Cable TV forms the backbone of the distribution industry. It is well-penetrated and boasts of almost 74 million subscribers. The industry comprises MSOs and LCOs. There are thousands of LCOs spread across the country and a number of MSOs with a few larger ones. The cable industry is still dominated by analogue distribution with pockets of digitization which have not been a success.

A look back

In India, the seeds of the cable TV wave were sown when CNN broadcasted the Gulf War. Later, in early 90s, some other broadcasters such as Zee TV initiated the growth of cable TV services. From just 410,000 Cable TV subscriber households in early 1992, the number of cable homes went up to 1.2 million by the end of the year. The Indian cable and satellite industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world.

Lok Sabha clears Cable TV Digitization Bill

Lok Sabha has passed the second bill to initiate the functioning of the digitization drive in the country. This second bill will amend the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act 1995 that aims to replace the Ordinance promulgated in October. The bill seeks an affirmation from the Rajya Sabha to become a law and will enable the Rs.20,000 crore cable TV industry to move closer to going digital and promising better picture and sound quality to consumers. Soon after becoming a law, the cable industry will transform to digital from analog.

Speaking about the digitization drive, Ambika Soni, Information and Broadcasting Minister, said that, the move will bring in TV networks in India on a par with their counterparts in the US, the UK and South Korea. She also assured that prices of set-top-boxes (STBs) will fall soon and it will be available on payment through installments and on rent. She further added that, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will impose a cap on tariffs for subscribing to channels.

With the digitization drive, cable companies are expected to convert their analog systems to digital in the four metro cities by 31 March 2012. Initially, cities with a population of one million will adopt digital cable by 31 March 2013 while the deadline for the whole country to go digital is 31 December 2014.

Wake up call for digitization

Riddled with rampant under-reporting and limitations of carriage under analogue distribution, the cable TV industry, though large, remains unprofitable. Most of the large MSOs are relying more on ‘carriage fee’ revenues than the regular subscription revenue. With more than 500 channels vying to be carried and a carriage capacity of only 100 channels, ‘carriage fee’ is becoming an attractive revenue stream. It is here to stay in the foreseeable future until the cable infrastructure shifts to digital format completely. Breakdown of this revenue chain due to subscription and scarcity of carriage is possibly the factor hindering the growth of the pay TV industry. This in turn affects broadcasters and finally content-owners. The answer to this problem is ‘digitisation’ and ‘addressable digitisation’. The whole industry is aware of this issue and it is believed that regulation to address this anomaly will soon be in place. This hopefully will enhance profitable growth and ensure investments.

According to market estimates, India was rated as Asia’s second largest pay-TV market in 2005, with revenue of about US $3.6 billion, roughly the same as China. However, the country is expected to grow to US $10.5 billion by 2015. Media Partners Asia (MPA) has estimated India to become Asia’s leading cable market by 2010, the largest satellite market by 2008, and the most lucrative pay television market by 2015. Turnover for multi-channel video, including cable, satellite and Internet protocol television (IPTV), will jump to $7.2 billion from $3.6 billion by the end of the decade, the study showed.

PacketCable is a CableLabs-led initiative technology to develop interoperable interface specifications for delivering advanced, real-time multimedia services over two-way cable TV plant. Cable operators will be able to offer a myriad of services, including basic and extended telephony services delivered more efficiently and at lower cost over the broadband cable access network. CableLabs leads this initiative for interoperable interface specifications in order to deliver real-time multimedia services over two-way cable networks.

Built on top of the industry’s DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specifications) cable modem infrastructure, PacketCable networks use the Internet Protocol (IP) to enable a wide range of multimedia services, such as Voice over IP (IP telephony), multimedia conferencing, interactive gaming, and general multimedia applications. A DOCSIS network with PacketCable extensions enables cable operators to deliver data and voice traffic efficiently using a single high-speed, quality-of-service (QoS)-enabled broadband (cable) architecture.

