Holland-based broadcast tech firm seeks to partner UP

Holland-based broadcast technology and solutions company Exset is seeking to partner the Uttar Pradesh government for digitisation in the state. The Amsterdam-headquartered company will soon issue a white paper on digitisation road map in UP.

In the backdrop of full broadcast digitisation mandate in India by 2014, the white paper would make suggestions for composite digitisation in UP encompassing even the remotest areas and using the platform for employment generation and dissemination of education and information.

“We will seek an appointment with the UP chief minister or senior state government representatives for presenting the white paper later this month,” Exset global head (sales and marketing) Rahul Nehra told Business Standard.

UP, which is estimated to have 20 million direct-to-home (DTH) and cable TV connections, he said, was a large market for the company.

“Digitisation can provide a host of services, including development of local cable TV content, advertising, broadcast of public health and education messages etc,” he noted.

With offices in the UK, Estonia and New Delhi, Exset provides software solutions to television industry. It focuses in emerging markets where localisation, social and economic factors need a different approach from traditional technology suppliers.

It is a technology partner for conditional access system (CAS)/middleware of one of the largest DTH players in the world — Tricolour of Russia, which has about 10 million subscribers.

“In India, we will work closely with the state cable associations and the state governments forging alliances and PPPs (public private partnerships),” he added.

Exset will make India investments in three forms, including infrastructure, leasing of set-top boxes and developing applications viz. in heath, education, agriculture and gaming segments.

“The investment in infrastructure could be around Rs 100 crore, while in applications, it could be a little more. For leasing of set-top boxes, we will have to tie up with financial institutions,” Nehra informed.