DTH- Booming Times Ahead

DTH Industry is going through a tremendous change as cable TV mandatory digitisation has added to the competition. Already beleaguered DTH operators experienced a new lease of life once helped by the impractical ways of implementing mandatory digitization of cable TV by the I&B Ministry. The more the Ministry officials made it difficult for the cable MSOs to comply by the regulations and meet the deadlines, the more the cable TV subscribers opted for DTH services. A well settled DTH service was allowed to make the best use of teething problems of digital cable. Thus started a boom time for DTH operators. 

Fallout of a Hasty Digitisation

Local cable operators (LCOs) and multi-system operators (MSOs) in Kolkata have been given the deadline of August 23, 2013, to submit filled-in Consumer Application Forms (CAF) to the central Subscriber Management System (SMS) for feeding in consumer choice and generate billing accordingly. All cable TV subscribers in the city will have to collect consumer application forms (CAF) from local cable operators (LCOs) and multi-system operators (MSOs) and furnish their personal details and channels of choice before August 23, 2013, or else they won't be able to see any channel after that.

Advancements in Set-Top- Box Technologies

Mandatory Digitisation has brought with it a huge demand for set-top-boxes as every TV set in India needs one. There are 156 million TV Households in India out of which 105 million cable TV homes need STBs. Already 26 million STBs have been installed in the Phase-I and II of Digitisation. Another 79 million analogue homes are yet to be connected. Then there are homes with multiple TV sets raising the demand by another 20%. STB quality, standards, types and technology has been in the news since Digitisation started.  Unfortunately India does not have a good base for manufacturing our own STBs. 95% STBs are imported and hence it is very important for the operators to understand what is available in the world market. In this article we shall focus on the technologies available in STBs.

Significant effort is still needed to meet Europe’s - Superfast Broadband Challenge

A new study completed by Point Topic shows that whilst nearly all households in Europe could access basic broadband services at the end of 2012, significant challenges still remain in delivering high-speed broadband to all.

 The purpose of the Digital Agenda in Europe is to harness the internet and other digital technologies to drive sustainable economic growth. It includes two targets relating to broadband coverage:

Regulations must favour Consumers

Last month TRAI asked for comments on a draft Tariff Order and draft Interconnect regulations fr0m all stake holders. This exercise of amending the regulations for digital addressable systems is being carried out to amend some clauses in the original regulations which were set aside in a TDSAT judgement given on four to five cases filed by the MSOs and LCOs against the unfair DAS regulations on 19 October 2012. Some of these regulations were even commented upon in the TDSAT order as 'Bad in Law'.

DTH- Booming Times Ahead

DTH Industry is going through a tremendous change as cable TV mandatory digitisation has added to the competition. Already beleaguered DTH operators experienced a new lease of life once helped by the impractical ways of implementing mandatory digitization of cable TV by the I&B Ministry. The more the Ministry officials made it difficult for the cable MSOs to comply by the regulations and meet the deadlines, the more the cable TV subscribers opted for DTH services. A well settled DTH service was allowed to make the best use of teething problems of digital cable. Thus started a boom time for DTH operators. 

FDI in Broadcasting

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has sought TRAI's views on the Mayaram panel's recommendations on FDI in Broadcasting. Divergent views had emerged among various industry stakeholders after the Ministry consulted them.

The I&B Ministry's decision to turn to TRAI for its opinion is also being interpreted by many as a ploy to buy more time, as there are divergent views within the industry.

IBC 2013 "Please Adjust you Set: Returning Your Strategy for the Connected Era"

Each September, the leading brands, finest minds and wisest investors come to IBC  the premier annual conference and exhibition for professionals engaged in the creation, management and delivery of entertainment and media content worldwide. The show is also a favourite with Indian industry professionals who converge in Amsterdam every year for the latest in broadcast technologies, negotiate deals and do networking with professional from other parts of the world. 

Viewership gets the Hammering

For the last two months advertisers and broadcasters have been fighting over the rating system that need to be adopted during this period when the industry is transitioning fr0m analogue to digital. The dispute over television ratings escalated to the point that had raised the prospect of companies withdrawing their commercials fr0m TV channels.

DTH- Booming Times Ahead

DTH Industry is going through a tremendous change as cable TV mandatory digitisation has added to the competition. Already beleaguered DTH operators experienced a new lease of life once helped by the impractical ways of implementing mandatory digitization of cable TV by the I&B Ministry. The more the Ministry officials made it difficult for the cable MSOs to comply by the regulations and meet the deadlines, the more the cable TV subscribers opted for DTH services. A well settled DTH service was allowed to make the best use of teething problems of digital cable. Thus started a boom time for DTH operators. 

Intenational Regulator: Will it be Possible?

IF there can be International Airport Authority to Supervise the air trafficking, In-terpol for international policing. Why cannot we hope to have an International satellite Broadcasting Authority on the same lines?

Globalisation of economy has compacted the distances across the countries in such a way that whole world is a global village. The euphoria has been catalyzed by the technological advances. The provision of satellite-telephony, video-conferencing, hotline, as well as the Internet has made people from deferent parts of the globe live inside a technological home. The evolution of information highway and the global market is expected to generate some sort of internationalisation of thought, culture, tradition technology, education and related in formations. 

Consumer choicestill a far cry

A tiff between broadcasters and advertisers kept the industry guessing the outcome everyday in the last month. In this tug of war TAM has been the rope pulled between a monthly rating system and a weekly rating system by the broadcasters and advertisers respectively.  

Thank God that a hybrid solution has been found at the end under which all data issued to the public domain will be in the television viewership in thousands (TVT) format, which captures and reflects growth in TV audiences in the country in absolute numbers and for media planning and buying, the data supplied to advertisers and media agencies will offer weekly television rating points (TVR) and all other information that had been made available to them in the past. Also BARC, the new rating council will supervise all TAM data till it starts producing its on within a year or so. 

August 2013

01/8/13 --
Finolex Cables, India’s largest and leading manufacturer of electrical and communication cables recently announced its entry into Patna.