By IANS,
Kolkata : With the sunset date for digitisation inching closer and war between the direct-to-home (DTH) and cable operators heating up, DTH service provider Dish TV Wednesday launched a special package for its new subscribers in the country’s four metros.
The central government has set Oct 31 as the deadline for completing digitisation in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.
As a part of its strategy, Dish TV announced the new initiative under which the subscribers will be able to watch more than 70 channels for Rs.400 for a year.
“Cable operators are charging Rs 100 per month for the free-to-air (FTA) channels. We have decided to provide them free of cost. However, the minimum recharge is just to ensure that the users are still on our network,” Anjali M. Nanda, executive vice president, marketing, Dish TV, told a media conference here.
Under the new plan, users will have to do a recharge of Rs.200 every six months.
Around 70 lakh users are expected to switch to digital platform from analogue cable by the Oct 31 deadline. “We expect that around 50 percent of them will opt for DTH, of which around 30 percent will be Dish TV users,” Nanda said.
The firm, which has announced a 360-degree campaign, called “dish’tisation,” has invested around Rs.25 crore in both above the line and below the line activities.