India's Reliance Communications enters DTH business, aims at 40 pct market share

[alpeshpatelk]

MUMBAI (Thomson Financial) - India's Reliance Communications Ltd. said it launched its direct-to-home (DTH) services venture through its wholly owned subsidiary Reliance BIG TV Ltd.

'The DTH market stands at six million households now of the 125 million television viewing homes in India,' said Arun Kapoor, President, Reliance Communication. 'This number will double in a year and we will hold a 40 percent market share.'

The company will compete with players like Tata Sky, Dish TV India Ltd., Prasar Bharati's DD direct and Sun TV DTH and new players like Videocon Industries Ltd. and Bharti Airtel Ltd., which are planning DTH services.

'The market is set to expand as bigger players come into the fray,' said Kapoor. 'There is a huge opportunity, as less than five percent of all TV homes in India are DTH.'

BIG TV said it plans to launch DTH services with 100,000 retail outlets across 6,500 Indian towns, besides which, it will open 2,000 exclusive stores.

The company said that the main cost to the business comes from subsidised set-top boxes, which bleeds profitability but added that it will grow in scale and offset losses.

The company added that it will use its existing infrastructure to rationalise cost.

'We will be cost competitive because of our unique model as we will bring in synergies from our telecom, movies and communication capabilities. Operations like billing, provisioning system, customer care will using the existing infrastructure,' said Mahesh Prasad, president, Reliance Communication.

The company said it also plans to launch IPTV in two to three months


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