Bharti Group plans presence in DTH segment with ‘Test launch’

Bharti Group plans presence in DTH segment with ‘Test launch’Bharti Telemedia, the DTH license holder company of Bharti Airtel, has finally entered the direct-to-home (DTH) segment with a ‘test-launch' of its services.

The company has planted about 80-100 set top boxes of its DTH services to select homes across Gurgaon for the test-phase, which will be followed by the nationwide commercial launch sometime in August-September this year.

Currently, Bharti DTH is offering about 10-channels in the test-phase using the MPEG-4 channel compression technology. It is expected that it will offer over 220 channels, once commercially launched.

Official sources quoted that the company is in the final stages of closing its interconnection deals with various broadcasters.

Even Anil Ambani-owned Reliance ADAG's BIG TV, is all set to commercially launch its services within couple of months.

From primarily a two-player DTH market i.e Dish TV and Tata Sky, the consumers will soon get option to choose between 4 to5 DTH companies.