Sun Direct to soon increase SD channels to 350 and HD channels to 30

Sun direct which is joint venture between the Maran’s Sun network family and the Astro Group of Malaysia has been providing DTH services since 18th Jan 2008 and had launched services on INSAT-4B and currently offers 210 SD and 11 HD channels.

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On 7 July 2010 a power glitch in the INSAT 4B satellite turned down the DTH system partly and SUN Direct announced that the service will be free till complete services are restored. Sun direct now uses 4 Measat-3 Transponders (TP’s) and 3 INSAT-4B TP’s to provide DTH services, and additionally through exclusive agreement with Reliance digital TV (RDTV), a DTH arm of Reliance ADAG group, Sun Direct Shares 2 TP’s of RDTV (which holds 12 TP’s in Measat-3), i.e. RDTV allows Sun Direct to get signals of FTA channels to Sun Direct.

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Sun direct had been looking to increase its channel offering by acquiring more number of transponders, but this would only be possible through the launch of a new satellite with more transponder capacity which was on the same geostationary position as MEASAT 3 which is 91.5 degrees East. On 12th of September 2014 MEASAT 3B was launched successfully with 48 KU band transponders which will enable DTH services not just in India but also Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia. The satellite has just been declared as active, Sun direct plans to lease 9 transponders of MEASAT 3B to add to its existing 4 on MEASAT 3 and is currently awaiting clearance for the same. This will allow it to increase the count of SD channels to 350 and HD channels to 30.