Technological summary

PacketCable interconnects 3 networks

• Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) Access Network
• Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)
• TCP/IP Managed IP Networks

Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) Access Network

The fiber optic network extends from the cable operators' master headend, sometimes to regional headends, and out to a neighbourhood's hubsite, and finally to a fiber optic node which serves anywhere from 25 to 2000 homes. A master headend will usually have satellite dishes for reception of distant video signals as well as IP aggregation routers. Some master headends also house telephony equipment for providing telecommunications services to the community. A regional or area headend/hub will receive the video signal from the master headend and add to it the Public, educational, and government access (PEG) cable TV channels as required by local franchising authorities or insert targeted advertising that would appeal to a local area. The various services are encoded, modulated and upconverted onto RF carriers, combined onto a single electrical signal and inserted into a broadband optical transmitter. This optical transmitter converts the electrical signal to a downstream optically modulated signal that is sent to the nodes. Fibre optic cables connect the headend or hub to optical nodes in a point-to-point or star topology, or in some cases, in a protected ring topology.

A fibre optic node has a broadband optical receiver which converts the downstream optically modulated signal coming from the headend/hub to an electrical signal going to the homes. Today, the downstream signal is a radio frequency modulated signal that typically begins at 50 MHz and ranges from 550 MHz to 1000 MHz on the upper end. The fibre optic node also contains a reverse/return path transmitter that sends communication from the home back to the headend. In North America, this reverse signal is a modulated radio frequency ranging from 5 to 42 MHz while in other parts of the world, the range is 5 to 65 MHz.

The optical portion of the network provides a large amount of flexibility. If there are not many fiber optic cables to the node, wavelength division multiplexing can be utilised to combine multiple optical signals onto the same fiber. Optical filters are used to combine and split optical wavelengths onto the single fiber. For example, the downstream signal could be on a wavelength at 1310nm and the return signal could be on a wavelength at 1550nm. There are also techniques to put multiple downstream and upstream signals on a single fiber by putting them at different wavelengths.

The home entertainment market advances at a rapid rate. Many new technologies are designed and introduced each year but only a few of them receive mainstream acceptance. The most recent of these is HD technology. HD stands for High Definition and this technology is being used to various ways.

Implement of HD

HDTV is the latest buzz word in the technology sphere. Everyone is heading to buy the latest and best HDTV screen available today. Many top brands bring you these screens at affordable prices with the latest features and best technology. There are many variations of HDTV and many of the key electronics manufacturers that are making them.

High Definition TVs give crystal clear pictures integrated with Dolby Digital sound to match the quality that you experience in the cinemas. Unlike ordinary analog TVs the HDTV digitalize the TV programming to give you theatre quality pictures and audio. The widescreen High definition integrated with Dolby digital sound makes your television viewing life like. You actually are gripped by what you see. And now companies like Toshiba have brought you the HD DVD players and Blu-Ray players that help you see the real picture come alive. This helps you to see your High Definition TV in complete glory. Sony is a leading brand for HDTV yet you can find many cheaper brands that are just as good as the expensive ones.

With the “progressive” scan technology the HDTV can produce a flicker-free image. This helps you to read the text more easily and also it eases your viewing experience as fast moving images comes more relaxed on it. In short the HDTV is enabled to refresh all the one million pixels simultaneously to give you breath-taking picture quality. Can we now say that you can really live life in High Definition TV?

HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) is a compact audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed digital data.[1] It is a digital alternative to consumer analog standards, such as radio frequency (RF) coaxial cable, composite video, S-Video, SCART, component video, D-Terminal, or VGA (also called D-sub or DE-15F).

High-definition video or channels refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition (SD) video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels (720p) or 1,920×1,080 pixels (1080i/1080p). This article discusses the general concepts of high-definition video, as opposed to its specific applications in television broadcast (HDTV), video recording formats (HDCAM, HDCAM-SR, DVCPRO HD, D5 HD, AVC-Intra, XDCAM HD, HDV, and AVCHD), the optical disc delivery system Blu-ray Disc, and the video tape format D-VHS.

