Pune: Digitisation of Direct to Home (DTH) satellite televisionservice,which comes in force in the countrys four metros from November 1 this year and in other parts of the country in about a year and a half later,has driven service providers into adding transponder capacities to be able to offer more channels and other services to their viewers. The recent launch of communication satellite GSAT 10 by the Indian Space research Organisation (ISRO) has raised the hopes of additional transponder capacity for players such as Tata Sky,while similar satellitelaunch programmes by other organizations will help major DTH service providers such as Dish TV add transponders and offer more broadbased programming. Tata Sky chief executive officer Harit Nagpal told TOI that the launch of GSAT 10 willhelp his company add between100-200 channels depending on how many transponders ISRO decides to lease to DTH.The GSAT 10 satellite has30 communication transponders including 12 KU-band,12 C-band and six extended C-band transponders.DTH service providers use the KU Band.ISRO has indicated that requirement of VSATusers,some public sectorundertakings and other requirements,including communications,will be given transponders on GSAT-10.Also among the contenders is DD-Direct. Nagpal said the company had reached an exclusive arrangement with ISRO five years ago,when GSAT 10 was in the development stage,and booked KU-band capacity on the satellite.We have placed our demand with ISRO.A committee within that organization will decide how many transponders we will get, Nagpal said.He declined tocomment on how much the company will have to invest toadd the channel capacity. Nagpal said the intention is to launch the additional channels mainly in Tamil and Malayalam.It was a conscious decision to restrict our offerings in these two languages in our initial years and concentrate on programmes in other languages.With this additional transponder capacity we will be able to expand our offerings in Tamil and Malayalam, Nagpal said.As there is an existing arrangement with ISRO and thesatellite is already in the orbit,Tata Sky is planning to do the additions in a short time. Our competition is with the present local cable operators who are also going digital.Increasing the number of channels will help garner additional subscriber traction, Nagpal said. Dish TV,which currently offers409 channels and services too is bracing up for the post-digitisation scenario.Company officials said an investment of Rs 25 crore has been made to create awareness among viewers about the need to have a digital connection and launches such as Dish TV Plusare intended to ensure delivery of superior technology and services to the consumers. Dish TV at present has the maximum transponder capacity,with 18 transponderson its bandwidth.Chief operating officer Salil Kapoor told TOI that the company will add 12 transponders to its capacity in the 36 mhz frequency.Digitisation and the additional transponder capacity will help us increase our regional reach and offer more services.Additional transponders will become operational in the next few months, Kapoor said,without giving details of incremental investment the company will have to make
