MUMBAI: Amid a rapidly-growing subscriber base, the Kalanithi Maran-owned Sun Direct has taken a loss of around Rs 2.63 billion for the six-month period ending 31 July 2009.

For the fastest growing DTH operator in terms of subscribers, the loss in the last three months of this period amounts to Rs 1.32 billion.

Sun Direct‘s ARPU (average revenue per user) stays almost flat at Rs 83 during the three-month period ending 31 July, the lowest in the industry.

Malaysia-based Astro has suffered a loss of Rs 526.73 million from its 20 per cent holding in the DTH venture over the stated six-month period. The share of "associate losses" for Astro stands at Rs 263.37 million for the last quarter of this period.

Astro has so far invested Rs 5.90 billion ($122 million) in Sun Direct.

In an earlier interview, Sun Direct COO Tony D‘Silva had told Indiantelevision.com that the loss for the fiscal ended March 2009 would be in the region of Rs 4.50 billion. "High volumes will help us reach break even as our costs are not as high as the others," he had said.

Sun Direct recently announced it had crossed four million subscribers in less than two years of operation.