Dish antennas surfaced in India in 1975 during the Satellite Instructional IV Experiment (SITE) The Asian Games held in New Delhi in 1982 revolutionised the Indian TV industry and for the first time a national satellite-based colour TV service was introduced.
As a result of this progress, low-power terrestrial transmitters were installed in several places much before the installation of terrestrial transmitters. Dish antennas were also installed in a number of places before the installation of terrestrial transmitters. Dish antennas reappeared on a larger scale during 1991 when CNN provided a ringside view of the Gulf War to millions of Indians.
This activity was followed quickly by entrants like Satellite Television Asian Region (STAR), BBC World Service, Zee TV, Joint American Indian (JAIN) TV, Asianet, Asia Television Network (ATN) and Sun TV. The three multi-transponders available 24 hours for the Indian sub-continent are Express 6, PAS-4 and ASIASAT.
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The major likely development in the cable TV industry is the formation of a comprehensive Cable TV Policy and the new Broadcast Bill by the Government. The other important developments likely are:
(a) The virtual control of cable operators by corporate networks in metros and big cities leading to a greater level of modernisation and upgradation of technology.
(b) Better delivery of services by the cable operators.
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(c) Greater introduction level of digital technology.
(d) Growing acceptance of pay TV services.
(e) Increasing demand for set-top converters and high channel reception capacity.
(f) Proliferation of cable TV network in small cities, semi urban and rural areas.
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(g) Selective demand of wireless Direct-to-Home (DTH) technology in metros and semi urban areas.
(h) Introduction of the proposed Broadcast Bill which would regulate the cable operators as well as the foreign satellite channels.
(i) The proposed Broadcast Bill would see entry of the DTH transmission, regulated entry of foreign private channels and a numerous restraints on cable operators.
Television has come to the forefront only in the past 15 years and more so in the past seven. There have been two ignition points: the first in the eighties when colour TV was introduced by state-owned broadcaster Doordarshan (DD) during the 1982 Asian Games.
It then proceeded to install transmitters nationwide rapidly for terrestrial broadcasting. In this period no private enterprise was allowed to set up TV stations or to transmit TV signals.
The second spark came in the early nineties with the broadcast of satellite TV by foreign programmers like CNN followed by Star TV and a little later by domestic channels such as Zee TV and Sun TV into Indian homes.
Prior to this, Indian viewers had to make do with DD’s chosen fare which was dull, non-commercial in nature, directed towards only education and socio-economic development. Entertainment programmes were few and far between.
And when the solitary few soaps like Hum Log (1984), and mythological drams: Ramayana (1987-88) and Mahabharata (1988-99) were televised, millions of viewers stayed glued to their sets.
When, urban Indians learnt that it was possible to watch the Gulf War on television, they rushed out and bought dishes for their homes.
Others turned entrepreneurs and started offering the signal to their neighbours by flinging cable over treetops and verandahs.
From the large metros satellite TV delivered via cable moved into smaller towns, spurring the purchase of TV sets and even the up gradation from black & white to colour TVs.
DD responded to this satellite TV invasion by launching an entertainment and commercially driven channel and introduced entertainment programming on its terrestrial network. This again filled the purchase of sets in the hinterlands where cable TV was not available.
The initial success of the channels had a snowball effect: more foreign programmers and Indian entrepreneurs flagged off their own versions. From two channels prior to 1991, Indian viewers were exposed to more than 50 channels by 1996.
Software producers emerged to cater to the programming boom almost overnight. Some talent came from the film industry, some from advertising and some from journalism.
More and more people set up networks until there was a time in 1995-96 when an estimated 60,000 cable operators existed in the country. Some of them had subscriber bases as low as 50 to as high as in the thousands.
Most of the networks could relay just 6 to 14 channels as higher channel relaying capacity required heavy investments, which cable operators were loathes making. American and European cable networks evinced interest, as well as large Indian business group, who set up sophisticated head ends capable of delivering more than 30 channels.
These multi-system operators (MSOs) started buying up local networks or franchising cable TV feeds to the smaller operators for a fee.
This phenomenon led to resistance from smaller cable operators who joined forces and started functioning as MSOs. The net outcome was that the number of cable operators in the country has fallen to 30,000.
The rash of players who rushed to set up satellite channels discovered that advertising revenue was not large enough to support them.
This led to a shakeout. At least half a dozen either folded up or aborted the high-flying plans they had drawn up, and started operating in a restricted manner. Some of them converted their channels into basic subscription services charging cable operators a carriage fee.
Foreign cable TV MSOs discovered that the cable TV market was too disorganised for them to operate in and at least three of them decided to postpone their plans and got out of the market.
The government started taxing cable operators in a bid to generate revenue. The rates varied in the 26 states that go to from India and ranged from 35% upwards. The authorities moved into regulated the business and a Cable TV Act was passed in 1995.
The apex court in the country, the Supreme Court, passed a judgement that the air waves are not the property of the Indian government and any Indian citizen wanting to use them should be allowed to do so.
The government reacted by making efforts to get some regulation in place by setting up committees to suggest what the broadcasting bill was drawn up in 1997 and introduced in parliament. But it was not passed into an Act.
State- owned telecaster Doordarshan and radiocasted All India Radio were brought under a holding company called the Prasar Bharati under an act that had been gathering dust for seven years, the Prasar Bharati Act, 1990.
