IndianMascot
Core Member
It began on October 2, 2003. And, Dish TV, the first company to launch direct-to-home (DTH) television services, decided to tread slowly. Instead of taking on cable operators head-on in metros and cities, where most subscribers were, the fledgling DTH company decided to focus on rural markets, remote areas and the outskirts of some cities where cable network wasn't available or very poor.
The strategy was understandable for another reason, too. As part of the Essel group, which also owned the largest cable operators in the country, it didn't want to tread on their toes. Says Jawahar Goel who single-handedly launched DTH services in the country through Dish TV: "We hardly had four transponders and could offer only 48 channels, compared to analog cable that was giving 60 and was much cheaper. And, STAR refused to give its channels. So, we decided to go slow and concentrate in cable-dry and cable-frustrated markets, rather than cable-rich markets and build the market step by step."
Yet, the introduction of DTH was not smooth at all. It was seven years before the government lifted the ban it had imposed on DTH after an aborted attempt by STAR TV to bring the service in the country. The reasons were ludicrous - a security risk, a second lead to western cultural invasion.
In 2007, the inflection point for DTH was about to begin. All knew it was a superior technology, offering better viewing. But the growth was limited, both due to lack of transponders that limited the variety of channels, and the reluctance of companies like STAR to offer their bouquet of channels to Dish, which limited subscriber choices.
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