Dish TV launches HD for World Cup

India’s DTH market leader, Dish TV, has launched high definition services in time for next month’s soccer World Cup.

Dish TV’s new Tru HD service will offer ESPN Star Sports’ HDTV coverage of the World Cup through its new HD set-top, which will set subscribers back Rs5,990 (US$128).

Dish TV Managing Director Jawahar Goel said: "The year has a lot of sporting events lined up like football World Cup, [Commonwealth Games] and cricket World Cup next year, all of which will have a HD feed. This presents a great opportunity for us and we are looking at selling 60,000 units this fiscal and a quarter of a million in the next fiscal."

As well as the ESPN channel, Dish TV will also offer Zee TV HD, Zee Cinema HD, Discovery HD and National Geographic HD at launch. The package of channels will cost Rs150 a month. Dish TV is hoping to expand its HD offering to 40 channels within a year.

Sun Direct and Reliance’s Big TV already offer HDTV services into India, with Tata Sky also joining the HDTV fray later in the year