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In a significant move towards tapping the mobile and tablet market in India, country’s largest Direct to Home provider, Dish TV has launched an application to access live television on the move.
The company, on Thursday, launched the service across the Android and Apple platform for its 11 million customers.
Dish TV is currently the only DTH provider to launch the service and is also looking to tap into more than 5,00,000 customers in the next year.
“We have more than 11 million and we are targeting a subscriber base of 5,00,000. At the moment, we will generate income only through subscription and we will consider advertising revenues in the coming months”, Salil Kapoor, COO of Dish TV said.
The company is targeting revenues to the tune of Rs 60 crore from the mobile and tablet market and has also started negotiations with all the broadcasters to launch their service on the platform. Currently a number of channels including zee group owned channels and a few other channels are being provided to the customer at a price of Rs 129 per month.
“We are starting with 35 live channels and we are looking to double that in the next few months. HD channels are also an option and we will be considering that. In addition, we have more than 1,000 movie channels and a large collection of shows”, Kapoor added.
The company will only offer the services to the existing Dish TV subscribers and has made it clear that it the service will not be provided to others.
Dish TV had recently received a one year extension from the Telecom regulatory authority after its 10 year licence to operate the DTH service expired on Monday. The government is currently in the midst of a phased digitization program across the country and is looking to complete it by next year.
