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A TECHNICAL STUDY OF THEBROADCAST MEDIUMGroup 6 – Calvina, Sneha Sharma, Ashish C, Kaushik and

Vikash

2/24/2012

WWI, Mumbai

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Contents

A TECHNICAL STUDY OF THE BROADCAST MEDIUM .................................................................... 2

TERRESTRIAL TELEVISION .......................................................................................................................... 2

CABLE ........................................................................................................................................................ 3

MSO ........................................................................................................................................................... 6

CONDITIONAL ACCESS SYSTEM ................................................................................................................. 7

SATELLITE TRANSMISSION ...................................................................................................................... 11

DTH .......................................................................................................................................................... 15

IPTV ......................................................................................................................................................... 17

VIDEO ON DEMAND ................................................................................................................................ 20

PAY PER VIEW ......................................................................................................................................... 21

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A TECHNICAL STUDY OF THE BROADCAST MEDIUM

TERRESTRIAL TELEVISION

o  Terrestrial television is a mode of television broadcasting which does not involve satellite

transmission or cables — typically using radio waves through transmitting and receiving

antennas or television antenna aerials.

o  The term is also referred to as broadcast television or sometimes over-the-air television

(OTA) and requires a Tuner (television) to view content.

o  Doordarshan is still transmitted terrestrially. About 1400 terrestrial transmitters.

Benefits of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) over Analog Terrestrial Television

(ATT)

  Improved reception and picture quality

  Supports new services like high definition television (HDTV) and multimedia / 

interactive services

  Carries more contents in one channel

  Supports mobile / portable reception

  Better use of frequency spectrum

  Releases valuable frequency spectrum for other uses after full migration from analogue to

digital broadcasting

Drawbacks of ATT

  Analog signals weaken over distance

  Multi-path reflections from tall buildings cause ghosting

  Analog supports only SD (aspect ratio of 4:3, stereo sound, resolution up to 575 lines

(vertical) x 720 pixels (horizontal)

  Digital supports HD (aspect ratio of 16:9, multi sound channels, Resolution up to 1080

lines (vertical) x 1920 pixels (horizontal)

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CABLE 

Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio

frequency (RF) signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses

through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air

method used in traditional broadcast television(via radio waves) in which a television antenna is

required.

Coaxial Cable:

Technology:

1. uses electromagnetic field technology to carry the signal

2. Coax cable uses electricity, electric signals (electrons) to transfer data3. Copper core of the coaxial cable carries an analog signal

Advantages of Coaxial Cable:

1. coaxial cables can be used near metallic objects without loss of power

2. Protects the signal from having interference with an electromagnetic source such as electronic

devices around

3. Coaxial cable easily fits on the input jack of the receiver and no problems with kinks –  

Television sets are cable-ready and have a cable television tuner capable of receiving cable TV

already built-in that is delivered as an analog signal. To obtain premium television most

televisions require a set top box called a cable converter that processes digital signals. The

majority of basic cable channels can be received without a converter or digital television

adapter that the cable companies usually charge for, by connecting the copper wire with the F

connector to the Ant In that is located on the back of the television set. 

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Fiber-optic cable 

Material used for Fiber-optic cable:

- thin hollow fiber glass made of silica

Technology: 

- fiber of thin hollow silica glass is used as a small pipe to transmit light particles containing

signals and data information between the two ends of the fiber

- fiber-optic cable uses light (photons) to transfer data

- optical fiber carries a digital signal

Advantages of Fiber Optic Cable: 

- flexibility of the cable (however, kinks distort the signal)

- transparent properties of fiber optic cable

- can be transmitted over longer distances with minimal or no losses

- allows data to be transferred at higher bandwidths

- can be curved around a corner during installation but cannot be bent (signal distortion)

- data transmission through the strands of fiber optic glass is faster

Broadcasters using analog television systems encode their signal

using NTSC, PAL or SECAM analog encoding and then use RF modulation to modulate this

signal onto a Very high frequency(VHF) or Ultra high frequency (UHF) carrier. Each frame of a

television image is composed of lines drawn on the screen. The lines are of varying brightness;

the whole set of lines is drawn quickly enough that the human eye perceives it as one image. The

next sequential frame is displayed, allowing the depiction of motion. The analog television signal

contains timing and synchronization information so that the receiver can reconstruct a two-

dimensional moving image from a one-dimensional time-varying signal.

Digital Cable Television

In 1989, General Instrument (later acquired by Motorola) demonstrated that it was possible to

convert an analog cable signal to digital and transmit it in a standard 6-MHz television channel.

