a brief description about satellite and cable television

1. Changes in Satellite and Cable
television in India terms of technology
like
DTH, CAS, HITS…

2. What is Cable TV?
• CATV is a method of providing consumers with
access to television programs via cable located in
the subscribers’ premises.

3. How does it work?
• In CATV, the signals are sent through cables and
not through the air, thus doing away with "line of
sight" requirement and enabling much better
quality of reception. The television signals that
come via cable are not disturbed by trees,
buildings, or other hindrances.

4. Cable TV penetration in India
• India has over 148 million households (out of 231
million) with TVs, of which over 126 million have
access to CATV or Satellite TV, including 42 million
households which are digital subscribers. In Urban
India, 88 per cent of all households have a TV and over
70 per cent of all households have access to satellite,
cable or DTH services.
(The TAM Annual Universe Update – 2012)

5. • India now has over 500 TV channels covering all
the main languages spoken in the nation.
• Digicable Networks (India), Hathway Cable and
Data Com, InusInd Media and Communications
(InCable), and DEN Networks are some of the
notable cable service providers in India.

6. Satellite Television
• Satellite television can be defined as
television broadcasting using satellite
technology.
• After 1982 when Indian National Satellite
(INSAT) was launched there came a sharp rise
in number of transmitters, began colour
television and telecast of Asiad games
increased private investment in television sets.

7. • Beginning of Satellite Television in India was marked by
world first techno-social experiment SITE- Satellite
Instructional Television Experiment- for education &
development purposes.
• That followed number of other experiments like SITE,
School Television, UGC Country Wide Class Room, Jhabua
Development Communication Project, Indira Gandhi
National Open University transmission and Gyan Darshan
for educational and social development purposes.

9. IPTV
• Internet protocol television
• The new technology to provide multiple channel
television content over the internet.
• Uses the IP to deliver live television
programming as well as variety of video content
over broadband cable networks.
• IPTV A joint venture between MTNL
and BSNL also in association with Akash
Optifiber.

10. DTH
• DTH stands for Direct-To-Home television.
• DTH is defined as the reception of satellite
programmes with a personal dish in an individual
home.
• DTH licenses in India will cost $2.14 million and
will be valid for 10 years. The companies offering
DTH service will have to have an Indian chief and
foreign equity has been capped at 49 per cent.
There is no limit on the number of companies that
can apply for the DTH license.

11. • DTH television is digital and interactive.
• It offers many subscription channels.
• TRAI issued gudelines for DTH operations.
• First private DTH – DISH TV in 2003, which
started operations in 2004.

12. Current players in DTH industry
• DD Direct+.
• TATA Sky.
• Dish TV of ZEE group.

13. DTH Market Share
• DD Direct+ = 50% (3.5 milllion homes)
• Dish TV = 31% (2.1 million homes)
• TATA Sky = 15% (1.1 million homes)
• Others = 4%
(TAM People meter survey)

14. The following companies also have license to
operate DTH service:
• Sun Direct of Sun Network.
• Reliance Blue Magic.
• Bharti Tele media.
• Videocon Industries.

16. DTH pricing
• DTH providers justify the prices as it offers
high quality transmission which makes TV
viewing a pleasant experience.
• Tata-Sky offers 58-channels to consumers at
an introductory offer of Rs 200 per month. You
will have to pay Rs 3,999 for hardware (set-top
box and installation), and a monthly charge of
Rs 200.

17. • Zee group's Dish TV offers its hardware and
installation at Rs 3,000 (excluding taxes) and
three months' free subscription. This Dish TV
package of 75 channels costs Rs 180 per month.
• The second DTH operator is government-owned
DD-Direct Plus. This comes at a one-time cost of
Rs 2,000-2,500.

18. What are the concerns over DTH?
• In the absence of regulation, DTH operators
may hike their fees arbitrarily. They may force
consumers to pay for bouquets of channels,
instead of individual channels. Also there
could be illegal redistribution of DTH feed
through multiple distribution units, amounting
to evasion of tax.

