• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Existing players expanding market, new ones awaiting nod

Madhumathi D.S.

Bangalore, July 27 Is the domestic queue for DTH (direct-to-home) broadcast services getting longer?

But the ISRO, which provides the domestic broadcast capacity on its satellites, has only two forthcoming domestic satellites between August 2007 and 2010. Applications of at least three DTH aspirants are in various stages with the Ministry of Information &Broadcasting.

Pending its own launch of Insat 4CR, the space agency recently borrowed Ku-band for the Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Blue Magic on Malaysia’s new satellite, Measat-3. Mr K. R. Sridhara Murthi, Executive Director of ISRO’s commercial arm Antrix Corporation, does not a see a crunch.

“We shouldn’t look at just the Indian capacity. Temporarily we may have to hire [Ku band] capacity and as it builds up, we may have to build [the Insat] capacity too,” he told Business Line.

If it has no space or if the player so prefers, the ISRO arranges transponder lease from among foreign satellites perched over Indian skies — Panamsat, Lockheed Martin’s LMI ABS and Singapore’s ST1, to name some.

The domestic DTH scene looks crowded, with seven players compared with just two in the US and Europe. “The existing players are expanding their market and raising the transponder numbers; and new players are going after the untapped market,” Mr Murthi said.“There will always be a solution. We will go on improving. Technology is also moving ahead, and there new options of compressing more channels per transponder, up to 20.”

Of the DTH players, DD Direct, Zee’s Dish TV and Tata Sky are already on air. Sun Direct has got its licence and transponder allotment on Insat 4B. In the wings are Blue Magic and the Mittals’ Bharti Telemedia, each for six to eight transponders. White goods major Videocon, which would be the seventh player, has planned its DTH foray with its Bharat Business Channels. Besides, the ISRO gets new inquiries “almost every day,” an official said. “Right now we can accommodate the existing players (on either domestic or leased capacity.) A crunch will come in two years and it may get difficult from the eighth player onwards when ISRO may have to say no.’

Of around 100 million homes that have cable and satellite TV, DTH is expected to lure at least 20-30 per cent of them, he said.

While home-made Insat 4CR is set an end-August or September launch, another DTH vehicle — Insat 4G (or Gsat-9) will not be up before 2009-10. DTH is the new cash cow for Antrix and will drive its transponder business for at least 5-10 years, Mr Murthi said. The capacity lease alone accounts for nearly half of Antrix’s Rs 650-crore revenue (for 2006-07) , he said. Each transponder earns roughly Rs 4 crore-4.6 crore (around $1 million) during a satellite’s 12-year lifespan.

Sunil Mittal promoted DTH service Bharti Telemedia is being accommodated on the forthcoming Insat-4CR, it is reliably learnt.

More Stories on : Radio/TV | Science & Technology

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
India-Scotland ODI broadcast

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line