written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . february 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message sun direct type public ltd industry satellite television area served india key people kalanithi maran chairman products direct broadcast satellite pay television pay per view owners sun network 80 % astro group 20 % website sun direct sun direct is an indian direct broadcast satellite service provider . its satellite service launched in 2007 transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in india . sun direct uses mpeg 4 digital compressionsun direct technology transmitting hd channels on insat 4b sun direct at 93.5 e. 1 and sd channels on measat 3 at 91.5 e. 2 contents 1 history 1.1 insat 4b glitch and satellite change 2 products 2.1 sun direct hd 2.2 sun direct hd pvr 3 subscriber base 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit sun direct is a joint venture between the maran s sun network family and the astro group of malaysia . sun tv entered into an mou with the astro group on 27 january 1997 when aircel was not in existence but since the government of india did not allow the use of ku band transponders for dth services the project was put on hold the firm said in a statement . after the dth policy was announced by the government in december 2007 astro picked up a 20 % stake in sun direct tv the stake was valued at approximately 115 million . 3 sun direct tv was registered on 16 february 2005 . 4 however the failed launch of sun direct insat 4c resulted in sun direct lack of transponders delaying the launch . 5 the service was finally launched on 18 jan 2008 after availability of transponders from insat 4b . 6 sun direct offered subscribers a satellite dish and set top box for free and basic monthly plan as low as 75 approximately . currently basic monthly plan costs 149 . sun direct spread rapidly all over the country owing to lowest pricing of any dth services in india . in december 2009 sun direct was launched in mumbai country s financial capital and announced its pan india launch . by 2009 it became the leading dth provider with 3 million subscribers . 7 this makes it the second largest dth service provider of india . in april 2010 sun direct became the no. 1 dth service provider of india with 5.8 million subscribers and soon launched its hd service in india . as of january 2015 sun direct crossed the 10 million subscriber mark . insat 4b glitch and satellite change edit on 7 july 2010 a power glitch in the insat 4b 8 9 satellite turned down the dth system partly and sun direct announced that the service will be free till whole services are restored . the partial service was restored on insat 4b sun directwith 193 channels and meantime sun direct is now transmitting 173 channels on measat 3 for uninterrupted transition of sun direct customers from insat 4b at 93.5 e. 1 to measat 3 at 91.5 e. 2 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 big tv a dth arm of reliance adag group sun direct shares 2 tp s of bigtv big tv holds 12 tp s in measat 3 i.e. big tv allows sun direct to get signals of fta channels to sun direct . sun direct stopped its standard definition sun direct tv services from insat 4b and moved its high definition tv services to insat 4b sun direct now broadcasts its entire standard definition tv from measat 3 . sun direct becomes the second dth provider to change satellite . sun direct currently provides 7 bengali 2 oriya 4 north eastern 7 marathi 5 punjabi 3 gujarati 2 bhojpuri 3 urdu 40 hindi channels . very soon some more channels will be added & sun direct will now focus on roi as well . as of now they are having the cheapest roi packages . products edit sun direct hd edit sun direct is also the first to provide high definition television services in india . it provided the hd beam from measat 3 at 91.5 . starting with two hd channels national geographic channel hd and tamil telugu hd service . now the hd beam is from insat 4b . it is the first dth service provider to show ipl 3 in hd format and has tie up with dolby digital sun direct l. 7 sun direct hd pvr edit sun direct has introduced recording feature facility as an addition to its hd services . subscribers can now record unlimited hd or sd television content via usb port facility in the all new pvr box . the new sun direct hd boxes let anyone attach any external storage like a usb drive or hdd & record tv content sun direct on it . the direct to home dth company claims the new hd boxes have following advantages unlimited recording recording content from a channel while watching other channels ability to set time up to a week in advance to record future programs and facility to pause the live channel and watch after a short break . subscriber base edit sun direct has over 9.7 million subscribers as of march 2015 . citation needed there are more than 50 million dth subscribers in india as of june 2014 . 