Leading channels like Colors, CNN-IBN, CNBC TV 18, Sun TV and Hungama have switched off in all Digicable networks in Central, North, West and East India due to non-payment of subscription fees.

With effect from today, Viacom18, Network 18, Sun Network and Disney channels distributed by Sun 18 (North) will be switched off across Digicable networks across North, West, East and Central India.

Digicable viewers across these regions will not be able to view their popular shows and programmes on leading channels like Colors, MTV, CNBC TV 18, CNN-IBN, Sun TV, Gemini, Surya, Disney Channel and Hungama, amongst others, from April 13 onwards.

The switch-off by the broadcasters is due to non-payment of subscription fees and breach of agreement by Digicable. Sun18, which distributes 46 channels from the four leading networks, had given Digicable a 21-day notice to ensure that the much-delayed subscription payments are paid. The deadline of the notice ended on April 12, 2012.

Digicable is one of the largest cable distribution companies in the country. It is owned and promoted by Jagjit Singh Kohli, MD & CEO, and Yogesh Shah, Joint MD. Kohli, during his three-decades-long career, has set up and headed major Multi Service Operators (MSOs), including InCable, WinCable (now renamed Hathway Cable and Datacom Ltd.) and Wire and Wireless (India) Ltd.

Source: Bestmediainfo.com

MUMBAI: Digicable has opted for Ateme’s transcoding platform Titan for all its Video on Demand transcoding needs.

With India’s pay TV market becoming ever more competitive, Digicable chose the French company for its combination of high performance, flexibility, and value for money, according to its chief technology officer Asif Khan.

“We had high expectations for performance and throughput, but also had to be conscious of cost in a market where margins are tight and competition fierce,” said Khan. “Ateme has met these expectations not just for headline cost and performance, but also because the solution is scalable to support our future needs.”

Ateme provides customers such as Digicable the flexibility to repurpose content for the growing number of target device platforms they need to reach, including PCs, tablets, and smartphones.

The company’s support for editing tasks such as trimming and file concatenation, to join multiple sequences together, were also important added value features for Digicable.

In the Titan workflow, long feature films originally available on multiple tapes can be automatically assembled into a single VoD file.

According to Ateme vice-president sales Emmanuel Boureau, “Titan is now serving more than 70 million subscribers worldwide with a combination of linear channels, Video on Demand, and Catch-Up services to TV sets, PCs, tablets and smartphones.”

Source: Indiantelevision.com

With the official deadline for phasing out analog cable TV services fast approaching, digital cable and direct-to-home (DTH) companies are worried because customers are not adequately aware about the mandatory need to switch over to digital services, which will lead to a last minute scramble for settop boxes.

Senior industry executives told Mail Today that although digital customers have been growing, there seems to be lack of awareness about the government’s decision to phase out cable TV networks from Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai by June 31, 2012. Noida and Gurgaon are next in line and compulsory digitisation will be enforced by March 31, 2013.

“There should have been a surge in numbers for the digital services after the government decision in November, 2011, but this has not happened,” a senior executive said.

These companies fear that consumers will probably rush for the change in the last month, when it would become difficult for them to install such a large number of connections in a short time-frame.

The distribution companies had stepped up imports of set-top boxes since they are not manufactured in India but are now seeing the inventory piling up.

The government is keen on the switch over as there is largescale under-invoicing by the local cable operators, who provide the last-mile connection to households and this leads to an erosions in service tax revenues.

According to industry estimates, these neighbourhood cable operators report only 20 per cent of the total subscribers from whom they actually collect money each month.

As a result the government ends up losing around Rs.5,000 crore each year in service tax.

The large digital distributors, such as Hathway, DEN and Digicable, also end up losing big money as they get a revenue share from a meager 18 to 25 per cent of the actual number of subscribers.

According to an industry estimate, the local cable operators retain 80 per cent or Rs.13,600 crore of the entire collection of Rs.17,000 crore collected from viewers as subscription.

