Airtel Digital TV is an Indian subscription based satellite television provider owned by Bharti Telemedia Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel. It launched DTH satellite television 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 18 November 2010, Airtel Digital is rebranded in to Airtel Digital TV On 4 May 2011, Airtel digital TV announced the launch of its first high-definition digital video recorder (HD-DVR) priced at inr 3990 and inr 4490 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 content up-scaled to 1080i 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 inr 31260000000. 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 with a 16:9 aspect ratio. The set-top box 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 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.