The Indian DTH market is estimated at 20.5 million subscribers as on December 2009, an increase of 9.5 million over 2008. Currently, the Indian DTH market is being served by six private players - Dish TV, Tata Sky, Sun Direct, Big TV, Airtel digital TV, and Videocon d2h and one public sector entity, DD Direct Plus.

Dish TV owned by the Zee group, held the number one position in the market with a subscriber base of 6.5 million. In collaboration with Indiatimes.com, the company is offering value added services, mobile active, to enable viewers to preview ringtones, wallpapers, text alerts and contests on their TV and download it on their mobiles. It has also joined hands with monster.com, shaadi.com and yatra.com.

Sun Direct has chalked-up a subscriber base of 4.9 million till December 2009. This year, Sun Direct launched HDTV on DTH. HDTV programs have better video and audio quality than conventional digital TV broadcast. The company is planning to offer its consumers new and exciting options by adding more innovative features and value added services on their platform.

Tata Sky, with a subscriber base of 4.63 million, has launched a bouquet of interactive services that caters to the interests of all age groups. Currently, the company offers ten interactive services viz. Actve English, Actve Mall, Actve Wizkids, Actve Stories, Actve Learning, Actve Games, Actve Darshan, Actve Cooking, Actve Star News, and Showcase.

The Big TV subscriber base stood at 2.23 million and plans to double its VAS contribution to overall revenues, during the next fiscal. Big TV has tied up with Indiagames, a subsidiary of UTV, to provide popular games available on PC, web and other gaming platforms to its DTH subscribers. The launch of DTH Gaming services is part of Big TV's strategy to drive profitable growth through innovative DTH VAS services.

Bharti Digital TV, with a subscriber base of 2 million is offering various schemes and discounts to it's customers on purchase of new Airtel digital TV connection. Airtel digital TV also brings an exciting range of interactive services like shopping, booking movie tickets, holiday planner, future-forecasts etc.

Videcon d2h was launched in May 2009. Since then it has registered a subscriber base of 0.25 million. The company is offering its consumers interactive services like DD Active, State Active, Darshan Active, Finance Active, Active Games, Active Puzzles, and Tickers.

The market is witnessing intense competition among players to capitalize on the high potential and offer differentiated service to their viewers as their USP. Value added services (VAS) are the emerging differentiators in such a scenario. They complement the value proposition of DTH in home entertainment and establish it as an enhanced TV-viewing option over cable TV. With the discerning Indian consumers being conscious of the service they opt for, value added services act as growth drivers in this respect.

The DTH players are constantly looking for newer ways to enhance revenue streams. Currently they have put their heads together with film producers to screen films, within weeks of their release in theatres. This is really a win-win situation for the players as well as the film producers. The DTH release will follow the theatre release, but before the movie is given to the broadcasters for free airing. Adding new movies on pay-per-view basis will give the DTH players an edge. It also helps curb piracy by weaning away viewers in smaller towns from pirated discs.

The Indian DTH TV industry has been growing at a rapid pace since the inception of commercial services in 2003 on the back of huge investments by the existing and new players. Due to superior audio and video quality, the DTH services are in a position to attract a large number of subscribers. According to RNCOS, the market research firm, the number of DTH subscribers in India is projected to grow at a CAGR of around 28 percent during 2010-2012. Presently, the DTH subscribers constitute only a small proportion of the total TV household in the country, presenting a vast untapped market.

The DTH industry is burdened with huge growth dampeners in the shape of multilayered tax structure aggregating to 59 percent of the gross revenue of DTH operators which challenges the economic viability of every DTH platform.  As per the estimates, operating losses of DTH operators in 2008-09 were Rs. 1794 crore. As per ASSOCHAM, cumulative losses by the end of 2008-09 were more than Rs. 5000 crores. ASSOCHAM has urged the Finance Minister to withdraw 5 percent customs duty on set top box (STB) in budget proposals for 2010-11 in a bid to provide support to DTH industry to advance objectives of digitization. The objective behind exempting customs duty on STB set top box, is pertinent particularly on account of non-availability of components, and other factors required to make STB, as 80 percent of the components are imported.

For DTH providers now, the emphasis is on providing the best quality service and also additional services such as triple play, which will attract and maintain customer loyalty and give added value. The competition with terrestrial is fierce but the benefits that satellite can offer can easily rival the cable and telecommunications companies already in the game of TV delivery.

DTH is gaining a very strong foothold in the market. Already the players have planned launch of HDTV. Interactive Television and DVR are already there in the Indian market. DTH has an inherent advantage of delivering the latest technologies and increasing it's ARPU since it is digital and addressable with conditional access (CAS). This enables the operators to provide accountability and reasonable choice to the consumers. Another major advantage of DTH is that with a small 60-90cm dish consumers can view all 200 odd channels anywhere in the country, even in the remote areas.

The DTH market in India is relatively nascent but is getting crowded very quickly. The future of competition in the DTH market is not going to be in the core DTH service or the subscription cost. To attract subscribers, companies will have to distinguish themselves from the competition by providing value added services via DTH. Tariff issues for DTH are at present being discussed by TRAI and may get resolved soon but government must do some thing about the multiple taxation and heavy license fee charged annually from the operators.

DishTV has now come up with a way for people to enjoy personal live TV on the move, and may soon make in-car entertainment systems such as DVD players nothing to brag about.

Keeping with its tradition of venturing into new technology areas DishTV has launched a revolutionary service in the area of live TV on the move. The service called Personal Live TV on Move, brings 70 satellite TV channels at each seat of the vehicle. The channels are viewable independent of each other and have a personal audio.

The IPL cricket season is about to start. Imagine that you are stuck in your car, still hours away your TV set at home, while the match is about to start in a few minutes time. In such a case, with a conventional in-car entertainment system, you are just reduced to listening to the occasional score update on the chatter-filled FM radio channels. DishTV latest offering, Dish Mobile, may just be the solution to enable you to watch the match without stepping out of your car! The new system is surprisingly similar to the standard DishTV setup installed at home, and provides all, and the same, television channels that you watch at home, this time in the comfort of your vehicle. The only notable difference between the home DTH and the one in your vehicle is that the latter will have an antenna specially designed to work in moving vehicles.

Mobile DTH service is for all those who need to stay connected with the world. They could be people with interest in stock markets, sports, politicians, celebrities and business persons. Currently, the product is available in all major cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. Earlier, DishTV was providing a single TV system where with one mobile dish antenna in which only one screen could be run. Now we have made some critical enhancements in both the mobile STB and the mobile dish antenna to bring this multiple-screen facility for the first time on the Indian roads.

We realized the need for Personal Live TV need after taking feedback from our mobile DishTV customers and channel partners. When people travel in the same vehicle each one of them have a different need just like in homes. Someone wishes to watch news while someone else a movie, so in such an environment personal TV for each passenger becomes very useful. It is like having multiple TVs in a house for various family members. Of course there are many other uses and benefits of this facility. It is akin to our technology on the Kingfisher airlines where each seat has about 8 live channels from DishTV. However the costs of the on-road system are a small fraction when compared with costs of flight entertainment systems which run into a few million dollars.

This is truly the ultimate luxury on the road and no other expensive car accessory can come even close to its luxury and use. It is for people who value their time and realize that the dead-time on the road is the best time to get their daily dose of TV. Since the cost of single TV system is about Rs. 1.9 lakh it is better to spend a little extra and have the multi TV system.

This service is going to come to be useful for the common citizen as well. DishTV plans to soon provide this personalized service in intercity buses, taxis and trains.