(6 August 2009 12:40 pm)

MUMBAI: In the rapidly growing DTH sector, Tata Sky has crossed four million subscribers to stay in pursuit of market leader Dish TV.

Tata Sky has added one million subscribers in just over seven months, but lags behind Dish TV’s 5.5 million.

Tata Sky’s new milestone has been achieved in under three years of launch. Says Tata Sky managing director and chief executive Vikram Kaushik, “We have achieved significant success in reaching four million connections in such a short time, and in a highly competitive market.”

Launched in August 2006, Tata Sky reached one million connections in just 11 months. The DTH service provider then took nine more months to reach the two million connections mark, indicating how fast the Indian pay-TV market is growing.

Tata Sky, a joint venture between the Tata Group and Star, uses NDS solutions. The NDS solutions portfolio enables Tata Sky to deliver advanced applications including Active Sports™, Cooking, Darshan, Wizkids, Learning, Stories, Games and movies on demand.

Says Kaushik, “The end-to-end digital solutions suite from NDS, coupled with our unparalleled customer service and innovative product offerings, have enabled us to provide differentiated applications and a superior viewing experience for our subscribers.”

Adds NDS Asia Pacific senior VP and general manager Sue Taylor, “India is among the fastest-growing DTH markets in Asia Pacific. We are proud that our market-leading solutions have played such a pivotal role in enabling Tata Sky to achieve its impressive growth rates.”

Indiantelevision.com had earlier reported that all the DTH operators in the country have crossed the one million mark, including Airtel Digital TV, the fifth and last to launch the service.