Videocon group, one of the reputed names in India’s electronics field has entered the market of Direct to Home or DTH services for digital home entertainment. The Videocon DTH service was launched in April 2009 with 75000 retailers and 1050 distributors along with service and sales staff and media arm Bharat Business Channel.

Videocon D2H will offer stiff and tight competition in terms of price to the DTH providers available currently as they would be offering cheap set Top Boxes costing less than a thousand rupees which is the cheapest offered by any brand so far. The main reason for this is that the set top boxes are manufactured by Videocon in the country itself instead of being imported from abroad.

Features:
Videocon D2H TV will have over 240 channels and also many radio channels as well. The set top box which is also being used by Sun Direct TV’s and Airtel’s DTH service is the updated digital MPEG-4 satellite receiver. Videocon direct to home is the most updated as far as technology is concerned and will give crystal clear picture quality than other older versions such as MPEG-2 that is currently used by many providers. Users can also avail internet subscription through it according to some reports. Videocon D2H will also offer seven types of packages including regional packages. All the aforesaid features and the reasonable price makes the D2H’s slogan, ‘Direct Hai, Correct Hai’ very meaningful and the videocon D2H is expected to soar in popularity definitely.

Premium Services:
They have services like Darshan Active where you can view special religious and spiritual channels with an active service. Similarly with DD Active for DD channels as well as Finance Active where you can get latest information on mutual funds, how to buy them and sell them, etc. All seems okay and one will need to wait for a while on how they are performing in terms of customer service which many top players in DTH sector has really done reasonably well and Videocon should in fact exceptionally well if they really want to make a dent on getting more buyers into their kitty.

Special Services:
They have also come up with the world’s first satellite LCD. Just being one of the last entrant itself does not mean that we can write it off, but in fact Videocon can just give other market leaders and others like Tata Sky, Dish TV, Sun Direct, Big TV, Airtel, etc., a run for their money, only if they come up with a price and features which is well below these established players. But with the current pricing that Videocon has quoted I don’t think it would have much impact on those who were waiting to get the price down which in fact was not happening in DTH arena in India.

DTH Hindrances:
Other major factor which hinders one to go for the DTH platform when it comes to television, especially in India, is the portability factor. Since it is an equally tough job to get it re-installed at another place, in case of a house shift, most of them would play it safe by not buying it now. If and only if, Videocon D2H or any other players come up with a solution where one can easily take their Dish as well as the set top box everywhere they go, then we can expect a great jump in sales of DTH in India. This is because most of them in cities or small towns live on rented homes and regularly shift their houses due to rising costs and other factors and if only these DTH players have an easier way to shift their dish, then it would be ideal for all and thus a direct benefit of increase in sales for them.