MUMBAI: Sun Direct TV Private Limited launches the country’s first regional language Video on Demand (VOD) in Telugu on its DTH platform. The service started from Saturday, 9 January, 2010 with the Chiranjeevi blockbuster movie Shankar Dada Zindabad.

Sun Direct has the largest collection of movie library in all South Indian languages with more than 2000 classic and latest labels in Telugu. The Movies are comfortably priced at Rs 25 with flexible show timing beginning at 11 am, 4 pm and 8pm on Saturdays and Sundays.

Sun Direct COO Tony D’Silva said, “With the lifespan of films in theatres reducing to an average of two to three weeks and piracy eating away the revenues, direct-to-home (DTH) platform on television will emerge as an attractive alternative for production houses. New movies on DTH can be effectively leveraged between the theatre release and CD/DVD launch, making it a win-win scenario for all the parties including the subscribers and an additional revenue stream for the DTH platform.”

There’s usually a two months gap between a movie in a theatre and it being available on CD/DVD’s. Once a subscriber pays for a Video on demand, it can be viewed for any of the shows on the same day by the entire family.