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Broadcast Equipment: Going Digital

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VoicenData Bureau
New Update

The broadcast equipment market during the year 2000-2001, stood at around Rs

5,500 crore. The market during 1999-2000, was estimated to be of the order of Rs

4,800 crore, as compared to the production of Rs 4,400 crore in 1998-99.

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The market grew due to the massive investment plans of all major

broadcasters, including DD and AIR, to expand their network by going digital,

and starting various value-added services. DD and AIR, in order to compete with

the new channels, were forced to start the process of upgrading their equipment,

which opened new opportunities for vendors. The need for more programs on

account of a 24-hour broadcast by most of the private operators, was the main

driver for the growth in demand. Due to proliferation of news channels, the

demand for newsroom automation equipment has also grown sharply. The European,

Japanese and US companies, for e.g. Barconet, Sony, JVC, Panasonic, Tandberg,

Tektronix, Scientific Atlanta and others, are the major suppliers of broadcast

equipment in India. Most of these companies have their presence in India through

some business partners or distributors.

On the policy front, there was tremendous enthusiasm about the decision of

the government to allow DTH services in Ku-band. The Communication Convergence

Bill, which is waiting to be introduced in the parliament soon, holds a lot of

promise for the broadcast industry. The stakes are high, as there are a large

number of viewers, with sixty million TVs and thirty million cable homes. The

International Broadcast Engineering Society Exhibition and Conference held in

Delhi last fiscal, was a clear indication of the tremendous interest that the

Indian broadcasting market has generated for the equipment manufactures,

broadcasters and others.

Broadcast

Statistics
  • 69 million TVs
  •  200 million households
  •  Cable TV: 30 million (grew from 21 million in 1998 to 25

    million in 1999)
  •  Total Indian market for CATV equipment is expected to be

    nearly $215 million, (Approximately $60 million being imported from

    the US)
  •  Average Expected Growth Rate: An average of 15 percent each

    year for the next few years
  •  Imports: Expected to grow at 25 percent, as CATV operators

    upgrade to higher quality, imported CATV equipment
  •  Sixty-four satellites skirt over Asia and more than 120

    channels are beaming programs
  •  Sixty of the 120 channels can be viewed in India
  •  DD reaches out to 88 percent of the population
  •  This is likely to increase with the introduction of DTH
  •  Indian television channels employ 2,50,000 people. Another

    50,000 additional jobs could be created in the next 3-5 years
  •  TV’s share of adspend is about Rs 2,000 crore
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The manufacture of high-end broadcast equipment in India is negligible at

present. A few companies do manufacture on their own or through joint ventures

by some foreign companies. Bharat Electronics Limited is a major player in the

radio/TV transmission equipment market in India, followed by C-DAC and Gujarat

Communication and Electronics Limited. Manufacturing in the CATV equipment

segment is mostly dominated by indigenous manufacturers, a highly disorganized

segment. Equipment mainly includes headends, amplifiers, splitters, etc. The

grey market also caters substantially to the CATV equipment. This segment is

very cost-sensitive and the CATV operators are not ready to shell out more for

better quality equipment from reputed manufacturers.

Scientific Atlanta, Barconet and Motorola GI are major suppliers of CATV

equipment. The cable industry faces an imminent threat from the launch of DTH

services, though the operator’s association denies any immediate impact on

their business. With broadband network coming up with the creation of bandwidth

capacity, there is also a talk of television channels being streamed on the

Internet. Already, streaming portals like Numtv.com and Sharkstream.com are in

place. Transponder space is also an area where satellite companies have an

opportunity in the light of increasing number of channels. The government has

allotted frequency to twenty-five top bidders for FM stations. But due to some

controversy surrounding the setting up of a transmission tower, no private

channel could start their operation during the last fiscal.

Most of the equipment manufacturers are more than satisfied with the fast

pace of reforms on the broadcast front and are hopeful of the upcoming

Communication Convergence Bill in the parliament. The permission to allow

uplinking from India and the decision to permit DTH services in Ku-band have

sent the right signals to the industry. Despite this, very few channels like Sun

and Eenadu have actually set up earth stations to uplink their channels.

Restriction on the foreign company’s equity participation is an important

reason for this. These broadcasters are currently uplinking three to four

channels, which is cost-prohibitive. In Singapore, one uplinking center is

capable of playing 16-16 channels.

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Going Digital is the Key

The number of television channels has increased to about sixty. A large

number of FM radio stations are going to start services soon. Most of the

channels have started realizing the importance of going digital. Digital Video

Broadcasting (DVB) and Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) are going to chart the

future of Indian broadcasting in the years to come. The benefits of going

digital are many. It means a lower transponder rental for the broadcasters, with

high quality picture and sound. The spectrum is utilized efficiently, besides

giving low transmission cost per program. More channels can be delivered using

the same infrastructure. More value-added services can be delivered, besides

more programming choices on a digital network. With the standardization of

MPEG-2 for compressed video/audio and European DVB, the stage is set for this

transition.

Future Prospect

Intensifying of competition on the broadcasting front has resulted in new,

emerging opportunities for everybody–the broadcaster, equipment manufacturers,

production houses and above all, the subscriber. This has also resulted in bad

blood between broadcasters and cable operators, which is an ominous sign. The

battle is on for the ground. The ongoing tussle between Star and SitiCable is an

expression of that. Siti is said to be blocking Star’s channels on their

network. Hathway, in which Star has a stake, does not want to air TV Today’s

Aaj Tak channel as Star News competes with it. Cable operators are also peeved

at arbitrary pay channel costs. It is these irritants which need to be overcome.

One only hope that the independent regulator, which the new Communication

Convergence Bill envisages, will take care of this issue.

Indian broadcasting is in for a major transformation in light of the global

phenomenon of convergence of telecommunication, computing and audio/video

broadcasting. This convergence has been possible due to technological

developments in the field of digital signal processing, compression techniques,

switching, etc. We are passing through a phase of transition from the

predominant analog to digital transmission both in audio and video space. The

way information, communication and entertainment services will be delivered

through the audio-visual media, in India, in the coming years, is going to make

a departure from the present, which is predominantly one way, to the point of

interactivity.

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