Broadcast Technology Market Estimated at $11 Billion

The global broadcast technology market is worth $11 billion and is set to grow at 11 per cent with the pace being set in Europe, Middle East and Africa. This fact was highlighted in the Broadcast Asia 2007 Asia’s biggest industry event held in Singapore from 19 Jun-22 Jun 2007. The Event included an Exhibition and Conference and was concurrently held with CommunicAsia 2007, EnterpriseIT and InteractiveDME organised by the Singapore Exhibition Services.

This year during the exhibition, 2400 exhibiting companies from 65 countries showcasing convergent technologies that boundaries of telecommunications, network, enterprise solutions and entertainment sectors. Around 67000 people from surrounding areas and overseas gained first-hand experience of living a Digital Lifestyle.

Mobile TV on the Swing

The whole world is talking about the new media these days. India is not very far behind. Both IPTV and Mobile TV have brought us on the world map and India's growth statistics have started appearing in the International surveys. Even at the recently concluded Broadcast Asia and CommunicaAsia 2007at Singapore, most talked about and demonstrated technologies were of IPTV and Mobile TV. Digital markets for digital communications have become passe. It is digital entertainment occupying the front rows now.

Mobile TV entered the arena much after IPTV but has gone far ahead because of its easy reach to the customers. Entertainment any time and anywhere has made mobile TV more popular. It matches so well with the life style of the modern man and woman. It satisfied their need for entertainment, communications, data transfers and voice conversation all through the same gadget any time of the day using that small little wonder we call mobile phone. Infact if we have a chance of achieving real convergence, it is through this little instrument. The best part is that this will always compliment the existing technologies of Cable Television and DTH and not compete with them. After all no one will watch television on that 3 inch screen for hours but it can prompt them to watch more of the big screen. 

July 2007

Monday, July 2, 2007 -- Iran put into operation a 24 hour English language satellite TV Channel Called ‘Press TV’.

Content Regulations Do We Need It? Do We Need It?

A very familiar term for all of us! Every second day you may come across this phrase. It will not sound unusual, if you hear that the government wants to regulate the Television content. Government has been trying to put a check on the television programming since a long time. Starting off with just one or two channels, entry of foreign channels in India since 1991-92 gradually raised the number and today we have access to around 400 channels. A strong need for content regulation was there as the TV content had become absolutely open without any restrictions. All types of obscenity, nudity and violence could be viewed that was strongly affecting the children and other age groups in a negative sense. But the government was helpless in putting a restriction on the channels because till the year 2005, there were no regulations for TV. The first came in 1995 in the form of Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act 1995 but it was inadequate to control the content being shown on Cable TV. The Cable TV Act talked about a programming and advertising code which was merely a list of kind of programmes not permitted on Doordarshan. Infact, the responsibility of implementing these codes was left to the cable operators who had no judgmental powers to know whether a programme was adhering to these codes or not. The government had no say in restricting the transmission of channels because all the broadcasters beamed channels from foreign soils. The uplinking and downlinking regulations did not exist in the country which made the situation even tougher. 

Under Declaration Sigue Landmark Judgment by TDSAT

The feud between Multi System Operators and the Broadcasters is nothing new. Every next day we may listen about it. But this time TDSAT's ruling for a dispute between Zee Turner and Bhaskar Cable Network of Jabalpur is being largely looked upon as a landmark judgment. Reason being that for the first time a decision has been taken by TDSAT in respect of declaration of connectivity by an MSO/Cable operator in non-CAS area. 

TDSAT on 4th May 07 directed Bhaskar Cable to correct its declared subscriber base to Zee Turner and increase it by 700% during the period of the agreement between them based on the MSOs declaration with another broadcaster. TDSAT's ruling at this point of time is a sign of big relief that will leave a long term impact on the industry till CAS is implemented all over the country. 

Broadcast Asia A Show Par Excellence

Asia's largest Infocomm and Media event, 'Broadcast Asia' has been scheduled from 19-22 June 07 where it invites all visionaries, Government leaders, policy regulators and professionals. The event is going to take place in Singapore, members of which will share insights and experience 'Digital Convergence in Reality'. The New Media Conference will examine the impact of user-generated content and its influence on traditional broadcasters and the media sector. 

This year imbX brings in new forums and conferences on emerging Convergent issues. One of them IPTV forum will feature insights from operators, technology and content providers on the deployment and marketing of IPTV services in Asia. Mobile TV forum that is part of the event will give a spark to the business of Mobile TV that is still in need of a boost. This forum will showcase case studies and business models from successful mobile trials from different parts of the world. Standardization and content delivery issues also will be part of the discussions. 

DIGITALISATION OF CABLE TV INDUSTRY

Conax Conditional Access gives the operators a tool in a secure manner to control who is the recipient of the content in the cable.