TVSE bags Zee order for 75,000 set-top boxes

The Chennai-based TVS Electronics Ltd, on Thursday announced that it had bagged a Rs 20 crore order from Zee Network, for the supply of an estimated 75,000 direct-to-home (DTH) set top boxes (STB).

The supply of the boxes, that commenced today, will be spread over the next five months. TVSE said that on an annualised basis, the sale of DTH STBs can add Rs 40 crore to the company's topline.

TVSE has also revised its topline estimate to Rs 300 crore for the current calendar year from Rs 280 crore projected a few weeks ago.

The STBs are supplied under the brand name Zenega - a brand owned by Zee Network.

Gopal Srinivasan, director, TVSE said that going by the current estimates, the DTH STB along with STBs for cable TV and IP boxes could fetch Rs 120 crore over the next five quarters.

"This new product line can become a major revenue earner for the company, alongside printers, UPS systems and point of sale terminals," he said.

TVSE is also pitching for the 50,000 DTH STBs order from DD Direct, the DTH offerings from Prasar Bharathi. The company has tied up with a Korean company, Handan, for the technology. Srinivasan said that TVSE would also start looking for export order for the STBs.

The company has made an investment of Rs 8 crore in 2002 for manufacture of STBs. Srinivasan informed that the assembly line set up to manufacture STBs can double as an assembly to manufacture any electronic equipment, hence the investment was not idle in the last year and a half.

The present production capacity is 2000 STBs a day. TVSE executives said that at present there are 80 million televisions in India and the number is growing at 15 per cent.

Assuming a conversion rate of 5 per cent, the market size of STBs could be anything around 4 million, the officials said.