The television broadcasters, who invest heavily to provide entertainment and news content, are also getting shortchanged because of this under reporting of subscribers. The digital switch will ensure that the actual number of subscribers get recorded through the set top boxes, which contain cash card with the details of the accounts of the user.

The technology ensures that the broadcasters, distributors and the government get a fix on the actual number of subscribers, plugging the revenue leak. Most advanced countries have phase out analog cable TV. While the US completes the digitisation of its cable sector in 2009, other countries like China are also following suit.

Tata Sky chief marketing officer Vikram Mehra told Mail Today that the company had geared up to provide set-top boxes in the four metros keeping in mind the June 30 deadline. “However, consumer awareness is still low and we plan to launch an advertising campaign to apprise potential customers,” he added.

Mehra said it was important for consumers to choose the right kind of set-top box as this would affect the quality of viewing.

Industry officials are of the view that apart from the number of set-top boxes, the problem of installing the connections had to be tackled.

Installation requires technical expertise and skilled manpower have to be made available in adequate numbers. Thus, any last minute surge in volumes would also make it difficult for company’s engineers to cater to the customers within a deadline.

Mehra said Tata Sky was also putting its billing systems in place to cater to wider customer base as with the entry of set-top boxes consumers would be choosing channels on a la carte basis, which would require different bills for diverse viewers.

A digital platform offers a wider choice of TV channels, better quality of transmission and allows consumers to pay for what they view. For the industry, it will bring in greater consolidation, reduced dependence on viewership ratings and drop in carriage fees.

Source: India Today

With digitisation of the cable TV industry in India soon reaching its sunset date, MSOs are making large capital expenditures to provide STBs (set top boxes) to their subscribers. However, with few significant revenue opportunities, VAS is becoming an important strategy by which operators increase their revenues and profits. VAS brings in multiple opportunities, some of them in the form of video-on-demand, video conferencing, local classifieds listing, TV-commerce, games, viewership measurement, and advertising.

To begin with, approximately 50 MSOs across India have partnered with local television advertising specialist Amagi Media, wherein the latter will bring in its patent-pending technology, work flow and business model to generate local advertising on satellite TV channels; this, in turn, will leverage the existing cable MSO infrastructure. The partnership includes names such as Hathway, InCable, Digicable, GTPL, Fastway Cable, and Manthan.

Explaining the process to afaqs!, K A Srinivasan, co-founder, Amagi Media, says, “Amagi provides city-level advertising on national TV channels. This is done by using its unique and patent-pending technology, and an innovative business model. It buys media inventory from TV channels, disaggregates and sells TV ad spots at city-level. For city-level targeting, Amagi partners with cable MSOs, places its technology box at cable head-ends, and delivers city-level advertising to advertisers.”

“Amagi pays a share of the revenues to cable MSOs. There is zero investment from cable operators to enable this service and they get to participate in advertising revenues,” he adds.

In India, ARPU (average realisation per user) of TV subscribers is the lowest in the world. This forces operators to explore opportunities outside subscription revenues for growth.

An MSO operator, on conditions of anonymity, explains that cable MSOs have significant advantage with respect to DTH providers in terms of local access, ability to provide reverse data path, and the possibility of multiple services (telephony, internet and TV) to be piped over the existing infrastructure. “By far, advertising is the most promising prospect, as it comes without large additional expenses. Advertising at regional level leverages the inherent benefit of local addressability that cable TV provides,” he says.

Pinank Vin, vice-president, Gujarat Telelink Pvt Ltd (GTPL), says, “Given that ARPUs from subscribers are limited, it is critical for MSOs to explore other avenues to leverage their access to subscribers. This concept of generating local advertising for MSOs is new, but it is worth a try as it will help us generate additional revenues.”

According to industry experts, this local advertising on satellite TV channels is a $6 billion revenue earner in the US, which is 15 per cent of all TV advertising revenue in the country.

Source: afaqs!