H.264

HDTV offers a sharpness and detail that has never been experienced in home entertainment. High-definition TV has now been a standard feature of almost all pay TV platforms for so long that technology issues relating to it have all but ceased to be newsworthy. Advances in compression continue to be made, of course, but with H.264 now a universally accepted standard, and mass penetration of H.264 equipment in numerous markets worldwide an established fact, it is moot whether there is pressure from the market for a significant new technological advance or step change that would make the delivery of HD more efficient.

Of course, there is always interest on the part of broadcasters and service providers in finding ways to reduce bandwidth – but within the parameters set by H.264. There is little appetite for another compression technology that would render existing equipment obsolete, and no compelling bandwidth-hungry new application that would force broadcasters and service providers to think again.

India's media and entertainment sectors will increase their overall revenue by over 50 percent to about $25 billion by 2015, according to a new report published by accounting and consulting firm Ernst & Young. The report, "Spotlight on India's Entertainment Economy: Seizing New Growth Opportunities," indentifies the world's second-most populous country as a hot spot for global media and entertainment investment.

"Companies in the U.S. and Western Europe see their growth increasingly linked to emerging giants like India, which is why they are now focused on the best way to enter, grow and brand their business in this market," the report says. Notably, Ernst & Young says that newspapers account for 42 percent of all advertising money spent in India -- the most of any medium. "Media sectors regarded as 'sunset' industries in mature markets are flourishing in India, presenting global media companies with exciting opportunities to counter declining revenues," Ernst & Young says.

The study, 'Spotlight on India's Entertainment Economy', looks at the surge in investment by global media companies and the significant opportunities presented by digital media for the South Asian nation. 'A surge in mass broadband adoption is expected, led by the launch of 3G and 4G [mobile] services. By 2015, 90% of India's projected 187 million broadband subscribers will access the net through wireless devices,' says Ernst & Young. Alongside this, economic liberalisation, near double-digit annual growth, and a fast growing middle class are major factors in India's M&E sector surge.

Key findings from the report include:

 India’s increasing per capita income, growing middle class and working population are generating huge domestic demand for leisure and entertainment. The country has more than 600 television channels, 100 million pay-television households, 70,000 newspapers and produces more than 1,000 films annually.

 India has diverse regional markets with distinct cultures, languages and content preferences. These markets provide global media and entertainment companies with a variety of opportunities to deliver localized content.

 India’s favorable regulations and reforms are creating investment opportunities for global media and entertainment companies.

 The newspaper industry, which is facing declining readership in many international markets, continues to thrive in India, driven by increasing literacy rates, consumer spending and the growth of regional markets and specialty newspapers. Newspapers account for 42% of all advertising spend in India, the most of any medium.

 The mandatory digitization of India's television distribution infrastructure is driving growth of digital cable and DTH and creating a need for these companies to fund expansion.

 The third phase of radio license auctions, expected soon, will see radio networks expanding their reach to add around 700 radio stations across the country.

For all its advantages, the transition to digital workflows has also come with its challenges: bloated storage & infrastructure, unprotected assets, availability of content in open market and proprietary formats. By giving archiving a new, central role in digital media workflows, organizations can address many of these challenges and even gain more revenue. This article outlines why broadcast and post-production shops need archival to get key advantage & its current stage in India.

Introduction: Why Archival, The Downside of Digital Workflows

Across all segments of the media and entertainment industry, the past decade has seen a fundamental transformation, where virtually the entire industry moved from tape or film to digital media for all the new footage and part of earlier footage. This change required investing in digital equipment and processes: new cameras and new edit workstations, additional servers, storage and software, and hiring or training staff for these new workflows. While the transition to digital almost complete for most of global players , the work is far from over. The transition to HD and other higher definition formats is the next wave that has already hit many facilities.

Despite the advantages of digital workflows, there are significant challenges.

Expanding storage & Infrastructure volumes

With each hour of HD footage requiring up to six times more storage capacity than standard definition, the transition from SD to HD is causing content creators to rethink their existing storage & Infrastructure architecture. An inadequate storage infrastructure can leave editors scrambling to free up space before they can start editing a new project—or even turn down higher definition projects for lack of storage capacity. Sadly, in many cases the capacity exists, but is tied up in “storage waste,” content that is duplicated within the system as editors swap files and neglect to clean up.

