Tata Sky sells close to 3 mn set-top boxes

Tata Sky, today said that it was just a 100 short of three-million set top boxes in sales since its launch about twenty months ago.

"In less than 30 months, we would have sold to more than 3-million subscribers, which is a record," Tata Sky Managing Director Vikram Kaushik, said at a seminar here.

The DTH business is estimated to grow at 680 per cent in the next seven years.

Bharti Enterprises is a new company that has entered the DTH business. A couple of months ago, Anil Ambani's Reliance entered the DTH business, while Dish TV is another player.

Tata Sky makes its set top boxes at its facilities in Pune and Noida.

Kaushik said the key imperatives hurting this industry were high taxes and licence fees.

"We are overburdened with taxation and licence fees," he said.

"If Tata Sky collects Rs 300 on subscription, about Rs 150 goes away in taxes," he said.

"We are left with only Rs 150 out of which we have to pay other taxes and take care of our overheads," he said.

DTH made its debut in India five years ago. Today there are about six-million subscribers to DTH, he said.

In India, a household spends about 1.5-2 per cent of its income on cable services.