The Act served to give autonomy to the broadcasters as their management was left to a supervisory board consisting of retired professionals and bureaucrats.
A committee headed by a senior Congress (I) politician Sharad Pawar and consisting of other politicians and industrialism was set up to review the contents of the Broadcasting Bill.
It held discussions with industry politicians, and consumers and a report was even drawn up. But the United Front government fell and since then the report and the Bill have been consigned to this dustbin.
But before that it issued a ban on the sale of KU-band dishes and on digital direct-to-home KU-band broadcasting which the Rupert Murdoch-owned News Television was threatening to start in India.
Sky, the Murdoch DTH venture has since been wallowing in quicksand and in recent times ha even shed a lot of employees. But News Corporation has been running a C-band DTH venture in the country which has around 20,000 subscribers.
In 1999, a BJP-led government has been threatening to one again allow DTH KU-band broadcasting and it has been talking of dismantling the Prasar Bharati and once again reverting Doordarshan’s and All India Radio’s control back in this government’s hands. Some things change only to remain this same.
Cable households are expected to increase at an average rate of 20% per annum over the next 5 years. By the year 2000, there are likely to be 30 million cable households in the country.
Satellite Channels:
As many as 62 satellites are skirting over Asia and more than 100 channels are beaming down programmes. Of the 100 about 40 channels can be viewed in India. With the proposed Broadcast Bill, the DTH digital transmission will get a foothold in the country However, owing to the high cost of Government license fees, transponders, decoders at the subscriber level; the quantum is likely to remain low for the next 2-3 years.
Cable & Satellite penetration (C) STAR plans to set the cost of DTH hardware between 12,000-15,000 and at Rs. 499 per month.
As per the latest National Readership Survey of 1995,35% of all urban homes have C & S television, 48% of A1/A2 Social Economic Class (SEC) households have C & S television and 67% of all A+ (with monthly household income of Rs. 10,000+) households have C & S television.
The current status is that the Department of Telecommunication (DOT) has put on hold all applications from dealers seeking licenses for distributing and marketing DTH TV hardware including Integrated Receiver Decoders (IRDs) and KU- band dishes.
Applications had been made by several dealers who have arrangements with potential DTH operators such as STAR TV for securing licenses which would enable them to display DTH equipment in showrooms at select outlets across the country.
This has been made mandatory by the Government through an executive order on December 19, 1996.
The licenses have been put on hold pending enactment of the proposed Broadcast Law. Informally it has been ascertained that there is a proposal to impose a one-time license fee of Rs. 5,000 per DTH subscriber and an annual fee of Rs. 20,000 for cable operators wanting to distribute DTH signals.
The information & Broadcasting Ministry has warned that persons subscribing to DTH services would be liable for prosecution under the Indian Telegraph Act 1885.
The ministry was against the recent advertising campaign launched by Star TV for its proposed DTH services called Indian Sky Broadcasting (ISkyB).
The Information & Broadcasting Ministry has instructed the Department of Telecommunications not to issue any license permitting persons to possess equipment capable of receiving direct-to-home digital services until a broadcast policy is in place.
Not that cable operators alone are to blame: because of the relatively low incomes, some subscribers do not cough up subscription fees on time and regularly thus leading the cable operators into a tight corner.
The cable operator is hard-pressed to allow many a subscriber to go scot-free without paying, courtesy competitive pressures from neighbouring cable TV operators.
The absence of addressable consumer set top boxes allowing him to switch off defaulting subscribers compounds his problem.
With nearly 24 million cable and satellite homes, that are about 150 million viewers, it is a large market which has attracted many a channel from overseas.
But the channels that attract eyeballs are those that offer dollops of local fare in local languages state- owned broadcaster Doordarshan, Zee TV, Sony Entertainment, Star Plus, ESPN, Star Sports, Sun TV, Raj TV, Endau TV, the local cable TV operator run pirated movie channel.
The English and foreign language channels are niche players struggling to stay on their feet. English language channels dubbed in local languages are faring much better.
Some of the English and foreign language services like Deutsche Welle TV, RTM, TV5, Saudi TV, are pretty irrelevant to Indian viewers but they are still being beamed down by hopeful telecasters.
The list of channels which are watched can be whittled down to about 50. Most of these are transmitted via satellite; the only terrestrial broadcaster operating is the state-owned broadcaster DD, which has a bouquet of 19 channels using both modes of delivery.
With ad revenues slowing down, programmers are attempting to generate revenues by charging cable operators carriage fees.
But that has not worked successfully excepting in the case of cinema and sports programming. Niche channels such as Discovery, National Geographic, and Animal Planet are bleeding and will continue to do so for quite some time.
They are also migrating towards digital transmissions which enable them to eke out savings in transponders rentals and deliver better quality of sound and picture. Almost 20-30 channels are broadcasting in digital mode.
Many more are expected in the near future with existing language players launching second channels and introducing channels in other languages like Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Telugu, and Bengali. In fact, it is in regional language niche channels were the action is slated to hot up even further in the coming year.
However, there is hope on the horizon. Over the past year and a half there has been a loosening of restrictions up linking has been opened up to private players, private earth station ownership has also been permitted as has Internet delivery by cable operators.
DTH is also likely to be opened up soon with the first license likely to go to the platform backed by state-owned broadcaster DD.