New Delhi, Sep 15 : After mobile number portability, the telecom and broadcast regulator’s move to bring interopertability to Set Top Boxes (STB) has evoked a mixed response from the Direct-to-Home (DTH) operators.

STB interopertability means the STBs of any DTH platform should be usable on any other DTH platform. It will enable customers to switch from one operator to another on the same set top box by just using a module known as conditional access module (CAM).

The customer can simply insert this module into the STB to access another operator without using a separate STB.

Interoperability of STB was incorporated in the DTH licensing norms to give the consumers a choice. The clause says that the STB must be “inter-operable”, meaning the STBs should be compatible with all service providers.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is looking to implement an open architecture system for the different DTH players and last month issued a consultation paper seeking feedback from the stakeholders.

In response, the country’s largest DTH player Dish TV favoured the proposed move, saying that portability is mandated by the law and should be implemented.

But other DTH operators say there are serious limitations to the technical inter-operability of the STB such as cost escalation.

“To reduce the cost of the box, each box is designed to support a limited configuration based on network requirements of the provider. Any attempt for interoperability will increase cost for the subscribers without getting advantages of newer technology,” said Reliance Big TV.

Tata Sky said different operators are using different combinations. If a single STB is to be made compatible with all different technologies such as compression technology, transmission technology and other encryption technologies, the cost is bound to go up significantly.

“The increased cost of an STB would defeat the very purpose of technical inter-operability, as the additional cost would have to be recovered from customers,” it said.

Currently, different service providers are using different technologies for distributing signals through the STB.

Bharti Telemedia echoed the views of Reliance Big TV and Tata Sky and said that commercial interoperability will be way better than technical interoperability.

“The operators who have installed base of STBs of an older version should endeavour to replace those STBs with the latest version so that the customer can enjoy interoperability. In light of the above, we believe that the commercial interoperability is more consumers friendly and should be extended to the consumers to get the refund of STB security as per prescribed scale,” said the operator.

DD Direct, TATA SKY, Dish TV fall in the first category and use DVB-S (Digital Video Broadcasting) modulation and MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group)compression, a standard for the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information.

SUN Direct and Reliance Big TV fall in the second category and use DVB-S modulation and MPEG-4 compression, the better version of MPEG.

Videocon D2H, Airtel digital TV which falls in the third category work on DVB-S2 (second generation Digital Video Broadcasting) modulation and MPEG-4 compression.

While customers with third category operator can move to any operator, the customers in second category can move to an operator in the first and second category only. However, customers with first category operator can move to the other operators in the same category only.(IANS)

New Delhi: Backed by financial support, upgraded technology and a comprehensive pan-India distribution strategy, DD Direct Plus is aiming to double its existing subscriber base to over 12 million within next 15-18 months.

The country’s first and only free direct-to-home (DTH) platform aims to challenge the dominance of six private DTH firms that currently command 25 million subscribers. In the process, DD Direct Plus has overhauled itself to provide the viewers a competitive DTH service at no monthly cost, sources in the I&B ministry said.

To meet this aim within a fixed time frame, the ministry has decided to pump in Rs 81 crore in DD Direct Plus. A detailed proposal to this effect was approved last week by the ministry, a source said. This is significant because it is the first instance of a major funding exercise undertaken by the government for DD Direct Plus since its launch in 2004.

However, to implement the plans, Doordarshan will be told to double the subscriber base of DD Direct Plus in next 18 months, the source added. This means, Prasar Bharati will have to acquire at least 3,00,000 subscribers every month beginning early next year.

In order to help Prasar Bharati meet its targets, the I&B ministry, at the behest of the I&B minister Ambika Soni, has decided to go for a mix of direct sale and free distribution of its set top boxes and antennas, a senior government official said.

“By December, DD Direct Plus will increase its channel offerings to 97 and in the next 12 months, to 200. Several pay channels may turn free on DD Direct Plus because of its proposed reach,” a senior official from the I&B ministry told FE. Currently, at least 88 channels, including several popular ones like IBN7, NewsX, Star Pravah, NDTV Hindi, Imagine, and a slew of regional channels are in queue to come on-board DD Direct Plus, a Doordarshan insider said.

In order to compete with the private DTH operators, DD Direct Plus will also move to the latest video compression technology—MPEG 4, DVB S-2—used by most private DTH operators currently. This has been planned to provide the latest digital video and audio services to the subscribers.

“Soon a tender will be floated for the supply of MPEG-4 compatible set top boxes,” an I&B official said. For free distribution of DD Direct Plus services, at least 30,000 set top boxes will be distributed to the NGOs and village panchayats specially in Jammu & Kashmir and the North Eastern states at an investment of Rs 20 crore.

In order to measure its subscribers, currently not tracked by Prasar Bharati, DD Direct Plus will also launch its own subscriber management system backed by a call centre. “This has been done to keep a record of the subscribers of DD Direct. The data will attract broadcasters to come to DD Direct because of its reach,” the official said.

