On technology advancements shaping Pay TV

The industry estimates show that the future of television viewing depends on the technology advancements like the interactive services and movie on demand that provide an opportunity to watch the latest releases in your room at your own convenience. These VAS services are growing aggressively and will soon command the market in the next few years. DTH also offers a wide array of features including electronic programming guide, personalized favorites' list, on screen notifier for latest updates of new movies with date and price, Mini Zapper Guide that summarizes the current on-air programme across various channels and future listings etc.

The available opportunity today is huge considering the fact that India has an existing population of 225 million TV households out of which 130 million are cable and satellite households and 16.5 million are DTH households. The current industry is growing at a rate of 25 - 30 percent which in itself is a huge opportunity for the whole market to grow together. India is fast heading towards a revolution in high-definition both in terms of hardware and software. While a lot of channels are gearing up to beam high-definition content, television manufacturers like Sony, LG, Samsung, Philips, etc have already started selling HD TVs. Only MPEG 4 technology used by DTH operators can support HD content and Reliance BIG TV was the early adopter of MPEG-4 technology for a pan India national service. The LCD and HD capable display devices will penetrate deeper creating greater pull for digital quality and high definition signal from consumers. Further, reducing cost of hardware combined with advances in software features will bring down initial cost of digitalization across all the delivery methods.

Addressability ushered in along with digitalization will help to fulfill long awaited transparency across the value chain distributing content to the consumer. All these will lead to changing business models based on both push and pull factors.

As a pioneer in setting industry benchmarks, Reliance BIG TV is planning to drive early adoption of the next wave of DTH revolution. Initially, consumers wanted to watch latest movies on PPV platform, but going by the trend in DTH industry today many subscribers are also opting for non-film content. Reliance BIG TV is in talks with various global content providers to introduce genres like action sports, International and Indian music, TV shows, exclusive videos/documentaries on its platform. In contrast, a cable operator lacks the bandwidth to offer such niche content sourced globally. Reliance BIG TV also offers its customer a choice of convenient payment options apart from recharge coupons to credit card, online, IVR, SMS and retail outlets.

Recently the Indian DTH market has started gaining momentum with its accessibility.

Reliance BIG TV has 1,00,000 retail centers across 6500 towns. In fact, it was the first one to deploy DTH service in Himalayas.

On market trends in the Pay TV industry

As the DTH industry is growing at an aggressive pace, the analog distribution will come under pressure from all the quarters but it will require a final push from the regulator. But the biggest hurdle faced by Pay TV is the addressability to its audience, which is in turn beneficial for the growth of Pay TV. Secondly, continuing the market trends Internet delivery will compete strongly with conventional delivery platforms for niche contents. Television viewing habits are changing with time, the entertainment is moving towards infotainment and with the addition of interactive services on the DTH Platform, and it will lead to another level. With the positive trend, very soon children will be able to prepare for their exams with the help of private tuitions on DTH. Reliance BIG TV currently offers six interactive services live on its platform - istock, icooking, inews, icricket, igames, iastro and plans to add many new Interactive services amongst iShopping, iLifestyle, and iLearning. These interactive services enhance the entertainment options available to the viewers and enhance their overall experience of the service and the DTH brand.

On security solutions for guarding the value of Pay TV content

Today, DTH is more of a personalized entertainment as it gives you the facility to choose your own channels, packages and choice of value added services. Unlike cable, the customer gets the flexibility to choose the channels of his choice or his family's choice. The security solution for the digital TV has matured over time is capable of handling addressability and central access control effectively. Like Reliance BIG TV provides a conventional child lock application facility that can be activated just with the help of a password.

On the digital infrastructure for Pay TV

DTH operators today offer viewers a digital medium of audio video compared to the analog-led transmission at the local cable operator. The technological benefit offered by a DTH service offers the best, cutting edge audio video quality which the analog-led cable service cannot match. India is fast heading towards a revolution in High-Definition both in terms of hardware and software. While a lot of channels are gearing up to beam High-Definition content, television manufacturers like Sony, LG, Samsung, and Philips have already started selling HD TVs. Only MPEG 4 technology used by DTH operators can support HD content and Reliance BIG TV was the early adopter of MPEG-4 technology for a pan India national service.

With MPEG4, the picture quality is much better as it helps to beam out more channels because of the better compression technology. Currently, Reliance BIG TV has eight transponders which give it a capacity to show 237 channels. From the future perspective, MPEG2 does not support high-definition content while MPEG4 does. Also, MPEG4 allows triple play–that is, audio, video and data. As a telecom company, we have a huge advantage. Our box is not a vanilla box, it is a box with higher memory and it already has space for a USB modem.

On obstacles for achieving growth in the Pay TV industry.

The analog distribution of CATV signals is the single biggest obstacle in growth of the Pay TV industry. Pay TV will be preferred mode for the niche content based, lifestyle related and movie channels.  News and GEC genres may prefer the FTA distribution to garner eyeballs and hence may resist the push universal digitalization. Initial subsidy and churn to analog are the two major factors plaguing the digital platforms and hence obstructing Pay TV industry.

On content regulation and various delivery modes of content delivery

Universal access to broadcast content creates healthy competition between platforms where only differentiator is the quality of customer service. Allowing platform to create VoD/nVoD enables them to add revenue streams from niche content that they may manage to acquire to satisfy their demanding customers.

On future prospects

Pay TV industry is waiting for a major boost in form of addressable only mode of distribution available on digital platforms in India. Changing mode of content creation (personal content) will bring in aggregations and syndication challenges for the established players worldwide.