Mumbai: Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group’s Direct-to-Home (DTH) service under the brand name Reliance BIG TV was launched across the country on 19 August.

This service will offer 200 channels to customers in the initial phase. The service will be available across 6,500 towns in the country. Reliance BIG TV is targeting 40 per cent market share within a span of one year.

The company has also set up a call centre to facilitate the service roll out, which is capable of handling over 50,000 calls per day and will operate from two locations.

BIG TV recently bagged the official DTH partnership rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL) for Rs 1.37 billion. The rights have been acquired for a period of four years.

"The huge potential of a quality and value offering in the home entertainment service market offers us a unique opportunity to tap the strengths and synergies of telecommunications and entertainment sectors embedded within Reliance ADA Group. With the launch of BIG TV DTH, we aim to accelerate the growth momentum enhancing value of many million shareholders of Reliance Communications," says Reliance ADAG chairman Anil Ambani.

BIG TV will have at least 30 movie channels that will cover Bollywood, Hollywood and regional movies. It will also have interactive games, news, sports etc. The service will have features such as interactive mosaic channels; advanced predictive search by director, actor, title, keyword; personalised ‘Top 10 ‘ channel list amongst others.