Our take...
DD Direct+ boosted its channel offer from 33 to 41 last year adding Asian music channel B4U Music, Hindi music channel 9x Music, German news channel Deutsche Welle and some regional channels from southern India. India is home to three pay satellite platforms: Dish TV, launched in 2005 by Zee; Tata Sky, launched in 2006 by Tata Group; and more recent entrant Sun Direct TV, launched late 2007. The market will soon become even more crowded with the planned launch of Big TV's satellite service. Doordarshan operates the only free-to-air satellite platform in India but expansion of the channel offer has been hindered by the high fees charged to channels for carriage. The cut in fees sends a strong message to channel providers that the broadcaster is serious both about expanding the breadth of its channel offer and boosting the appeal of the service to India's satellite early adopters.

Viewers of DD Direct+ pay an up-front fee between Rs4,000 to Rs8,000 ($94-$188) for a set-top-box. The platform is currently dominated by Doordarshan's own channels with 21 of the 41 channels being from the state broadcaster. Channels currently on DD Direct+ are Doordarshan channels: DD National, DD-News, DD-INDIA, DD-Bharati, DD-Sports, DD-Gyandarshan-1, DD- Gyandarshan -2, DD-Urdu, DD-Punjabi, DD-Gujarati, DD-Sahayadri, DD-Sapthagiri, DD-Chandana, DD-Podhigai [1], DD-Malayalam, DD-North East, DD-Bangla, DD-Oriya, DD-Kashir, DD-Lok Sabha, and DD- Rajya Sabha and private channels: PTC (Punjabi News Channel), Total TV (Delhi News Channel), Time Tv (Punjabi), Jaihind TV (Malayalam), DW-TV(Deutsche Welle), Zee Smile (Hindi), Star Utsav (Hindi), Mega TV (Tamil), Makkal TV(Tamil), Kalaignar TV(Tamil), Kairali (Malayalam), Enter 10 (Hindi), 9XM (Hindi), B4U Music (Hindi), Music India (Hindi), ETC (Hindi), MH1 (Punjabi), Win TV (Tamil), Zee Jagran, Aastha.