Sun Direct to buy Reliance DTH?
June 17, 2013
By Chris Forrester
The Indian press is reporting that Reliance Digital TV, an Indian DTH player with 6 million subs, might be selling out to one of India’s regional DTH players, Sun Direct.
Discussions are said to be at an advanced stage. Sun Direct has more than 8 million subscribers. If the deal goes through it will leapfrog to become India’s second-largest DTH operator behind Dish TV (which has some 14.7 million subs).
Reliance Digital TV is backed by Anil Ambani, one of the two – frequently squabbling – Ambani brothers.
While this deal is unexpected there has long been an anticipation that India’s DTH market is over-crowded and that consolidation would happen.