Now watch Sun Direct HD..

Sun Direct, the direct-to-home (DTH) service provider owned by the Maran family and Astro Group of Malaysia, has become the first player to launch high definition (HD) services in India. HD TV is considered to be one of the world's best digital broadcast platforms, which offers higher resolutions than the traditional television system. Tony D'Silva, chief operating officer, Sun Direct says that the company has always believed in offering new technology to its consumers. A case in point is that Sun Direct was the first DTH player to offer its consumers MPEG 4 technology, which provides enhanced audio and sound quality.

D'Silva says, "We believe that in the constantly changing viewership dynamics and taste, to keep the viewer continuously happy and engaged, we need to offer them new options. HD is another first from the Sun Direct stable." D'Silva claims that Sun Direct has 3 million active users and aims to add another three million by 2010. It currently has a market share of 30 per cent and wants to increase this to 40-45 per cent by the end of 2010. The company plans to spend around Rs 150 crore on marketing activities this year to help them achieve their target.

HD services can only be available on HD TV sets, which are manufactured by companies such as Samsung and LG. An estimated 1.5 million HD TV sets are sold in the Indian market as of now; Sun Direct wants to tap 20 per cent of those consumers by the year end.
Sun Direct's HD set top box will be available to consumers for Rs 10,000. Consumers, who are already using the existing Sun Direct set top box, can exchange it for the HD counterpart. Since the availability of HD content is limited, Sun Direct has launched two movie services in this format. The first one is the Tamil and Telugu movie services, where consumers can order HD movies for a fee. A similar Hindi movie service will also be introduced soon.