Tata Sky announces 50 pc cut in hardware price

New Delhi, Feb 5: Within a month of crossing the 1.5 million connection mark, Direct to Home(DTH) service provider Tata Sky today announced a dramatic reduction of 50 per cent cut in its hardware price.

''The rapid subscriber ramp-up in a short span of 16 months has resulted in large cost savings for the company, which is decided to be passed to its customers,'' CEO Vikram Kaushik said here. He said with the hardware priced at Rs 1499, Tata Sky service would now be affordable for consumers across all strata of the society.

''We are confident that this pricing will catapult the process of digitization across the country and will help boost the government's efforts to digitise India by 2010 for the Commonwealth Games." Tata Sky has also announced its plan to launch its high-end personal video recorder (PVR) this year. The PVR device will help subscribers pause live television, record multiple programmes and enjoy true video-on-demand. Tata Sky's parent company, Newscorp, has already launched PVR successfully in the UK, Italy and Australia, Mr Kaushik said.

Tata Sky is now available in almost 5000 towns, making its distribution network the widest offered by any DTH company in India, he said .

UNI