DD Freedish to Launch new MPEG 4 Set Top Box for encrypted DD DTH

DD free Dish eyes expansion of new non-Hindi TV channels on dd direct to home TV system. DD Freedish free Doordarshan dth plans to launch its DD MPEG-4 decoder (STB) boxes from April 2016. After shifting to MPEG 4 dd free dish can be able to provide more TV channels from the same KU band transponders. Freedish also plans to add more slots for regional non-Hindi TV channels to expand the dd free dish to non-Hindi regions.

Doordarshan Encrypted MPEG-4 STB will be available in April 2016. CK Jain DDG Doordarshan told that Unlike other MPEG-2 STB, DD MPEG-4 STB can only be ordered from authorized dealers.

DD MPEG-4 set-top box will be available in the market but that STB will only be provided by the authorized dealers. Although the STB is encrypted but the viewers od DD free dish will not pay the fees in India. It is estimated that the new MPEG-4 STB of Doordarshan will have the price of Rs 1,000 onwards. The other MPEG-4 STB can receive the MPEG-2 TV channels of the free dish because they will be unencrypted.

With this upgrade, Freedish will be able to provide almost 112 TV channels via the MPEG-4 decoder. Currently, it offers 64 channels via MPEG-2 STB.

MPEG-4 compression is a technology that the DTH operators, double the number of channels than MPEG-2 technology with the single satellite transponder. DD free dish has the most of the 20 million subscribers of Hindi based TV channels but now the DTH operator tries to carry the advantages of non-Hindi TV channels. A proposal in which they provide reserved slots for regional channels.

"We plan to reserve slots for regional broadcasters because our platform slightly warped toward Hindi markets. The proposal is taken into consideration, but it is in a very early stage," Jain said. Jain believes Freedish customer base is accepted more than the figure of 20 million by the industry.

To strengthen its position, he said that during his recent trip to Rajasthan he met with several cases where subscribers shifted from private DTH operators to Freedish because they are not able to pay the monthly fee. According to the report of Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India(TRAI), there are 39 million inactive DTH subscribers against the total of 78.74 million registrations in the quarter ended June 30, 2015.

"I was recently in Rajasthan and I found an interesting thing. Many people who had subscribed to private DTH operators decided not to renew their monthly subscription and instead shifted to Freedish. The KU Dish antenna remains of private DTH operators, but the STB is Freedish "he said. So, when DD FreeDish will add 120 plus TV channels there will be more subscribers of India's only KU band free to air TV service.