India: Sun Direct Launches HD DBS

DBS service provider Sun Direct has launched its HD broadcast service on a new direct-to-home platform in India, the world's biggest democracy and its second most populous nation.

The company's digital TV services were launched in SD mode more than a year ago, and is now branching out to HD with a handful of offerings for an added monthly fee (although it did not specify its HD menu in a statement). Sun Direct said it's currently the second-largest DBS service in India, which boasts about 1.1 billion residents. Thus far, about 3 million are Sun Direct subscribers—a list it hopes to double by 2010, it said.

Part of the HD menu is likely to include some of the hundreds of Bollywood movies made each year in India, which is the world's largest film-producing country.