Dth Service Plagued By Problems: Study

According to the study, direct-to-home will need state-of-the-art technology to deliver clear, marketable signals to the consumer. Secondly, programming must be of sufficient quality to convince the subscribers of additional subscription fees and, lastly, an efficient subscription management system was needed.

All these conditions are problematic in India, the study, undertaken by Hong Kong-based AIM Asia Ltd in association with Delhi-based First Capital India, states. Still, direct-to-home television is being viewed as an opportunity to bypass the undisciplined, poorly-equipped and uncooperative cable operators.

Dwelling on the problems, the study, divided into five sections and covering the whole gamut of cable and satellite (C&S) television industry in India says that rains are one of the biggest problems for direct-to-home (DTH) services.

 

Heavy rains during monsoon season often cause `rain fade', a disruption of satellite signals, the surveyors have found out.

None of the KU-band transponders currently available in India are of sufficient strength to prevent rain-fade.

Though US-based PanAm Sat Corporation, operating the PAS series of satellites, is of the opinion that the rain problem can be overcome with weather reports, the study says that this belief is based on the presumption that higher level of information is available than actually exists.

More importantly, it is felt the increasing crowding of the Asian skies, with as many as 50 satellites in the air by the end of 1996, presages increasing difficulties with interference.

Interestingly, Rupert Murdoch-controlled Star TV, Zee TV-promoter Subhash Chandra, US-based defence and communications major, Loral, Thailand-based Shinewatra group and even Doordarshan in collaboration with Malaysia's Measat are said to be in the race to bring the first direct-to-home service to India.

According to the AIM-First Capital study, programming can pause serious problems: a direct-to-home (DTH) subscriber will be looking for niche and quality programming which is not available through an average cable network.

With most of the direct-to-home plans originating from satellite operators (like Shinewatra and Loral) rather than programmers, it is unclear which plans can be expected to succeed until agreements between programmers and operators are reached, the study states.

However, the most difficult problem foreseen by experts for direct-to-home players is the pricing factor.

While direct-to-home equipment (DTH ) for a subscriber is likely to cost between $ 450-650, cable operators in India find it difficult to collect subscription fee of approximately $ 5 per month for ordinary cable television services, the study on cable and satellite television scene in the country said.

Subscriber management systems are not a feature of the Indian cable industry, the study observes.

However, not everything is so bleak.

There appears to be widespread confidence within the satellite industry for direct-to-homeservice.

The goal is to reach the rural rich and over time existing cable operators, the survey's chapter on direct-to-home (DTH) concludes.

Moreover, once such a service becomes a status symbol, a majority of the Indian middle class would subscribe to it.