After Zee Telefilms, it may be Star, which joins the race for direct to home service and is likely to tie-up with the Tatas in an estimated Rs 250 crore (Rs 2.5 billion) venture.

Rupert Murdoch's Star is understood to be finalising details of its partnership with the Tatas and may soon approach the government, sources said on Tuesday.

However, Tata officials, when contacted, declined to comment.

While Zee's ASC enterprises, the first player to have got the license to run DTH in the country, is launching its services on October 2, Star plans to take off in March-April next year.

Designed for around 100 channels, Star claims to be putting in place state-of-the-art technology to run its DTH services targeting metros initially and later other cities.

The dish and set-top box required for Star's DTH may cost around Rs 5,000 and the monthly subscription could be around Rs 300-400. Zee has said its monthly subscription for DTH would begin at Rs 150.

Meanwhile, clearance of Doordarshan's Ku-band project, a poor man's DTH, is likely to come up before the Union Cabinet next week. The Rs 160 crore (Rs 1.6 billion) project, which is aimed at reaching out to the remote areas is likely to have all Doordarshan and some free-to-air channels.