines. The hardware, which is sourced from companies in Israel and Germany, costs about $1500. Jawahar Goel, managing director, Dish TV, told FE , ?Car manufacturers have shown interest in the services. Though the trials have been done successfully, we are yet to start it commercially as the agreement is yet to be signed.?
The company, which added 2,85,000 new subscribers during the fourth quarter with a total 1.04 million in FY 2008, has a 59% market share in India. Goel said, ?Apart from the hardware cost of $1500, consumers have to shell out the charges for the packages they select.? According to him, about 15 Mercedes cars in India have been using the DTH service from Dish TV.
Apart from Dish TV, Tata Sky and Sun Direct, two more new operators such as Big TV from Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel are ready to launch their services soon. Interestingly, before the entry of new players, the fight remain unabated as both Tata Sky and Dish TV came out with new offers by cutting down the prices. Going a step ahead, Dish TV had offered free set top boxes under scheme of Rs 3,990, following which, Tata Sky asked the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) to pass an interim order restraining Dish TV from continuing with its advertisement offering free set-top boxes. Following MRTPC?s decline of its plea, Delhi High Court also dismissed Tata Sky?s petition in first week of June.
