Dish TV, the Essel group-owned direct-to-home service, is set to extend its channel capacity to 420 with the launch of its own satellite. Currently it can beam 220 channels.
According to Dish TV managing director Jawhar Goel, at present the DTH provider is using the NSS6 satellite at 95.0 degrees designed specifically for DTH operations. “For this purpose, it not only has an India-centered beam but it also has the automatic loop control (ALC) feature where the power transmitted by the satellite is maintained at the maximum level,” Goel said.
This gives much better reception during the rains as compared to satellites without ALC. The NSS6 is also in the zone of visibility of Insat 4B at 93.5 degrees, owing to which the channels transmitted on that satellite are also available to Dish TV subscribers.
The India beam of NSS has 15 transponders of which six are of 54 MHz and nine of 36 MHz. This amounts to a capacity of eighteen 36 MHz transponder units.
At present, Dish TV is leasing 11 transponder units and will add some more in near future. In addition, Dish TV has also bought Ku band capacity on Protostar-1 equivalent to 14 transponders of 36 MHz.
