Zohra Chatterji, is an officer of the Indian Administrative Service, 1979 batch, UP Cadre. She has held numerous important assignments in the State of Uttar Pradesh and Government of India. She was responsible for the State roll-out of "Lokvani" an innovative project for grievance redressal in the rural areas of Uttar Pradesh for which she received the Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Public Administration in 2008. Currently, Chatterji is Joint Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India, since May 2007 and is in charge of the Broadcasting Wing. She is actively engaged in the framing of broadcast policy in newly emerging fields in India. During her tenure, the IPTV Policy was announced and the policy permitting transfer of shares by the FM companies for the purpose of de-merging radio business was put in place. The airing of political advertisements on FM Radio was also permitted and the community radio scheme gathered considerable momentum. Important policy initiatives such as HITS, FM Phase-II and Mobile TV have also been brought to the final stage during her stewardship of the broadcasting sector.

The broadcast sector in India is in a stage of flux and growth throwing up limitless opportunities. As Indian consumers become frequent users of digital platforms, media and entertainment business models are undergoing major transformations, changing the traditional dynamics of the Indian television and film industry and multiplying consumer chances manifold. Digitization of both content and delivery platforms, in the audio and visual entertainment space is leading to increasing reach to wider audiences within shorter spans of time throwing up immense commercial opportunities. Changes in consumption habits coupled with regulatory pressures and shrinking spectrum have compelled India - the third largest cable and satellite market in the world, to start migrating to digital platforms. The changing needs of more perceptive consumers coupled with the economic & technical advantages have made the transition to digital an imperative.

The Indian TV distribution space has responded to the challenge and is evolving fast. In a span of three-four years, we have seen the Conditional Access System being introduced in the major metros which gave the necessary impetus to digital cable and voluntary introduction of CAS in some non-mandated areas also. The advent of 6 DTH players which together are expected to have garnered 11.1 million subscribers by the end of 2008, and the commercial launch of IPTV in 2009 is a logical corollary. In the next five years there will be a significant rise in online digital streaming, digital movie/TV downloads, video-on-demand, music downloads from the Internet, music downloads to wireless phones, mobile TV, online advertising, online video games, and wireless video games. Digitalization will reduce costs for content and delivery in the long run, and thereby, shift the emphasis to quality and diversity.

However, there are lessons to be learnt and opportunities to be seized. Despite the introduction of mandatory CAS by the Government in specified areas of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata since 2007, CAS is still at a preliminary stage as there are only 7.6 million CAS homes compared to total 120 million TV households which projects a huge untapped potential for digitalization. However, in the CAS notified areas, all the Multi System Operators and Cable operators have switched-over to the digital delivery and even in non CAS areas. Many MSOs are digitizing on their own. The entry of DTH players has given a further push towards the digitization of TV distribution. The year 2008 saw the entry of three major DTH players in the Indian market taking the total number of DTH platforms available to 6. One of them was able to corner 1 million subscribers in 200 days from just four southern States with a low subscription pricing mode. One of the reasons for the high penetration of DTH vis-?†-vis digital cable is the high adoption of DTH in rural areas. And this presents a huge market opportunity as well as an indication that digitalization in India will be rapid and the demand for technology and hardware will be huge.

As India transitions to the digital future, the digitalization programme of Prasar Bharati (the Broadcasting Corporation of India) which is the public broadcaster in the country, with All India Radio and Doordarshan as its two constituents, is of immense significance. One of the major objectives of the Prasar Bharati Corporation is to expand broadcasting facilities across the length and breadth of the country while keeping pace with the latest developments in broadcast technology. The All India Radio network comprises of 232 stations and 374 transmitters which provide radio coverage to 99.16 percent of the population and reach 91.82 percent areas of the country. Doordarshan the TV network of the Public Service Broadcaster, is one of the largest television networks in the world. For in-house programme production, there are 66 Studio centers equipped with state of the art equipment, functioning in various parts of the country. For terrestrial transmission, 1412 transmitters of varying power, installed throughout the length and breadth of the country, are in operation. These transmitters provide coverage to about 92.2 percent population and 80.7 per cent of the area of the country. Doordarshan is also providing free to air DTH service, signals of which can be received anywhere in the country except for a few pockets such as A&N islands which remains uncovered. This vast network is proposed to be digitalized by 2017 at an investment of Rs. 5603 crores by the Indian Government. The "Big Switch" in India is planned for 2017 from analog to digital and Companies have an opportunity to gear up for this digital revolution with appropriate infrastructure, business models, partnerships and technologies.

With the introduction of the IPTV policy, introduced by the Government of India last year, yet another digital platform has been provided in India and the IPTV revolution is all set to hit Indian households. IPTV will make interaction with TV a two-way dialogue and communication experience. Service providers as well as consumers are fast realizing the importance of shifting from a voice-centric model to an IP centric model in which, video and other content rich interactive services play a key role. IPTV in India is all set to unleash the potential of fundamentally transforming the experience of watching television by bringing in two-way interactivity, storage of content and greater control over the television experience. The other policy that is on the anvil is Head End in the Sky (HITS) and because of the acceleration it can bring to the spread of both digitalization and conditional access in India it is being eagerly being looked forward to.

Given the phenomenal growth of mobile telephony in India at an average additional of 8.18 million subscribers per month, the introduction of mobile TV another policy round the corner, is also likely to catch on like wildfire and offers limitless opportunities for development of customized content and software for the Indian market.

As digitalization is a compulsion, All India Radio has adopted Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) technology for digitalization of transmissions. DRM technology is a digital radio system for short-wave, medium-wave and long-wave frequencies. With the adoption of technology, All India Radio has been able to improve its sound quality to near-FM. This has further helped AIR to save the precious spectrum and to save power consumption substantially. They have further carried out trials with DRM+ technology, meant for FM band and the technical specifications by 2009. By adopting DRM technology, AIR has made a space for itself in the elite group of 60 Broadcasters, who have adopted the technology all over the world.

The influence of the digital revolution is thus bound to be profound. The expertise of India in the IT space is well recognized and acknowledged. It is this same expertise which has already started propelling the Indian Broadcast Industry towards the transition to a Digital Future. The Indian Government has recently liberalized the FDI Norms further. TRAI has recommended increase of foreign investment to 74 percent from the existing 49 percent in carriage services. Similarly, they have recommended increase of FDI from 26 to 49 percent in television content services and 49 percent in FM radio services. The matter is, at present, under examination of the Government. India has shown the resilience to display only a slowdown in the face of international meltdown. And the E&M Sector still continues to grow at 15 percent, a rate twice as fast as the average GDP growth rate (during 2008-09), i.e. 7.1 percent. The investment opportunities are thus bright and India is definitely the happening destination for the broadcasting industry as a whole.