Unprotected content

With new high definition digital cameras using more expensive, reusable hard drives or flash as capture media, the natural “backup” that the original film or videotape provided no longer exists. Without a proper data protection strategy, raw footage is left at risk. A disk crash or accidental deletion can mean a permanent loss of irreplaceable footage.

Proprietary formats

As digital media workflow technologies emerged, a host of proprietary formats and devices were established with them. Proprietary technologies can hinder media companies from rolling out new technologies and new processes or worse, can create vendor lock-in.

Availability of content on internet:

Virtually all the content even broadcasted or screened is available on internet at no cost with returns to sites available through other sources like advertisement or usage charges or other related ways. Even earlier it was quite prevalent but digitization has made this easier. It is like somebody else is making money from your assets without any portion of it coming to you. Even strongest law does not seem to be of much help.

Current stage of digitization, HD & Archival in India:

The conversion from Analog to digital can only be said to be in second stage in India, because of multiple issues, but now Industry seem to be clear till grass root level seem to be clear about its inevitability for broadcast being digital possibly in next 2 years, but storing of current and historical data in conventional tapes or films or even DVDs is still persisting for majority of broadcast and post-production houses. The next wave of HD has already hit almost all facilities. It makes it quite mandatory for all the M&E organizations to define and implement a clear-cut strategy for managing all three (digital broadcasting, storing and HD).

The proposed National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2011 is likely to become NTP 2012. This makes NTP 2011 the latest casualty of the stress, skepticism and nervousness being felt by the industry in the shadow of the 2G spectrum scam. The DoT, responding to requests from a wide range of stakeholders - primarily industry associations led by COAI, AUSPI, ACTO and ISPAI including CII, Ficci and Assocham - has agreed to extend the consultation for another month until December 8, 2011.

The industry revealed its nervousness on three counts: New concepts which were not discussed in run up to the draft NTP 2011, potential adverse revenue impact from concepts like spectrum refarming and others and a competitive threat unless issues of convergence and license unification are defined in a transparent manner through public consultation.

Spectrum issues, including reframing, are critical as they impact costs and viability. The industry wants to ascertain that the language in the policy does not in any way entrap the sector into committing massive revenues on account of reframing, or losing spectrum in the 800 and 900 MHz bands when licenses come up for renewal. This aspect has become even more important since the Trai, in its recommendation of November 3, 2011, determined the economic value of reframed spectrum as worth 'few lakh crores'.

The second major issue arises out of a totally new concept that the DoT has introduced - network service operator (NSO) and service delivery operator (SDO) type licenses. This is at odds with the current services specific licensing regime categorized under Unified Access Services (UAS) licenses, NLD (STD), ILD (ISD), and ISP (internet) licenses.

Operators complain that the two new terms, which are roughly equivalent of facilities and non-facilities-based operators, though prevalent in certain parts of the world, were never discussed, and recommended by Traior the outcome of any previous consultation. To include them as a policy mandate without understanding the details, according to the operators, is a 'dangerous leap of faith'. Convergence issues are mentioned in general terms, which, read with the TRAI's recommendations for auctions in the 700 MHz band, restricting it to those who do not hold 800/900 MHz spectrum, could place existing operators at what they believe is a 'possible competitive disadvantage'. Convergence issues could further impact the use of BWA spectrum, which was originally restricted to data only

Finally, there are issues relating to equipment security pertaining to use of language that borders on a quota regime and distortion of market. This is expected to be opposed by global equipment manufacturers, including some who have assembly plants in India. Even service providers have serious stakes, especially since they could be subject to penalties if the indigenization component target in their networks is missed. Operators are also seeking detailed guidelines on security, encryption, lawful intercept, and other related matters - since these issues affect costs on one hand, and become a cause of show cause on the other.

By the time all comments are received and reconciled by the DoT, it could well be the end of December. Cabinet approval could push it further into January/February 2012. On January 1, 2011 the DoT had set a 100-day deadline for NTP 2011.