Dish TV extends to Sri Lanka
May 28, 2015
By Chris Forrester
Mumbai-based Dish TV has launched a DTH service to Sri Lanka. Currently 47 channels are on offer. New subscribers will get a two-month payment holiday.
Dish TV says it has invested some $4.5 million in the project to date, and that it anticipates another $2 million of funding. It has a 70 per cent stake in the venture with local partner Satnet Pvt (30 per cent).
The broadcaster obtained its licence a year ago from the Sri Lankan government and has subsequently bought land and built an uplinking facility near the island’s capital Columbo.
Dish TV will have local competition in the form of Dialog TV. However, Dialog has a typical ARPU of some $9 a month which is much higher than Dish charges in India.
Dish TV is taking extra capacity from SES, and will encrypt with Conax and use MPEG-4 as its broadcast standard.