Airtel Digital TV is an Indian subscription based

satellite television Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location.ITU Radio Regulations, Section IV. Radio Stations and Systems ...

provider owned by Bharti Telemedia Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of

Bharti Airtel Bharti Airtel Limited is an Indian Multinational corporation, multinational Telecommunications in India, telecommunications company based in New Delhi. It operates in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa, as well as the Channel Islands. ...

. It launched DTH

service in India on 9 October 2008. Airtel Digital TV is India's second largest DTH operator second largest DTH operator in India by number of subscribers. As of 31 December 2022, it had a market share of 26.35%.

History

Bharti Telemedia Limited was incorporated on 30 November 2006 as a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel. The company announced plans to launch direct-to-home satellite television services across India on 7 August 2007. The service was launched on 9 October 2008 under the brand name Airtel Digital TV. On 4 May 2011, Airtel digital TV announced the launch of its first high-definition

digital video recorder A digital video recorder (DVR), also referred to as a personal video recorder (PVR) particularly in Canadian and British English, is an electronic device that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card, SS ...

(HD-DVR) priced at and for existing and new customers respectively. On 24 May 2011, Airtel announced that its HD and HD-DVR boxes were software-enabled to view

standard-definition Standard-definition television (SDTV; also standard definition or SD) is a television system that uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high-definition television, high or enhanced definition. ''Standard'' refers to offering a ...

content up-scaled to

1080i In high-definition television (HDTV) and video display technology, 1080i is a video display format with 1080 lines of vertical resolution and Interlaced video, interlaced scanning method. This format was once a standard in HDTV. It was particular ...

HD. Airtel digital TV had a total subscriber base of 10.07 million as on 30 March 2015. On 12 December 2017, Bharti Airtel announced that it would sell a 20% stake in Bharti Telemedia to American private equity firm Warburg Pincus for US$350 million. The sale received approval from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on 28 August 2018. On 17 February 2021, Bharti Airtel announced that it would buy back the 20% stake in Bharti Telemedia that it had sold to Warburg Pincus at a cost of . The transaction was completed on 22 March 2021.

Technical information

Airtel Digital TV's standard-definition broadcasts are in MPEG-4 with Interactive Service and 7-day Electronic Programmed Guide. A universal remote is included in the package that can, over IR frequencies, control both the TV and the DTH box. Airtel Digital TV HD provides channels of resolution 1080p

pixel In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a Raster graphics, raster image, or the smallest addressable element in a dot matrix display device. In most digital display devices, p ...

with a 16:9

aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a geometry, geometric shape is the ratio of its sizes in different dimensions. For example, the aspect ratio of a rectangle is the ratio of its longer side to its shorter side—the ratio of width to height, when the rectangl ...

. The

set-top box A set-top box (STB), also known as a cable converter box, cable box, receiver, or simply box, and historically television decoder or a converter, is an information appliance device that generally contains a Tuner (radio)#Television, TV tuner inpu ...

is compatible with 7.1 Channel Dolby digital Plus surround sound and is the first HD set-top box in India to be compliant with the standard.

Services

Airtel Digital TV provides

Pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program ...

on connected boxes that includes a catalog of movies, TV series and other programmed across English and various Indian languages. It also offers interactive services such as , , and games.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Airtel Digital Tv Television networks in India Direct broadcast satellite services Digital television High-definition television Mass media companies based in Delhi Indian companies established in 2006 2006 establishments in Delhi Mass media companies established in 2008 Bharti Airtel