exset_exset 09/05/2014 18:44 Page 1
any people will know about
the Digital Divide, the gap
between those who have the
ability, or economic wherewithal, to
take advantage of the information age
via appropriate technology and those
that don’t. Increasingly across the
developed world we’re reliant upon
the Internet for many things: within a
very short space of time we’ve built
access to that information and those
services into our daily lives.
But Internet or, more broadly,
information access – a vital tool in
M
Andrew Pons, director of
marketing, Exset,
explains how his
company’s business and
technology model makes
pay-TV self-financing
without depending
exclusively on subscriber
fees for revenue.
service creation, facilitating digital television
platforms that can be monetised where
previously virtually impossible. This allows
populations to benefit from new information
and entertainment services while operators
and governments, when partnering with
Exset, monetise digital switchover and assist
in bringing about social transformation.
DMS
Exset’s DMS is a unique business and
technology model that makes TV selffinancing in challenging markets without
depending exclusively on subscriber fees for
Monetising digital switchover
in emerging markets
education, health and democracy, to name
but a few – is far from equal around the
world. Access to entertainment services too
is limited by network reach and terminal
equipment availability. If we look at
smartphone penetration, a default tool for
Internet access, then the differences expose
the issue: three per cent adult ownership in
Pakistan in 2013, according to Pew Research
Center, while the US is at 55 per cent.
At the same time, according to a report
from Dataxis Intelligence, television
penetration across one of the key emerging
regions of the world – Africa – is set to reach
50 per cent by 2015, or 123 million television
households. A report from Digital TV adds
that by 2017 there will be 50m TV
households in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Meanwhile across Asia digital terrestrial TV
networks (DVB-T2) are being deployed while
cable networks aim for digital trans