The direct-to-home (DTH) market in India is growing at an explosive rate and new players are entering the market. The number of DTH subscribers has grown sharply from 2.3 million in 2006 to 7.5 million in 2008 and is expected to reach 60 million by 2015. The existing DTH operators Tata Sky, Dish TV, Doordarshan, and Sun now have competition from Reliance and Airtel, and Videocon will be launching its DTH service later this year.

Key factors for the growth of DTH in India are the upgrade in technology from MPEG 2 to MPEG 4, enhanced viewing experience of consumers, and the large promotional budgets of DTH service providers. The expectation is that the Indian DTH market will add another 10-12 million subscribers in the next year.

Digitalization could now grow at a rapid pace with DTH gathering firm roots and cable also looking to go the digital way after the TRAI recommendations that make it mandatory for multi-service operators (MSOs) to go digital within the next five years. IPTV, the other content distribution platform, is also likely to make its own market in the years to come and by 2015 we could be completely digital in India, although a conservative way of looking at this is to assume 50 percent digitalization by 2015.

These emerging trends in India are in sync with global trends as digital television adoption will show strong growth over the next two years as consumers demand enhanced features, content, and bundled communications offering. With the US analog switch-off date mandated for February 2009, and most Western European countries terminating analog transmission before the 2012 deadline, the next two years will see a rapid increase in digital TV households worldwide.

All this augurs well for broadcasters and vendors supplying products and technologies into the entertainment and media content production and distribution space. DTH has shown us the Digital Way forward in India.