Kolkata, Jan 13 (PTI) Leading Multi System Operator (MSO) Digicable today said they will invest Rs 225 crore to supply 1.5 million settop boxes to its subscribers in the city. “All cable operators have to mandatorily switch to digital technology or to send cable television signals through settop boxes (STB) from July in city. We are trying to offer a cheap solution to subscribers under our network,” Digicable VP Amit Nag said. Digicable managing director Jagjit S Kohli said the company was planning to offer STB at Rs 500 though the minimum price of a box is Rs 1700. “We have to subsidise to make it affordable,” he said. There are four large MSOs in the city and the exact number of cable connections is not known but according to estimates the number would be around four million. Digicable said the company was trying to offer 200 channels at the current price though it would be finalised after government comes out with pricing for the basic service. Kohli said digitisation will offer huge benefit to consumers and it would be better than DTH.

Source: IBNLive.com

The Reliance Communications’ (RCom’s) deal to buy cable operator Digicable has come under the scanner of the information & broadcasting (I&B) ministry over the issue of cross-holding rules.

Cable and DTH companies cannot hold more than 20 per cent stake in each other.

In July last year, RCom had announced the formation of a new entity, Reliance Digicom, through acquisition of Digicable in an all-stock deal. The deal has got the go-ahead from the high court.

Reliance Digital TV, the DTH arm of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, internet protocol TV (IPTV) and broadband services which are part of RCom were to come under Reliance Digicom along with the cable TV business of Digicable.

Jagjit Singh Kohli, MD and CEO of Digicable, said the ministry was scrutinising the deal. “We have abided by the rules. The deal has been structured in such a way that there is no cross-holding, either directly or indirectly. The I&B ministry is looking at our submissions.”

The ministry had earlier looked into the structure of the Sun TV group as well as the Zee group as both are present in cable distribution, DTH and broadcasting.

The deal has been structured in such as way that private equity firm Ashmore will own 28 per cent in Reliance Digicom, a company called Stellar Holding will own 10 per cent (through which Kohli will own his stake), while RCom will hold the rest.

Reliance Digicom is expected to have a subscriber base of 15 million. This means it will be one of the largest distribution and broadband companies in Asia. Digicable has 10 million subscribers while Reliance Digital TV has 3.5 million subscribers.

Analysts said RCom’s aim was to increase its average revenue per user. Buying Digicable would take its presence to 15 million homes where it would push its telecom services also, they said. The deal will also lead to integration of IPTV services with telecom and television. The group expects a lot of growth in this segment.

Established in August 2007, Digicable is one of the country’s largest cable TV service provider. It is promoted by Kohli, along with Yogesh Shah, one of the pioneers of the cable TV and broadcasting industry. Kohli helped set up WinCable for Hathway Cable and Datacom Ltd, India’s largest multi-system operator (MSO). He also founded ETC Networks, which was later acquired by the Essel group. The group appointed him as managing director for its MSO arm — Wire and Wireless (India) Ltd, or WWIL. Kohli quit WWIL in 2007 to set up Digicable.

Digicable has a strong presence in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal. It competes with Hathway, Hinduja-promoted inCable, Den Networks and Citicable. Reliance’s DTH business is, however, smaller than Dish TV and Tata Sky, and competes with Sun Direct, Videocon and Airtel DTH.

The Ficci-KPMG Report 2011 said the number of cable and satellite households in India grew 14 per cent to 108 million. India has 32 million DTH subscribers.

Source: Business Standard

Customers seeking greater choice over what they watch and how much they pay for it may have to wait for some more time with mostdirect-to-home (DTH) and Internet protocol TV companies set to miss a 1 January deadline for offering an à la carte option.

A July 2010 order by the regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said that all digital platforms must offer consumers the choice of paying only for channels that they wish to watch. Currently, companies offer bouquets or bundled channels priced as a package.

DTH companies, which together serve around 29 million households, cite technical and operational reasons for their inability to meet the deadline, but an analyst said their inertia could also be explained by the prospect of seeing up to a 20% fall in revenue.

An official from Trai, which set the deadline, said that this would be “considered non-compliance of Trai’s order”.

“It’s too early to comment on the implications,” added this person, who did not want to be identified.

