MUMBAI: The countdown to the ninth edition (and second under its current
nomenclature) of the annual India Digital Operators Summit (IDOS) has begun with the two-day event kicking off tomorrow at The Leela in Goa.

A joint initiative of the Indiantelevision.com Group and Media Partners Asia, the summit will discuss and debate the hot-button topic of the digital television opportunity in India, what with the implementation of Phase II of digitisation nearing completion in three major metros - Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai and in another 38 cities all over India.

IDOS 2013, themed 'Harvesting the fruits of digitisation' will highlight pertinent issues faced by industry and offer valuable insights into how other key Asian markets have succeeded in their digital transition.

Participants include leaders from regulatory, cable distribution, DTH, broadcast, TV distribution and technology segments as also content providers and investors in the broadcasting and pay TV industries.

Flagging off the summit will be Indiantelevision.com Group founder, CEO and Editor-in-Chief Anil Wanvari, who will share the vision behind the event. Following suit will be Media Partners Asia executive director Vivek Couto with a presentation on India's digital TV ecosystem and lessons learnt from other global markets.

Day one's inaugural session titled 'Opening Keynotes and In Conversation'
will discuss how digitisation is no longer a goal but the means to a critical end, where national economic benefit, advanced infrastructure and content democratisation converge to create a win-win for all. The panelists include TRAI principal advisor N Parameswaran, DEN Networks chairman & MD Sameer Manchanda, Tata Sky CEO Harit Nagpal and Star India president & general counsel Deepak Jacob. They will share their views on the progress so far in Phase II of digitisation. The session will be moderated by Couto and Wanvari.
    
The second session, 'Cable 2.0 - Profits across the pipe' will see leaders across the cable and distribution industry share insights into the key challenges faced by industry as it moves into billing, tiering and rolling out of new services. The session will be moderated by NDTV head-affiliate sales & network distribution Rahul Sood while the panellists include Hathway Cable and Datacom MD & CEO Jagdish Kumar, Den Network CEO S N Sharma, HSBC Securities lead analyst - telecom & media Rajiv Sharma, Media Pro COO Gurjeev Singh Kapoor, Digicable MD & CEO Jagjit Singh Kohli, SITI Cable Network ED & CEO VD Wadhwa and Indiacast Group COO Gaurav Gandhi.

Next up, 'DTH - Driving the value equation', will be moderated by Couto with panelists including Dish TV India's Gaurav Goel, Videocon D2H CEO Anil Khera, Kotak Securities senior analyst Amit Kumar and Macquarie Capital Sr
VP Ausang Shukla. The session will seek to answer the question: What are the key catalysts for the next phase of DTH's value creation story?

Titled 'The business of specialised and premium channels' and powered by BBC World News, the fourth session will study the proliferation of niche channel launches. To be moderated by BBC Global News COO - Indian Operations Preet Dhupar, the participants include Viacom18 SVP & GM - English Entertainment Ferzad Palia, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific SVP and GM -South Asia Rahul Johri, FoodFood promoter & director Sanjeev Kapoor, Disney UTV Media Networks MD MK Anand and HBO India MD Monica Tata.

This will be followed by a session on 'HD as a mass driver for distribution platforms' chaired by Castle Media director Vynsley Fernandes along with Videocon D2H deputy CEO Rohit Jain, Times Television Network CEO - English Entertainment Channels Ajay Trigunayat, Dolby Laboratories India country manager Pankaj Kedia and Chrome Data Analytics & Media founder & MD Pankaj Krishna.

The next session, 'Hidden gems riding the digital wave' will look at how on the back of digitisation, distribution majors (MSOs and DTH) hold the promise to create ample value. The panelists include What's-On CEO Atul Phadnis, Amagi Media Labs co-founder Srinivasan K A and Cisco Sr. business development manager - APAC Fabien Gauthier with Castle Media director Vynsley Fernandes as moderator.

Day one's closing session, 'New media monetisation' will discuss how Hindi GECs and youth channels are increasingly making content available across newer media platforms. Chaired by Wanvari, the discussion will see participation from Zenga TV CTO & MD Shabir Momin, IBM India ED & partner Raman Kalra and Exset global head - sales and marketing Rahul Nehra.
    
Day two will start with a presentation on 'Sports & Pay-TV - The Path to Value Creation' by Couto followed by a Q&A session. The Last mile operator community will be represented by a presentation by Maharashtra Cable Operators Federation head Arvind Prabhu, who will talk about their role in a digitised ecosystem.

The closing session 'Driving digitisation deeper' will be moderated by Wanvari and Couto and will analyse how action is going to shift next to India's heartland which houses nearly 70-80 million TV homes among other key issues. The panellists include DEN Networks CEO S N Sharma, Hathway Cable and Datacom MD & CEO Jagdish Kumar, TRAI principal advisor N Parameswaran, Indian Broadcasting Foundation secretary general Shailesh Shah, Chrome Data Analytics & Media founder and MD Pankaj Krishna, Founder & MD, Magnaquest CMO Ramakrishna Mashetty and HSBC Securities lead analyst - telecom & media Rajiv Sharma.

"As organizers of IDOS, our aim is to provide unity and strategic vision to drive forward digitalization and bring new value, profit and sustainable growth across the television ecosystem," read a joint statement by Indiantelevision.com group founder Anil Wanvari executive director and cofounder Media Partners Asia Vivek Couto.

"The next year is critical as the cable industry steps up on its B2C execution with billing, tiering and subscriber management," added VivekCouto."IDOS will explore the issue of co-operation with last mile local cable partners to create a valuable ecosystem for the consumer; one in which differentiated content, customer service and value added offerings are at the highest level. That will be worth paying more for and will drive ARPUs higher."

"It's an important evolution," said Wanvari, "as it helps scale and grow the cable industry and enables broadcasters and content providers gain the ROI they so desperately need to invest. It also eases the burden on the DTH sector and provides effective competition at the ground and consumer level And the entire evolution gives the regulators to mull over deregulating pricing."

*IDOS 2013 is powered by Star India, while summit partners include Discovery Channel, Dolby, CISCO, Hathway Cable and Datacom, SES, and Videocon d2h. The associate partners are BBC World News, Exset, Indiacast and Media Pro. 24 Frames is the webcast partner.