The Hindu Business Line : Sterling Group expects to launch DTH service by 2009

New Delhi, May 15 The C. Sivasankaran-promoted Sterling Group is set to launch DTH services by early 2009 under a new business — ETH Air TV. In an attempt to differentiate its services, the company is positioning itself as a platform with a focus on educational content, and that’s why Education to Home or ETH.

An application for a licence is pending with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting but talks with financial institutions, vendors, technology partners and broadcasters have started. The company is expecting to close all its agreements as soon as it has its Letter of Intent from the Ministry.

It already has an agreement with ISRO, and has been promised six transponders on the Insat 4G satellite which will be headed spaceward around May-June 2009; an interim accommodation could be arranged before that if ETH Air TV is ready with its backend infrastructure.

There are more channels than space on current DTH platforms, and ETH Air TV could accommodate these homeless, new channels who are willing to pay carriage fees to reach consumers, according to an industry source. It would also be tapping into regional markets with more local, or city-specific content, focussing on coaching classes, for example.

No service would be viable without the popular general entertainment channels though and ETH Air TV will offer the same but will add more niche content to its portfolio, both acquired and possibly even developed in-house. The service will be offered on mpeg4 (or with superior compression technology) Set Top Boxes that it will source from vendors and could be significantly subsidised at launch.

A Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB-S) technology will be able to accommodate around 120 channels; a DVB-S2 option will take the number of channels to more than 160.

Market players

Of the six licensees, there are three DTH players in the market already, including Sun Direct, which is a strong player in South India benefiting from the Sun Network’s popular content. Reliance ADAG’s Big TV and Bharti’s DTH venture are also expected to launch soon. ETH Air TV is nonetheless confident of breaking through the tough market by positioning itself differently.

Sterling Group’s telecom interests were placed under Siva Ventures which has an eight per cent stake in Tata Teleservices. However, the company is housing its DTH business under Shanmugam Realty and Housing Ltd, according to sources.