With a clear set of guidelines now emerging from the Broadcast Regulator, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), we clear the picture for you.
What are the upgrade timelines?
The analog signals will switch off in the metro cities on the midnight of 30st June 2012. There will be two more phases of rollout, which will cover the entire country by 31st December 2012.
But what does this mean for the consumer?
Quite a lot actually - some things are good and one slightly bad!
First off, the number of channels that
you get increases massively. On the current analog system, technically
about 200 channels can be broadcast. However, in the real world scenario
keeping issues like quality of wiring, signal drops due to distance
etc., usually you get 90 – 100 channels that are watchable. On a digital
network, the operator will be able to offer anywhere between 400
channels to 700 channels.
Secondly, the picture quality will see a
huge improvement. Gone will be the days when fuzzy picture with all
sorts of vertical and horizontal disturbance running across the screen
will be tolerated. It is still too early to say if it will be as good as
the quality DTH offers, but on a technical basis, that should ideally
be the case. Here also, the quality of hardware implemented will have
some bearing.
Third is the ability to tailor the
channel package more to your needs. All channels will be available on an
ala-carte basis, meaning you can pick up channels individually as well.
Also, unlike the current scenario with cable television, you will have
the choice of picking channels bouquets – something that DTH does.
Fourth and very critically, cable
operators will be able to offer High Definition channels to subscribers,
something they couldn’t do at the moment, unless you were using
Hathway’s Digital service, for example. This will help them target the
“premium segment” customers, which was the advantage DTH had till now.
The caveat here is – you will need to
buy a set top box from your cable service provider to continue using the
service. This will cost anywhere between Rs 700 and Rs 2000, and will
be offered with the option of complete up-front payment or part payment
and part EMIs. Without this box, you will not be able to watch
television, not even free to air channels (FTA). This could have an
impact on the number of people who may actually upgrade their cable
television connection, or simply shift to a DTH service, since both will
incur a relatively similar hardware.
“Digitization of cable network will
hugely benefit the entire ecosystem consisting of the government,
broadcasters and consumers. For consumers, this translates into wider
choice of TV channels, better quality of transmission, increased value
added services and paying for what they view. For the government,
greater customer declaration will lead to better tax compliance and tax
revenues. Lastly, broadcasters will enjoy a reduced dependence on
advertising revenues with subscription based services as well as a
lowering of carriage fees”, says Shashi Arora, CEO - DTH & Media, Bharti Airtel.
TRAI recommendation: To begin
with TRAI has mandated that all Multi Service Operators (MSOs) carry a
minimum of 200 channels from the beginning. This number has to be bumped
up to 500 channels by 2013. Also, subscribers will have to be offered
100 free-to-air channels as a basic pack – Basic Service Tier, if they
wish to subscribe to that, at a minimum of Rs 100, carrying all 18
Doordarshan channels and five channels of each genre - news, sports,
infotainment, music, lifestyle, movies and general entertainment. Also,
TRAI states that a set top box should cost Rs 1500, with the customer
paying Rs 850 up front, and the rest in installments. There will be a
1-year warranty on the hardware.
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