Prasar Bharti's ambitious project to provide television coverage to remote areas via direct-to-home service is expected to begin only by March next year since the earth stations needed for the purpose would be ready on by that time.

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With STAR's DTH foray on the backburner, pending its alliance with an Indian company to fulfill foreign investment cap guidelines, Zee is the only group which is offering this service at present.

The Ku-band project, also called poor man's DTH, aims at reaching remote areas of the country and will have 20 Doordarshan and 10 private channels -- which are available on the free-to-air mode -- unlike private players like Zee which will have pay channels as well.

The government estimates a total capital cost of Rs 53.80 crore (Rs 538 million), a revenue non-recurring expenditure of Rs 2.25 crore (Rs 22.5 million) and a revenue recurring cost of Rs 108.30 crore (Rs 1.08 billion) for the DTH project, which will cover 20 per cent of remote areas presently not covered with 10 per cent of population.

The Tenth Plan has estimated Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) for the project and a total outgo of Rs 35 crore (Rs 350 million) this fiscal.