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NT Bureau
Chennai, Sept 27:

        Tata Sky Ltd, a joint venture between the Tata Group and Star aims to reach 5000 towns, extending eight million Direct-To-Home (DTH) connections by 2012.

        Speaking at a press meet, Vikram Kaushik, managing director and CEO, Tata Sky Ltd, said that the government should consider reducing the punitive levels of tax levied on DTH service. 'The government should play the role of a facilitator than as a regulator of the service,' he said pointing out that the DTH service providers contribute 10 per cent of the revenue share, which is more than that of other entertainment mediums like mobile (six per cent) and FM radio (four per cent).

        The addition of Sun channels has made Tamilnadu, the largest contributor of Tata Sky, he said adding that the company is planning to invest Rs 2,000 crore in the next few years to further enhance its service.

        It is also planning to launch Personal Video Recording (PVR), a facility in which a customer can pause and play live TV programmes.

        On Sun DTH as a competitor offering low cost service, Vikram said that it is an early bird offer and the answer lies only in the quality of service. 'We would consider Sun as just another competitor,' he said.

        Tata Sky offer 140 channels in various channel packages starting from Rs 200 to Rs 350. The company has also introduced active cooking, an interactive service through which the viewers will get cooking recipes.

        Currently, Tata Sky is retailing from 4,500 towns with about 30,000 dealers in the country. It has crossed the one million connection mark in its first year of operations making it the fastest growing DTH platform across the globe.