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Digital Summit debates on future of Cable, DTH and IPTV

Indiantelevision.com Team

(1 October 2008 9:30 pm)

NEW DELHI: A lot of action is happening in the cable and the direct-to-home (DTH) markets. More number of channels, more DTH players, more MSOs, and the recent entry of IPTV. The fight to tap more subscribers is getting fiercer every day. The DTH market is ailing because of low- (average revenure per user) ARPU; cable broadcasting is facing a threat from new players; while IPTV is still at its nascent state.

Speakers on the different panels at the India Digital Network Summit 2008 were presenting their views on digitization, DTH, Cable, and IPTV in India.

Present in different sessions were Digicable CEO JS Kohli, DEN CEO Anuj Gandhi, Conax Access Systems CEO Tryggve Arveschoug, Ortel Communications CEO BP Rath, Dish TV director Amitabh Kumar, Irdeto country manager - India head - South Asia Sanjiv Kainth, NDS Asia-Pacific SVP Sue Taylor, Seagate Technology country manager India and SAARC Rajesh Khurana, Tata Sky CEO Vikram Kaushik and Time Broadband Services CEO and co-founder Sujata Dev expressing there thoughts about the industry and the sustainability of in quickly changing Indian scenario.

DEN's Gandhi emphasized that the Cable market is big enough to sustain more players and it is a "myth" that only few players can get return on investment (ROI), "Cable is a sustainable model and there is no problem of ROI," said Gandhi.

He added that Cable has an edge over DTH because of regional and local stronghold. Gandhi said, "With the number of new channels popping in and going by the applications pending with the I&B ministry, soon there will be more then 400 channels, which a national DTH player can not offer, only cable operators will be able to distribute those channel in specific regions.

Kohli said, "At present carriage fee is sustaining MSOs world over, but it is just a matter of time that offering like video-on-demand (VoD), Pay-Per-View (PPV), interactive and VAS will open new revenue streams."

He accepted that the whole industry is to be blamed for skepticism in public about these offerings. "We have been talking about these services but have failed to implement it."

He also emphasized on the investment on beck-end (headends) and front ends (set-top-boxes) for better service.

Arveschoug however was concerned over the capacity, "The Indian market is growing fantastically, but the problem lies in limited satellite capacity. There may be some consolidation in near future."

Meanwhile, Rath pointed out that they are focusing on building the base and provide technology, be it cable, analog, digital or voice over internet protocol (VoIP).

The panel was in consensus that analog cable will not phase any threat from digital and pay-TV as it has a strong localized hold.

However, Tata Sky's Kaushik was adamant that DTH is a better service then Cable and not necessarily a high-cost service. He also suggested that new revenue streams have to be found to increase profitability. He advised business to consumer products services like VAS, PPV and payment gateways. For business to business profitability Kaushik mentioned carriage fee, brand placement and advertising opportunities.

The panel was in accordance that for better representation, brand building.

Kaushik also gave some critical suggestions to regulators for the betterment of DTH industry. He said, "The role of regulator should change from regulating to facilitating so that the digital industry can grow."

Dish TV's Kumar said that competition is killing the companies. He said that DTH is the industry which is seeing 40 per cent growth per year and this will remain for atleast two years more. Kumar cited example of free DTH model in UK. He said model like Freesat (UK) may also enter in India. He also mentioned that by the end of next year Dish TV will be operating under profit.

Taylor on the other hand was emphasizing more on the technology part and how digital video recorder (DVR) had changed the scenario in the West. She was also sceptical if there will be seven DTH players operating five years down the line. She also said that subscriber wants service at the end of the day.

Kainth meanwhile mentioned that it is just matter of time and DTH industry will grow. He cited example of UK and US markets. "The ingredients are right, we just need to tweek here and there," Kainth quipped. But he was also not sure if there is place for coexistence of seven players. He said, "In three years, the shake up will start and seven players in fray is a situation which is highly unlikely."

Khurana from Seagate Technology however said that seven players may co-exist. "The more the merrier, we will support all of them with our technology," he commented.

Wile for IPTV, TBSL's Dev emphasised on the need to tweak the present IPTV regulation, "Though the government of India has given its clearance to policy of IPTV there are few issues like pricing of channels, availability of content especially copyright issues needs second round of brainstorming."

"IPTV in India will proliferate mainly via three channels that is through set top boxes in case of television sets, broadband and mobile handsets. The marketing is evolving and there is a need to invest in the market. Nevertheless, even in case of IPTV content will remain as the king, because eventually viewers will watch the channels on the basis of content shown to them", added Dev.