November 2006
On August 8th, Tata Sky was launched to become India’s second company to provide pay broadcasts after Dish TV and the third broadcaster using Ku Band for direct satellite broadcasting after DD Direct+. Tata Sky is a joint venture participated by Hong Kong-based STAR owned by global media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and Tata Sons, holding company of Indian financial clique Tata. STAR holds 20% of the shares of the joint venture, barely complying with the upper limit of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and Tata Sons owns the rest of shares, 80%.
The emergence of Tata Sky, the powerful second company to provide pay direct satellite broadcasts has triggered a fierce competition for pay satellite TV market in India. Since Dish TV that was launched earlier than Tata Sky is a subsidiary under Subhash Chandra, an arch rival of Mr. Murdoch, the race between them got heated up from the initial stage. Furthermore, their battle of expanding market shares of TV viewers in urban areas is posing a great threat to cable television businesses that have been virtually dominated the pay broadcasting market in India so far. Cable broadcasters are pressed to take countermeasures immediately.
The article introduces an outline of Tata Sky’s direct satellite broadcasting, which finally made an long-awaited debut in the Indian satellite broadcasting market. The report also touches on the history of satellite broadcasting in India, outline of preceding platforms (Dish TV and DD Direct+), movement and intention of other broadcasters that is trying to enter the pay satellite broadcast market (Sun TV and DD Direct+), strategies of Dish TV and Tata Sky for expanding market shares, response of cable television industry that is promoting digitization, and prospects of the battle between satellite broadcasting and cable television.