19. DTH versus cable TV
• In DTH, TV channels would be transmitted from
the satellite to a small dish antenna mounted on
the window or rooftop of the subscriber's home.
So the broadcaster directly connects to the user.
• DTH can also reach the remotest of areas since it
does away with the intermediate step of a cable
operator and the wires (cables) that come from the
cable operator to your house.

20. • DTH offers better quality picture than cable TV.
This is because cable TV in India is analog.
Despite digital transmission and reception, the
cable transmission is still analog. DTH offers
stereophonic sound effects.

21. • Apart from enhanced picture quality, DTH has
also allows for interactive TV services such as
movie-on-demand, Internet access, video
conferencing and e-mail.
• DTH will not be able to be an alternative to cable
if the initial investment is more than that for
cable. DTH requires initial investment for both a
dish antenna and a TV-top box.

22. CAS
• CAS stands for conditional access system,
which is a digital mode of transmitting TV
channels trough a set-top box (STB).
• The transmission signals are encrypted and
viewers need to buy a set-top box to receive
and decrypt the signal.
• The STB is required to watch only pay
channels, not free-to-air channels, like
Doordarshan.

23. • The idea of CAS was originated in 2001, which
was followed by charge hikes by channels and
subsequently cable operators. It was decided that
it would be first introduced in the four metros. It
has been in place in Chennai since September
2003.
• According to estimates, only 25 per cent of the
people have subscribed the new technology. The
rest watch only free-to-air channels. The
inhibiting factor is the cost of the STB.

24. Pricing of channels under CAS
• Broadcast regulator TRAI has fixed a ceiling of
Rs 5 per pay channel per month under the CAS
regime, much to the disappointment of
broadcasters.
• Under CAS, a subscriber can access to around 22
pay channels apart from the free-to-air bouquet
within the Rs 200 package monthly.

25. Advantages of CAS
• For viewers:
• Under, CAS viewers can watch only what they
would like to watch, than what the cable
operator has on offer.
• Subscribers save money they now spend on
unnecessary channels.
• The cable operators will no longer have any
control over the pricing of channels.

26. • For broadcasters:
• It benefits broadcasters as they always had to
grapple with the issue of cable operators not
declaring the actual number of subscribers, and
hence suffering losses.
• With CAS, they can find out the exact number
of subscribers with a cable operator.

27. • For cable TV operators:
• They need to pay a part of the subscription
fees to the broadcasters only for the actual
number of end users who opt for the channel.
• This allows operators to price their channels
according to their popularity.

28. • For advertisers:
• It gives a far more accurate indicator of
programme popularity with only the actual
subscribers of each channel being accounted
for.

29. Will CAS be cheaper than cable TV?
• Yes, according to a TRAI order, if one opts for all
the existing channels then the pay out will be less.
For example, the Star bouquet at present comes
for Rs 67 for eight channels. Under CAS, if one
avails all the eight channels then the pay bill will
be Rs 40 plus a 12.2 per cent service tax. The new
tariff order will reduce the cable bills in Delhi,
Kolkata and Mumbai.

30. HITS
• Headend in the Sky (HITS)
is Comcast's satellite multiplex service that
provides cable channels to cable
television operations.
• HITS combines cable stations
into multiplex signals on just a few satellites;
cable television companies can then pull in
hundreds of channels at the local headend with
relatively little equipment.

31. • The Indian Government on November 12, 2009
approved guidelines for Headend In The Sky
(HITS) broadcasting service.
• The approval comes several months after the
information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry had
first sent the HITS policy draft to the Cabinet.
• HITS players have been allowed a foreign direct
investment (FDI) of up to 74%, on par with the
telecom sector.

32. • Noida Software Technology Park Ltd (Jain TV
Group) started India's one and only HITS service,
JAINHITS.
• JAINHITS is a Satellite–based Digital Cable TV
Distribution Platform which provides digitised
and encrypted satellite TV signals directly to the
Cable Network Owners. This is the only Direct-
to-Network (DTN) service in India.

33. Thanks for watching…
Jansher Chakkittammal