10 see also edit sun tv network bharti airtel dd free dish reliance digital tv airtel digital tv dish tv tata sky abs free dish sun direct references edit a b insat 4b at 93.5 e. lyngsat . retrieved on 17 january 2012 . a b sun direct on measat 3 at 91.5 e. lyngsat . retrieved on 17 january 2012 . sun astro deny media reports of impropriety in deal . the economic times . 16 february 2011 pil plea against sun dth services . hindu.com . retrieved on 17 january 2012 . sun direct 8520941444sun direct lack of transponders hits dth expansion . rediff.com . retrieved on 17 january 2012 . sun tv group s special offer for dth archived 21 october 2007 at the wayback machine . a b business sun direct launches hd services . the hindu 9 april 2009 . retrieved on 17 january 2012 . insat 4b spacecraft affected by power problem . isro.org power problem with insat 4b . sify.com 12 august 2010 . retrieved on 17 january 2012 . dth subscribers in india dec 2012 . external links edit official website v t e sun group key people kalanithi maran w. hansraj saxena ajay vidyasagar telecommunications sun cable vision sun direct dth sun 18 south sun tv network tamil sun tv k tv sun music sun news adithya tv chutti tv sun life sun action sun tv ri telugu gemini tv gemini movies gemini music gemini news gemini comedy kushi tv gemini action gemini life malayalam surya tv kiran tv kochu tv surya music surya action kannada udaya tv udaya movies udaya music udaya news udaya comedy chintu tv suriyan tv radio stations red fm 93.5 suryan fm 93.5 publications dinakaran tamil murasu kunkumam mutharam vannathirai production sun pictures sports sunrisers hyderabad v t e cable satellite and other speciality television providers in africa asia and oceania cable cable tv hong kong cablevision lebanon cablelink destiny cable docomo pacific digicable india eonet japan first media foxtel hathway hot incablenet itscom japan jctv japan kbro lanka broadband networks sri lanka montage cable tv nigeria nayatel okevision optus television ooredoo qatar ppctv rostelecom siti cable skycable tbc taiwan tokai cable top tv indonesia transact tata sky truevisions united communication service vodafone new zealand worldcall satellite airtel digital tv aora astro malaysia bein big tv indonesia canalsat afrique canalsat cal donie cignal consat nigeria dd free dish ddishtv dialog tv sri lanka dish tv dish tv sri lanka dish home dishhd dream satellite tv dstv foxtel g sat hitv indosat indovision k vietnam kristal astro kt skylife medianet metro digital mbc mrtv 4 myhd njoi ntv plus orangetv osn pacific broadcasting services fiji pearl digital tv pra international green group india real vu reliance digital tv sky direct sky pacific sky perfectv sky television new zealand sky net star greater china star india starsat south africa star select star tv sun direct tata sky telone zimbabwe transvision indonesia trendtv truevisions videocon d2h viva wowow yes israel zap zuku fiber iptv sky on demand btv bestv du fetch tv fine tv gta teleguam hikari tv hypptv malaysia lg uplus maroc telecom my.t net tv nepal now tv olleh tv omantel peo tv sri lanka rostelecom saudi telecom company singtel tv skytel mongolia starhub tv useetv terrestrial abs cbn tv plus freeview australia freeview new zealand igloo new zealand mytv malaysia defunct austar cth thailand galaxy australia mega tv malaysia neighbourhood cable australia selectv australia u television malaysia ubi world tv australia united broadcasting corporation thailand united states canada africa asia middle east and oceania americas europe v t e cable satellite and other speciality television providers in india cable asianet digital den networks digicable hathway kerala vision siti cable sumangali cable vision satellite airtel digital tv dd free dish dish tv reliance digital tv sun direct tata sky videocon d2h zing digital iptv bharti airtel bsnl mtnl reliance africa asia and oceania americas canada europe united states retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title sun direct & oldid 742128629 categories high definition televisiondirect broadcast satellite servicesindian television networksindian brandscompanies based in chennaicompanies established in 2005sun grouphidden categories articles with wayback machine linksengvarb from june 2014use dmy dates from june 2014articles with a promotional tone from february 2014all articles with a promotional toneall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from september 2015 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent 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