satellite tv or DTH - dish tv, tata sky, dd direct and ADTV
July 14th, 2007
Entertainment industry is changing fast in India. Currently there are four major digital TV service providers in Kerala. In this post, I will briefly look at each of them. All these are known as Direct to home (DTH) providers except Asianet digital who uses their cable network infrastructure.
Satellite TV offers unbelievable picture clarity and stereo sound. Also it is possible to offer many premium services such as movie on demand, games and shopping portal in additon to TV channels.
Tata Sky - It is Tata Sky who started the satellite TV war. Currently the hardware costs Rs.3000 and in addition you have to pay Rs.1000 for installation and warranty. They have 4 packages with different channel set and subscription fee - starter pack (Rs. 160), western pack/family pack (Rs. 250) and jumbo super saver pack (Rs.300). There are lot of promotional offers going on and you may be able to get it much below these prices.
DD Direct - If you are just looking for free channels, DD Direct is the choice. The advantage is that there is no subscription fee! Currently they offer about 30+ channels. The whole thing will cost between Rs. 2000 and Rs. 5000.
Dish TV - Dish TV is an old player in digital TV. They have a wide range of subscription schemes. The initial equipment costs Rs. 2950 and the installation charge is less than Tata Sky at Rs. 200. They also offer movie on demand (Rs.50 for english and Rs. 40 for hindi) and games.
ADTV - Asianet started digital TV just to survive competition. When it comes to value of services, they always lag behind. When Tata Sky started posing a real threat to their existence, Asianet started ADTV which uses their existing cable lines for digital TV. Asianet is cheap and the monthly subscription for 100+ channels is only about Rs.220. But the problem with ADTV is that they won’t implement anything on their own. They wait for the competition for innovation. Another thing they did was to remove certain channels from the existing analog TV so that people will switch to ADTV! Unfortunately they don’t even have a proper Web page for their service!
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September 21st, 2007 at 2:37 pm
well…that means asianet is lagging behind and you cant expect anything great from asianet…!!! well asianet removed some of the best channels from it! discovery! miss it !!!
what about internet through these services??? any idea on that???
October 1st, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Discovery and all other popular channels are back in ADTV. And you are right, they will not implement anything new on their own, but just try to go with the flow. Im tired of seeing the same page in the boring info page. Nothing is changing, its all the same when you switch on the TV. Pathetic.
Internet was OK till now, but for the past 3 days Im not getting the net. And the connectivity is bit ok-ok with the net.
December 5th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
Adtv is the worst digital ntw in kerala. They don’t have a good stb, they don’t give good new pay channls & more over pay channels on them r a few, the channels audio r not in uniform mode.
June 18th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
It is true that the audio of different channels are different in Asianet. They know abt, it but don’t take any remedial measures. However for the same Malayalam + English channels available in Asianet, you have to shell out Rs 150 more if you take Tata Sky. So unless Tata sky reduces its price still further and improve its reception during rain, Asianet is more acceptable.