(22 February 2007 9:30 pm)

MUMBAI: Tata Sky will take 5-7 years to break even and plans to further invest Rs 20 billion to ramp up its direct-to-home (DTH) business.

"We have already invested close to Rs 10 billion. We will pump in a further Rs 20 billion," says Tata Sky CEO and MD Vikram Kaushik.

There is a hardware and content subsidy and it will take us 5-7 years to break even, he adds. Tata Sky charges Rs 3999 for hardware and installation cost while the subscription fee is Rs 300 per month.

The DTH service provider has a subscriber base of half a million and expects to benefit largely from the ICC cricket World Cup with its free subscription promotional scheme for the next three months.

It has roped in actor Hrithik Roshan for its new marketing campaign where select viewers would get to watch the World Cup final match with him.

"We are on course to achieve our target of one million subscribers in our first year of operations. We have activated half a million boxes. The World Cup should give us a spurt as we have interesting value-added features. In the Cas (conditional access system) areas, we have also seen a rise in demand for our service," says Kaushik.

Tata Sky hopes to add on the Sun network channels soon. "There was a hearing in the court today. The final hearing will be before the first half of March," says Kaushik.