Sun Direct brings HDTV in India

Recently, Sun Direct has teamed up with Samsung to introduce its HD services in India. Samsung will provide the required supply of set-top-boxes.

It is expected from the Sun Direct that it will add at least 45, 000 subscribers to its newly launched HDTV service by March 2010.

When asked about the same to the COO, Sun Direct, Tony D'Silva said, "We have about 1,000 customers on our HDTV platform, which was launched on a trial basis in April this year, we hope to get in about 45,000-50,000 HDTV subscribers by the end of this fiscal."

"To convert a channel into an HDTV channel costs nearly Rs 1.5 crore, so it is too expensive all channels on air to HDTV. We had to get an additional transponder to cater to HDTV," D'Silva added.

The set-top-box will be provided to the subscriber without any additional charges. The cost of installation and 1-year subscription will be between Rs 9, 500-Rs 10, 000.