IP: inevitable, integral & invaluable
Smart home DVRs prepare for big time in India
BY AMITABH KUMAR
A
s the battle for 130
million subscribers in
India’s mandatory cable
digitisation programme
(called DAS) phases III and IV
inches closer to the finishing line, direct-to-home
(DTH) and multiple system operators (MSOs)
are locked in a grim battle to win audiences.
India’s pay-TV market has shot into the
limelight in the past five years, with DTH leading
a broadside assault on traditional analogue TV
homes. The six DTH operators, along with the
free-to-air DD-Direct service, are estimated to
have garnered nearly 80 million customers.
Armed with technologies such as DOCSIS
3, and leveraging their inherent advantage
of being able to provide 50-100Mbps of
broadband with unlimited usage at prices
as low as US$15 per month, MSOs are now
striking back. On the cable front, services such
as Headend-In-the-Sky (HITS) have been
launched to broadcast all cable channels on a
single stream, simplifying small cable headends
to a handful of QAM converters, to reach the
smallest of population clusters.
This has changed the rules of the game.
Streaming websites such as Hotstar and
DittoTV, which were previously unaffordable,
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are suddenly very affordable. Many of these
(such as Hotstar) are free, albeit with ads.
Adding to this was the sharp rise in the
installed base of large-screen LED TVs, of
which more than 20 million were sold in the
past two years alone.
Major MSOs are suddenly finding
themselves looking at a gaping hole in their
offerings — they were offering unlimited
Wi-Fi but no STBs or devices, which could
effectively leverage the streaming services
to convert tens of millions of TVs to smart
connected TVs. Most of them also lacked
an effective VoD service, let alone an OTT
choice. MSOs realised that the key to winning
back some of the lost ground in major cities
(Phase I and II of DAS) with nearly 100 million
customers at stake, and the upcoming battle
in Phase III and IV, lies in turning themselves
into a Comcast or a Verizon, with voice, VoD,
linear and streaming services thrown in.
The battle for high ARPU customers who
subscribe to HD and streaming services, and
who need an effective home device, has
begun. Industry bigwigs are now working
overtime to bring in a TiVO and Roku-like
environment to India, in order to draw
in Internet content, make TVs smart and
offer powerful DVR (digital video recorder)
features.
Not surprisingly, companies offering DVRs
and OTT with media centre capabilities are
fighting to be the first in India to unveil these
devices. India’s recent relaxation of 100%
foreign direct investment in MSO, cable TV,
broadcasting and DTH businesses means that
companies can reach markets faster, without
wasting time on courting a local operator.
As a market, India could not be more ready.
The past two years have seen more HD sports
channels added than in the past decade, and
yet it is VoD that presents the need for high-
value properties.
India has no fewer than a dozen conditional
access systems among DTH and cable.
Watermarking of content for content security
is still in its infancy and piracy is still rampant.
Committed customer contracts are a rarity.
And yet, the doyens of the media industry are
set to take all these in t heir stride as they look
at growth and revenues ripe for the taking.
As a virgin ground of over 200 million
customers already primed and expectant with
the initial success of DTH and digital cable,
India now beats every other APAC market
hands-down in growth prospects of media
consumer devices.
Amitabh Kumar is Director, Corporate at Zee
Network.
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