B Y AMITAB H KUMAR Dir ec t o r , Co r p o r at e , Z ee Net wo r k

I n dia ’ s c ab l e an d satel l ite ( C & S ) m ark ets hav e ex hib ited a sp ec tac ul ar traj ec tory over the past five years with six pay-DTH ( direct-to-home ) operators — each growing exponentially and reaching a cumulative estimate of 80 million gross subscribers . Their operations straddled satellites from orbital location of 74�E to 108�E and needed the entire spectrum amounting to 24 transponders or more at each location . A total of more than 100 x 36 transponders were in use by these operators , making it the largest agglomerated system of DTH broadcasting .

At the same time , the Indian government mandated that cable digitisation , which entered its last phase this year , be completed by this Dec 31 . This means that the v ery l ast an d rem ote househol d in the hinterlands of India must be reached . This is where the fibre-based connectivity , which was the backbone of cable digitisation in cities , could no longer work . Systems such as Headend-in-the-Skies ( HITS ) or other satellite-based solutions to reach remote headends were clearly seen as needed .

India has always been a market with surprising shifts in trends , which tend to be unique and result in large consumer shifts reminiscent of rapids in a fast-moving stream . While there are more than 890 channels licensed in the country , the latest trends involve the addition of HD channels . All major channels , including regional ones , are now turning HD , thus requiring resources such as satellite capacity .

With alarm bells ringing on the burgeoning infrastructure required and its costs , the regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ( TRAI ) rightly stepped on the gas on infrastructure sharing in early 2016 . After a number of consultations , the last of which closed on Nov 4 this year , the stage is now set for a major change in the

licensing norms , which previously mandated each operator to have its own satellite platform before a licence could be granted .

The sharing of infrastructure such as satellite platforms for DTH or HITS will essentially allow one operator to share its platform with other operators , carrying c om m on c han n el s un der a sim ul c ry p t system ( two or more encryptions ), while each platform could retain its identity by its own set of unique channels on non-shared transponders .

While such an approach would appear simple and logical , there is unprecedented technical wi�ardry being built in , which will be the first in the world for such multioperator teleports . This is based on the use of frontline technologies already developed for the Indian market under “ Project Liberty ” — which literally means liberty from the monopoly of any of the vendors — encryption , chipset , middleware , set-top box ( STB ) manufacturers , and so on .

The technology revolves around the use of multiple conditional access systems ( CAS ) being present in the STB at the same time ( or alternatively downloadable CAS or DCAS ), separation of key-ladders from the STB or encryption vendors and cardless STBs with memory pairing . Many pay-TV platforms in the past have had the ignominy of having their encryption compromised , resulting in costly replacements or upgrades involving millions of customers .

In a separate development , a new CAS system is being developed ( called iCAS ), which may initially find deployment in public DTH platforms such as DD-Direct ( 40 million customers ) and later be available for infrastructure sharing .

It is also logical for DTH platforms that power the multiple dwelling units ( MDUs ) in large housing complexes to extend to nearly all buildings or the entire township and play a role in digitisation . This is one area that is being watched closely in the industry as the old system of multiple local cable operators ( LCOs ) fighting for territory gives way to customers exercising choice not only on the op erator b ut al so on the c han n el s they subscribe to .

Multi-operator teleports make this much easier to implement . When coupled with two-way Internet that connected communities provide , the connotation of multi-operator DTH or multiple-system operator ( MSO ) systems , streamed and on-demand services , connected and mobile

devices provide the foundations of smart cities , which are one of the priorities of the Indian government .

The consolidation and mode of operations that infrastructure sharing offer will be unprecedented in scale , ushering in what some in the industry call as virtual DTH operators or virtual MSOs who have no infrastructure . That is , they only base their services on existing shared infrastructure , but model their services on the strength of distribution , marketing or services . In fact , the market is already hungry for operators who do not merely install a dish or provide a cable STB but build a smart home , integrate devices in the home and do what today ’ s operators would not .

TRAI is also in the process of changing the entire way services are priced for customers . Customers can p ic k eac h serv ic e in div idual l y an d n either broadcasters nor platform operators ( DTH or MSOs ) can form bouquets ( with a discount of more than 15 % on channels ), which might have induced customers to go for more channels than they needed .

Clearly new ways of pricing and marketing are needed , making this exercise a challenge even for the most savvy marketers . This , coupled with a new breed of operators who do not need infrastructure , is set to make the changes in the biggest pay-TV market of the world more spectacular than ever before in history .