South India based, Sun Direct TV, a direct-to-home (DTH) service provider, on Friday launched its services in North India with a special focus on the Punjab market.
Sun Direct is a 80:20 joint venture between the Tamil Nadu based Maran family and the Astro group of Malaysia.
Sun Direct is the fourth entrant in the market of DTH service providers in this region. Currently Tata Sky, Reliance-owned Big TV and Zee-TV's Dish TV are providing DTH services in the market.
Sun Direct has been launched in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
"Sun Direct entered into the DTH market in South India in Dec 2007. In a short span, our subscribers are more than the combined total of other DTH providers in that area. We have proposed an investment of Rs 150 crore every month in this region," Tony D'silva, Chief Operating Officer of Sun Direct, told media persons in Chandigarh on Friday.
"We have 1.4 million subscribers base in south India and the numbers are increasing every month. We expect to reach 3 million plus subscribers in the southern region by the end of this fiscal," D'silva said.
"Instead of rushing and launching ourselves everywhere, we spent quality time in understanding the requirements of every single region. Like in Punjab there will be special focus on Punjabi packages and likewise in Gujarat we will focus on Gujarati packages," added D'silva.
"We are using the most advanced technology to offer better compression and signal quality and we are the first ones to offer HD TV (High Definition) content." D'silva said.
"We are offering 20 add on packages ranging between Rs 10 to Rs 115 per month," D'silva added.
"Sun Direct has already launched its services in Western India and now we are planning to start ventures in the unexplored North East regions, Orissa, Maharashtra and West Bengal. The other phase of expansion would target Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and other areas of Hindi speaking belt." D'silva concluded.