Archive for April, 2010
‘We will be the first to offer inter-operability’
Q&A with SALIL KAPOOR, COO, Dish TV Of the six direct-to-home (DTH) operators in India, Dish TV looks the best. It claims to have crossed seven million subscribers and should shut March 2010 with Rs 1,000 crore in revenues. It is EBITDA-positive and in another four quarters, its COO Salil Kapoor expects it to break even. Dish’s closest (and oldest) competitor Tata-Sky is at about five million subscribers and is at least a million consumers away from seeing cash profits. Others such as Sun Direct, Airtel, Reliance and Videocon are still settling in a market that Subhash Chandra’s »»»
WWIL to feel Rs 1 bn pinch from HITS
MUMBAI: Wire and Wireless (India) Ltd. has suffered a loss of around Rs 1 billion from its Headend-In-The-Sky (HITS) operations and has suspended the service from 1 April as the government is yet to come out with tariff and content guidelines for the new delivery technology. WWIL, the first and the only cable TV operator to have launched the service, has invested over Rs 1.5 billion towards HITS. “We will revive HITS after the guidelines are in place and it is favourable for the industry. We would be losing about Rs 650 million in FY’10 from the HITS operations. Our total loss on HITS »»»
DTH players gear up to join high-definition bandwagon
With the government promising to telecast the Commonwealth Games in high-definition (HD) format, Direct-to-Home (DTH) service providers like Dish TV, Reliance BIG and Airtel Digital are now gearing up to join the bandwagon over the next couple of months. High-definition television (HDTV) refers to videos with higher resolution than traditional TV, resulting in sharper pictures and richer colours. Though the market for HD services is restricted to niche segments at present (with Sun Direct being the only operator in the sector), industry experts are seeing increasing potential for such services »»»
Trai reviews cable TV tariff in Cas areas
NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is reviewing the tariff for cable TV service in Cas (conditional access system) notified areas. The areas under review are: tariff for basic service tier, retail price for a pay channel, tariff options for supply of set-top boxes (STBs) and revenue share arrangement between service providers. Trai had earlier fixed the current cap on maximum retail price of pay channels at Rs 5.35 (excluding taxes). Two rental schemes on STBs were also mandated by the sector regulator for cable TV operators to offer to their subscribers – Rs 34 a »»»
India to overtake US DTH mkt with 36.1 mn users by 2012: MPA
NEW DELHI: India is poised to become the world’s largest direct-to-home (DTH) satellite pay TV market with 36.1 million subscribers by 2012, overtaking the US, a report by research firm Media Partners Asia (MPA) says. In its report titled ‘Asia Pacific Pay-TV and Broadband Markets 2010′, MPA said India’s DTH subscriber base will increase from 17 million in 2009 to 45 million by 2014 and 58 million by 2020. “India will become the largest DTH market in the world in terms of subscribers by 2012, overtaking the United States,” it said. The industry sales is expected »»»
What’s On India powers Airtel digital TV recorder
‘What’s On India’s EPG powers series recordings for Airtel digital TV recorder What’s on India will enable digital video recordings on Airtel digital TV recorder with it’s highly accurate and intelligent EPG Mumbai, April 22, 2010; India’s largest Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) company, ‘What’s On India’, has collaborated with Airtel digital TV- the DTH service from Bharti Airtel, for their newly launched Airtel digital TV recorder. Under this association, What’s on India’s EPGs will power video recordings for channels distributed by Airtel digital TV. The »»»
82 applicants await DD Direct capacity expansion
NEW DELHI: Even as around 90 television channels by 82 applicants are in the queue for being uploaded on the country’s only free direct-to-home platform DD Direct Plus, the Government has still to clear the plan under the Eleventh Plan to augment the capacity of the platform. In any event, Doordarshan sources told indiantelevision.com that the scheme would not help very much as it provided for augmenting the capacity from the present 59 to 97 – that is, a mere 38 channels. Apart from this, there is space on the platform for two more channels since it presently beams 57 channels, most of which »»»