The sheer complexity of providing options to customers has the operators stumped, admitted an executive at a DTH firm. “We have 9 million subscribers. À la carte means offering all sorts of permutations and combinations to customers and just as many complications in servicing them. We need time to do this and are evaluating how to go ahead,” said Salil Kapoor, chief operating officer, Dish TV, India’s largest DTH company by subscriber base. Kapoor added that his company was trying its best to meet the deadline.

The companies have had enough time to do so. Trai’s order came in July. And it came into effect from 1 September, although DTH companies were offered an extension up to 1 January if they needed it. Cable companies that use a digital delivery platform have already started offering customers the choice of picking the channels they want to watch.

Another executive working for a DTH company said that companies do not have the required infrastructure to offer à la carte services. “If a consumer wants just Star Plus and MAX, we’d have to provide it at a moment’s notice. However, the consumer can change his or her mind in the next few days. So, operationally, it’s a lot tougher to keep track and the service has to be very quick,” added this person, who did not want to be identified as he is not authorized to speak to media.

Sanjay Behl, chief executive of Reliance BIG TV Ltd, echoed that sentiment and said that with 400 channels on air, there are bound to be operational issues such as those to do with billing. “We are evaluating just how soon we can give channels à la carte,” he said.

Saurabh Dhoot, director, Videocon group, which offers DTH services under the Videocon d2h brand, added that his company too was trying to meet the deadline.

Roop Sharma, president of the Cable Operators Federation of India, an industry body, said DTH companies were using “delay tactics”. “They have the technology but don’t want to sell individual channels since packages get them more revenue,” she alleged.

Digital cable operators, meanwhile, have already started offering prices of individual channels to customers.

Digicable Network (India) Pvt. Ltd, a large cable TV operator acquired by Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications Ltd, offers à la carte services in parts of Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai besides all of Chennai, with each channel being priced at Rs.5 and customers being required to opt for at least five channels. In addition to these, the customers get around a 100 free-to-air channels.

In most cases, individual channels are priced even lesser than that at, say, Rs.3-4 each, said K. Jayaraman, managing director and chief executive of Hathway Cable and Datacom Ltd, another digital cable company.

The analyst cited in the first instance said the reluctance of DTH firms to go this route may have to do with the way customers are likely to behave, choosing to pay for a few general entertainment and news channels but not for the rest, bringing down their bill and the operators’ revenue.

Interestingly, not all DTH companies are dragging their feet over implementing an à la carte option. Tony D’Silva, chief executive of DTH service provider Sun Direct, confirmed that the company is offering channels on à la carte basis.

And Harit Nagpal, managing director and chief executive, Tata Sky Ltd, said his company was working towards the same, although it poses “serious technological challenges”. “We are addressing the concerns but our endeavour will be to abide by the government guidelines at the earliest.”

A spokesperson for Bharti Airtel Ltd DTH declined to comment for this story.

The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal, in a judgement issued on 16 December, had asked the regulator to review the issues related to à la carte tariff rates, but the July order stands.

Source: Livemint.com

Reliance Digicom, the all-encompassing television and online service provider borne from the acquisition by Reliance Communications of Digicable, will commence operations in December, according to Indian Express.

The new business unit, part of the greater Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), will bring the conglomerate’s DTH arm BIG TV under the same roof as the company’s IPTV and broadband services, together with Digicable’s existing cable TV business – which has 10 million subscribers. BIG TV DTH has 3.5 million subscribers, while retail broadband registers half a million users.

Although there have been rumoured difficulties in agreeing a shareholding structure in the new company, JS Kohli, CEO of Digicable told Indian Express: “We are happy to place on record that Digicable’s merger with the DTH, IPTV, broadband business of Reliance Communications is proceeding very smoothly as per plan.

“In fact a high level of integration has already been achieved between the two organisations to the extent that we have now started operating from common premises.”

Considering ADAG’s already vast media empire, the addition of Reliance Digicom is set to propel it the top spot in India, in terms of size. The conglomerate already has stakes in film production and distribution in the form of BIG Pictures; and runs BIG animation and the social media site BIG Adda, plus BIG Cinemas, Bigflix.com film rental, and RBNL FM radio broadcasting – among others.

