New Delhi, August 9 :

Rupert Murdoch’s pay television revolution landed in India yesterday with the launch of his Sky-branded digital satellite system. Tata Sky, a Rs 20 billion Indian Currency (IC) (225 million pounds) joint venture between Murdoch’s Star TV network and Tata Group, one of India’s biggest industrial houses, aims to tap into one of the fastest-growing television markets in the world.

The market is dominated by cable operators and terrestrial channels. “We have an almost unlimited potential here. More than 60 million homes are connected to cable, but 110 million homes do not have a TV set,” Vikram Kaushik, chief executive of Tata Sky, said.

Apart from the initial cost of Rs 4,000 IC (50 pounds) for a ‘pizza-sized’ satellite dish and set-top box, customers will pay about Rs 200 IC-a-month for the service. It would begin in 300 Indian cities and be rolled out across the country over the next year, Kaushik said.

PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that up to 10 million Indian households will subscribe to ‘direct-to-home’ by 2010. News Corporation has 25 million subscribers in America and Europe. Star’s share of the distribution company Tata Sky is limited to 20 per cent because it is also a broadcaster in India.The country has become increasingly important for Murdoch since his attempts to enter the Chinese market were stymied by Beijing. In the latest quarterly filing, News Corp cited strong advertising revenue from India as the reason for a rise in operating income by 28 per cent at Star TV, a wholly owned subsidiary.

Tata Sky is not the first DTH operator in India. Zee Networks, which owns popular news and entertainment channels, launched its service, Dish TV, two years ago and has 1.3 million subscribers.

Zee has also become embroiled in a spat with Tata Sky over access to its channels. Neither company offers each other’s programmes.

Zee executives said price issues had delayed a deal between the two companies and Star had effectively refused to be part of the Dish TV platform. “We can do the same,” Jawahar Goel, head of business at Dish TV, said.

“We had to struggle for two years to get their channels on our networks, so they should have patience and wait to get our bouquet.” Tata Sky faces stiff competition in the coming months from billionaire Anil Ambani and Sun TV, run by a powerful south Indian family including Dayanidhi Maran, the minister in charge of communication and information technology.