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Direct to your home soon?

THE INTRODUCTION of CAS has provoked interest in what is likely to be the next phase in the restructuring of the satellite broadcasting industry in India: DTH. Direct-To-Home services are essentially those that deliver a bundle of encoded channels straight to a television set via a satellite. The viewer requires an antenna to receive the signals and a set-top-box to decode them. Transmission invariably is on Ku band as signals in the conventional C band require antennae that are much too large and unwieldy.

DTH, which circumvents the need for cables and ipso facto MSOs and cable operators, is an attractive proposition for powerful broadcasters capable of furnishing a large bouquet of channels. DTH broadcasts were approved in principle by the Centre in 2000, but it has taken a long time for technical specifications to be formalised. Space TV (promoted by Rupert Murdoch's Star group) and Essel (promoted by Subash Chandra's Zee network) have applied and received letters of intent. Doordarshan plans to seek Central clearance for its DTH project and so, according to some reports, does VSNL.

The new policy lays down limits on the extent of foreign equity holding and other restrictions, but marks a change in thinking about such broadcasts. Earlier, DTH was viewed with great suspicion, even opposed, in the corridors of power because of fears over "cultural invasion" and on ground that it could threaten national security. However, for various reasons, the Centre has not yet given the green signal to either Star or Zee, which are eager to tap what is potentially an extremely lucrative market. DTH offers obvious advantages, beginning with the fact that quality of reception is far superior to cable television telecasts and the platform can offer a large number of channels for viewing. The platform can also offer a vast range of additional services, including interactive information-based programmes.

However, there are also some weaknesses associated with the technology. Digital signals from satellites are prone to get disrupted with extreme changes in weather patterns. It is believed that the heavy rain during the Indian monsoon will create its share of reception problems. However, this is likely to happen only rarely and increasing gain or power in Ku transponders mitigates this problem to a considerable extent.

Another factor is price. Some experts suggest that the equipment will not come cheap and that subscribers may be reluctant to fork out the sums required to make DTH sustainable. They argue that the fact that substantial numbers of television set owners who are not cabled reflects a resistance (more accurately an inability) to pay even the couple of hundred rupees demanded by cable operators. But here again, the cost is bound to be driven down by volumes and there remains a potentially huge market waiting to be tapped.

At the moment, cable television services are limited to cities and bigger towns, the cost of cabling and transmission losses making it unviable to reach less densely populated regions. By doing away with cabling, DTH technology holds out the potential of reaching out to those uncabled areas where the majority of India's population resides. For those in already cabled areas, the service can override basic transmission problems such as weak signals and having to deal with the vagaries of cable operators.

DTH services elsewhere in the world have the appearances of large monopolies. In the United States, for instance, these services are provided by just two operators — DirecTV and Echostar. In Britain, as in much of Europe, the skies are owned entirely by Rupert Murdoch's BskyB. This raises the inevitable question: is there space for so many players to get into DTH services in India? Most people believe not. Jawahar Goel, who heads Zee's distribution network, admits there is unlikely to be any scope for more than two DTH service providers.

As a result, the player who enters the market first is likely to have a much larger slice of the DTH pie — one reason why the race to receive the final nod is so competitive and why the tardy Government response has caused so much frustration. Zee's CAS facility in Noida is already technologically equipped to provide DTH services (see main story). In a year or so from now, the controversy over CAS may seem like little more than a skirmish. The real battle is likely to be over DTH. — M.P.

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