The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has started an exercise to reexamine tariffs in the notified areas for conditional access system (CAS) in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. Indeed, from the consultation paper issued by TRAI, the exercise could cover a wider spectrum to include non-CAS analogue cable as well as DTH tariffs, and indeed also the wholesale prices at which broadcasters supply into these markets, and the retail prices charged by operators. The consultation paper invites comments on all these aspects.

A positive outcome from this TRAI exercise could be renewed vigor in the digital cable space, and perhaps TRAI could build in tariff incentives that encourage analog cable services to go digital as well. Digital cable needs to grow hand in hand with DTH, especially given the more interactive nature of digital cable. Consumers, for example, can order movies from a much larger library and start these at any time of their choice, which is not possible with DTH. However, at this point DTH is seeing explosive growth while cable continues to grow at a much lower growth rate of around 10 percent per annum.

In parallel TRAI has also invited comments on headend in the sky (HITS) tariffs and it will be welcome if the tariffs are also tied into an overall framework along with cable and DTH wholesale and retail tariffs. Comments for both the CAS and HITS tariff consultation papers are already coming in and it will be interesting to see how the tariff structure saga unfolds going forward.

Unfortunately, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has received a setback with its indigenously developed cryogenic engine malfunctioning and causing a launch failure of the GSAT-4 satellite. The payload of the satellite appears to have been primarily related to navigation of civil and military aircraft and the failure appears to have no direct impact on satellite broadcasting.

The NAB Show was held from April 10-15, 2010 at Las Vegas, and it was attended by leading media, entertainment and communications professionals who share a passion for the next generation of video and audio content across multiple platforms from television, radios, and computers to phones, the big screen, and beyond. 3D equipment and technologies were a major attraction at the show.