Source: Rapidtvnews.com

MUMBAI: Upping the ante against the participation of Pakistani contestants Veena Malik and Begum Nawazish Ali in Bigg Boss, cable operators have decided to black out Colors in Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan on request of Hindu activist party Shiv Sena.

Colors has already been switched off in many pockets of Mumbai, several cable operators said. The others will follow suit before the controversial reality show goes on air at 9 pm today.

“All cable operators are switching off the channel in Mumbai as per Shiv Sena’s request,” CODA president and Scod18 director Ganesh Naidu told indiantelevision.com.

Digicable has decided to switch off the signals in the whole of Maharashtra, said a senior executive.

What has irked the operators is the participation of Abbas Kazmi, lawyer of Azmal Kasab, the terrorist who attacked Mumbai.

Shiv Sena leader Anil Parab said, “Bala Saheb (Thackeray) is opposing the participation of Pakistani players in the show since the beginning. The channel has not paid any heed. So now we have appealed to all the cable operators, who have agreed to our request to switch off the channel from tonight. Starting with Mumbai, the signals will be shut in whole of Maharashtra.”

When contacted, Colors’ officials refused to comment.

Source: Indiantelevision.com

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: On 31 March, Wire and Wireless (India) Ltd. ended its only Headend-In-The-Sky (HITS) service in the country after making no impact on the market, sinking in losses of over Rs 1 billion.

Four months later, the scenario is no different and the technology that would have put digitisation on the fast track stands unused. Several multi-system operators (MSOs) have applied for a HITS licence but are not particularly enthused as they await a more comprehensive policy.

“We want the government to allow the DTH signals to be used for HITS. This would save the sector from duplication of transponder use. There are other issues on content and tariff that need to be addressed,” says WWIL CEO Sudhir Agarwal.

Allowing the download of DTH signals for HITS would mean that WWIL need not have a separate teleport and uplinking facility as the MSO can use the existing infrastructure of its sibling company Dish TV India, India’s leading direct-to-home (DTH) operator.

Digicable Network (India), which is being snapped up by Reliance Communications, is ready to jump into HITS if transponders are made available. “There are no transponders. We have filed with ISRO. If we manage to get transponders, we will get into the HITS bandwagon,” says Digicable MD and CEO Jagjit Singh Kohli.

RComm runs a DTH service under the Big TV brand. The company has agreed to buy Digicable in an all-stock deal and in the new entity it would house its DTH, IPTV and broadband business as well.

“We need more clarity on the transponder issue, content policy and tariff order,” says the head of a leading MSO who did not want his name to be revealed.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has come out with a tariff policy for digital addressable systems, but MSOs want a differentiated pricing system for HITS.

The government has also indicated that the HITS scheme has not made any headway because Trai has not so far submitted its recommendations on policy issues.

While conceding that no operator is providing HITS services in the country, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources told indiantelevision.com that Trai had on 18 March been asked to examine policy issues following representations from MSOs.

Trai had submitted a report on 21 July but this covered only tariff regulations. This followed a request on 10 December last year to Trai to revisit the interconnection regulations, tariff orders and quality of service regulations in the light of the HITS policy announced by the government.

Dish TV India, which holds a HITS licence, had, in a representation on 3 March this year, raised the issue of absence of any tariff regime due to which broadcasters and content providers had either refused to provide content or were asking exorbitant amounts.

The downlinking guidelines had been last amended in December following the Government’s approval of the modification of policy guidelines for downlinking of television channels to enable broadcasters to provide their content to HITS service providers.

The clause 5.6 of the downlinking guidelines now provides “the applicant company shall provide Satellite TV Channel Signal reception decoders only to MSOs/Cable Operators registered under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act 1995 or to a DTH operator registered under the DTH guidelines issued by Government of India or to an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) Service Provider duly permitted under their existing Telecom License or authorized by Department of Telecommunications or to a HITS operator duly permitted under the policy guidelines for HITS operators issued by Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India to provide such service.”

Source: Indiantelevision.com