MUMBAI: Leading DTH operator Tata Sky has associated with Universal Collectabillia to auction four exclusive and unique cricketing memorabilia autographed by Indian cricketers - Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh - on its power on channel ?Channel 100?.

The exclusive and personalised range would include a signed jersey from Dhoni and Yuvraj, a white cricket ball signed by Zaheer Khan and an engraved pen and signed memento by master blaster Sachin. In addition to the memorabilia, the highest bidder would receive a certificate of authenticity issued by UCPL that guarantees that the signatures are genuine and personally signed by the individual player himself.

The auction will begin on 5 May and would take place every Saturday during the month of May 2012. Each memorabilia will have a pre-defined price with the minimum bid starting at Rs 2500. The subscriber with the highest bidding price will become the proud owner of a part of his favourite cricketing star.

MUMBAI: India has 44.21 million private DTH subscribers as of 31 December 2011, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said in its quarterly report.

The total number of registered subscribers is from the six private direct-to-home operators - Dish TV, Tata Sky, Airtel Digital TV, Videocon D2H, Reliance Digital TV and Sun Direct.

Digital cable TV, however, is growing slowly in the Cas (conditional access system) notified areas.

Cable TV operators have marginally increased the seeding of set-top boxes (STBs) in the Cas areas of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai during this period.

According to Trai, the total number of STBs installed increased to 853,737 in the quarter ended December 2011, as compared to 819,960 STBs in the previous quarter.

Trai has also released the data on the number of TV channels in India till 31 December 2011. There are a total of 825 private satellite TV channels permitted by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, out of which 163 channels are pay, as per the sector watchdog?s report based on the data received from 25 broadcasters and distributors across the country.

The maximum number of channels being carried by any of the reported multi-system operator (MSO) in digital mode is 277. In analogue form, however, the maximum number of channels being carried by any of the reported MSOs is 100 channels.

Trai also said that the number of private FM radio stations in operation remained at 245 till the end of Dec 2011.