Currently, DD Direct Plus is estimated to have a subscriber base in excess of 6 million, second only to the leading private DTH operator, Dish TV.

Source: Financial Express

Early movers in the Direct-to-home (DTH) market, Dish TV and Tata Sky, are caught in a technology bind. They desperately want to increase bandwidth to host more channels and high-definition (HD) content. However, they may not be able to do so unless they migrate to a newer compression technology at a higher cost.

When the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched the Indian National Satellite System, or INSAT, series of communications satellites for DTH service providers, the early movers (Dish TV and Tata Sky) got more transponders, while late entrants like Sun DTH, Big TV, Airtel DTH and Videocon d2H got fewer transponders.

Transponders are transceivers or repeaters on a communications satellite. They receive signals from the broadcasting (uplinking) centres, amplify the signals and send them back (downlink) to users (DTH subscribers).

However, Tata Sky and Dish TV started out with using the lower file compression platform of MPEG-2 in their set-top boxes. Sun DTH, Big TV, Airtel DTH, and Videocon d2h, on the other hand, use MPEG-4. MPEG is a file compression methodology. While both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 are widely used for file compression, the latter has additional features.

In DTH operations, MPEG-4 offers better coding efficiency. Hence, the channel offerings of newer players are at par with that of the older players despite them having fewer transponders (in other words, they can add more channels despite having fewer transponders since the technology squeezes in more content).

On the other hand, Tata Sky and Dish TV would be able to offer more channels only if they migrate to the MPEG-4 platform. But that would come at a huge cost since they would have to cajole existing users to shell out more to migrate to these newer set-top boxes.

As broadcasters start offering more content in HD, however, the need for more bandwidth will only rise. Industry experts say with their present capacity, DTH operators can offer only up to a maximum of 280 channels.

“Older players like Dish TV and Tata Sky are on the MPEG 2 platform where more bandwidth is consumed compared to MPEG-4, the format used by newer operators,” concurs Devendra Parulekar, partner, media and entertainment practice, Ernst & Young.

Tata Sky MD and CEO Vikram Kaushik admits that new capacity is definitely an issue. “Spectrum is a limited resource and operators cannot indiscriminately go on adding channels. Newer compression methodologies like MPEG-4 are a reality but operators cannot just jump from one technology to another. There is a cost involved,” he adds.

He believes that as the prices of MPEG-4 set-top boxes (STBs) come closer to that of MPEG-2 boxes, operators might change the boxes but that might not happen in the next five to six years.

Salil Kapoor, chief operating officer of Dish TV, however, says there is no immediate need for switching over to the MPEG-4 technology. “At present, we offer over 250 channels and have added five HD channels. We do not have any capacity constraint with the 12 transponders we currently have,” he says.

Dish TV, though, has an advantage as the Doordardshan channel satellite is in the neighbourhood. Subscribers, therefore, get those channels without any bandwidth consumption on Dish TV’s transponders.

However, Parulekar of Ernst & Young cautions that terrestrial operators (cable operators) might just snatch the baton from DTH operators if they are not able to add channels. “Cable operators can directly relay the feed of local/regional channels whereas DTH operators don’t have a choice but to uplink their entire bouquet of channel offerings,” he points out.

“Changing the STBs does not look like a near time solution as it involves huge cost to replace the STBs of millions of subscribers. Only if the government launches new satellites will the operators have the opportunity to add more channels and offer newer services,” adds Parulekar.

Source: Business Standard

With India’s direct-to-home (DTH) market witnessing a boom, Bharti Airtel has charted out an aggressive plan for its Airtel Digital TV in the seven North Eastern states to make further inroads in the coming months.

Airtel Digital presently has nearly 1 lakh customers in the region and aims at adding another 50,000 by the end of this fiscal.

Ajai Puri, director and CEO of Bharti Airtel’s DTH arm, said that as part of the aggressive plan, the company plans to market the product through mobile retail outlets, spanned across the region, which sells Airtel recharge vouchers and connections.

He is confident that Airtel’s brand equity will help Airtel Digital in positioning itself as the market leader in the North-East. “We target to tap a sizeable chunk of this growing market,” Puri added.

Puri claimed that Airtel Digital was the leader in customer acquisitions with its service available across 73 districts, 231 towns and 30,000 villages in North-East.

“Just over a year from the launch of our service, today, we are proud to announce our leadership in new customer acquisitions in this market due to strong retail presence and unique service proposition,” Puri said, while talking to media persons.

To woo customers, the company launched a ‘free connection offer’ and ‘easy recharge service’ for its DTH customers today in the ‘seven sisters’ states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Meghalaya.

The company has nearly 1.9 million customers countrywide and was the first DTH service provider in the country to offer MPEG4 with DVBS2 technology. Airtel Digital presently offers 212 channels including World Space radio, 7 interactive services and 6 pay-per-view channels.

Source: Business Standard