Tata Sky dishes. Photo: David Brossard (Flickr)

[Via Satellite 03-02-2015] Indian Direct-to-Home (DTH) operator Tata Sky has initiated its first 4K broadcasts in the subcontinent. The company launched its 4K Set-Top-Box (STB) this January in advance of the 2015 Cricket World Cup. Taking place from Feb. 14 to March 29, 2015, this is the first Ultra-HD 4K broadcast of the sporting event.

Tata Sky partnered with Ericsson, which provides compression technology using the high-resolution 1080P50 format. Ericsson has integrated High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) into its compression technology to save satellite transponder use. According to Ericsson, by 2020 the world will have 50 million connected devices, with more than 15 billion of them supporting video.