TataSky the leading DTH operator has established itself as the first Indian DTH operator to cross the 50 HD channels and services mark closely trailed by Dish TV at 48 HD channels (Refers to Asli HD channels only, Reliance Digital TV claims to be providing 275 channels in HD jaisi quality). TataSky today added 3 new HD channels namely TLC HD world on channel number 250, Miniplex HD on channel number 298 and Animal planet HD on channel number 559. With these additions the total HD channel and services count has gone up to 51 which also includes 3 Showcase HD channels and 3 premium Ad free channels (HBO Defined, HBO Hits and Miniplex HD).
TataSky recently completed migrating completely to the MPEG-4 platform which has enabled it to free up two transponders which were on DVB-S platform and has now converted one of them to DVB-S2 platform which has added to the total capacity and enables TataSky to add even more channels. The newly added Miniplex channel in SD and HD version is the first premium Ad free Hindi movie channel which is also available on Airtel digital TV.
The recently launched Star Sports Add on 1 and 2 are not counted as separate HD channels since they do not show content 24x7 but rather only tecast matches which are not shown on the regular 4 channels and TataSky allocates the HD space of Showcase HD channels 1 and 3 to these channels during that period, once the broadcast of the matches on these channels is over, the english pay per view HD movie service is resumed.
