Tata''s DTH JV to launch April 01, 2006

Mumbai: The 80:20 joint venture between the Tata's and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is gearing up for its India launch. The five-year project disbursement outlay has been hiked to Rs2,000 crore from the initial estimate of Rs1,600 crore.

Tata officials said that as per current plans the launch of Space TV DTH services were scheduled for April 01, 2006. According to the officials Space TV was targeted at the middle class as a mass market service providing enhanced digital TV viewing experience. They said that research on the pricing was still on and finalization of rates would take place thereafter.

According to the officials, the vast expertise and domain knowledge gained from Newscorp's DTH operations in countries like the United Kingdom (BSkyB), Australia (Foxtel), Italy (Sky Italia), Brazil (Sky Brasil) and in the US (DIRECTV) will help Space TV in India. The service was currently working on a service bouquet to offer movies, cricket, interactive services and serials built around the theme of high quality digital picture and sound.