In the 1990s cable providers began to invest heavily in new digital based distribution systems.

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Digital cable technology has allowed cable providers to compress video channels so that they

take up less frequency space and to offer various two-way communication capabilities. This has

enabled digital cable providers to offer more channels... In addition, digital cable technology

allows for error correction to ensure the quality of the received signal and uses a secure digital

distribution system.

Television Transmission Bands

Television is transmitted on various bands or frequencies. Transmission bands vary by country.

In America, bands III to V are used, which include VHF and UHF signals.

Band I

It is important to note that lower band signals such as bands I do not have enough bandwidth,

which means they cannot carry much information.

Band II

Band II in America is what carries FM radio. While this band is able to carry an audio signal,

adding video to the signal would overcrowd it and it would be inferior to the signal that viewers

receive today.

Bands III, IV, and V

A Normal TV signal is located on Band III, IV, or V. Usually; these bands require bandwidth to

carry both audio and video signals. Most TV signals have about 4MHz of bandwidth for the

video portion, when the signal’s sound portion is added the signal will have a total of about 6

MHz the FCC has allocated each TV channel to a bandwidth of 6 MHz

VHF and UHF

VHFs (very high frequencies) are channels that usually include channels 2 to 13. UHFs (ultra

high frequencies) are channels that usually include channels 14 to 83.

Both VHF and UHF are great frequencies for carrying TV signals (both audio and video). They

have a long range and can penetrate structures such as walls.

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Higher Bands

These bands are much higher in frequency and behave like light waves instead of radio

waves. Structures usually obstruct these bands and they need a clear line of sight. Many satellite

signals can use these frequencies, but require special equipment.

MSO

Multi system operator” means any person who receives a broadcasting service from broadcaster 

and/or their authorized agencies and re-transmits the same to consumers and/or re-transmits the

same to one or more cable operators.

Multi Service Operators uses better technology to provide clearer pictures, better sound and up to

a 100 channels.

The charges, excluding taxes, payable by

(a) Cable subscribers to cable operator;

(b) Cable operators to multi system operators/broadcasters (including their authorised

distribution agencies); and

(c) Multi system operators to broadcasters (including their authorised distribution agencies)

The broadcaster up-links the signal to their channel via satellite. The MSO down-links this

signal, using a control room or a rear end. Inside the control room would be a set of RF signal

modulators. Scientific Atlanta is an industry standard in India that provides control room

equipment to various MSOs...

Because many MSOs continue to use analog transmission for low-numbered channels, and

digital transmission for higher channels, a typical digital cable box is also able to convert

traditional analog cable signals. Despite the advance of cable-ready television sets, most users

need a cable box to receive digital channels. However, customers who do not subscribe to any

digital channels can go without; MSOs provide "basic cable" service within the analog range,

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avoiding the need for distributing a box. However, advanced carrier services such as pay per

view and video on demand will require a box.

Digital television allows for a higher quality and quantity of cable TV signals. Digital

transmission is compressed and allows a much greater capacity than analog signals it almostcompletely eliminates interference. Digital converters have the same purpose as analog ones but

are able to receive digital cable signals. With more data than analog in the same bandwidth, the

system delivers superior picture and sound quality.

The MSO further re-transmits the RF signal from to the cable operator, via coaxial optical cables

or simply known as COAX that in turn boosts this signal using amplifiers and provides it to

various homes using a common type of optical cable called RG6. The term RG was initially used

by the US Military as an abbreviation for Radio Guide, but the term is now obsolete.

RG6, in common practice, refers to coaxial cables with an 18 AWG center conductor and 75

ohm characteristic impedance. It typically has a copper-coated steel center conductor and a

combination aluminum foil/aluminum braid shield. They are usually fitted with F connector

style, in each end.

CONDITIONAL ACCESS SYSTEM

The system used to limit the electronic transmission of digital media such as satellite television

signals through cable is called the conditional access system or CAS. It limits these signals for

use only by subscribed clients of the broadcasting company. With this system, the satellite signal

is encrypted, making it unavailable for reception by unauthorized receiving devices. To decrypt

the encrypted signals, a set-top box is needed. This device contains a conditional access module

to receive and decrypt the signal. This device must be within the premises of the customer.

Conditional access systems are in demand in the market today because of the need for major

companies in the DVB-H market to limit the access of their signals. Broadcast companies are

looking to control and regulate the digital signals that they broadcast.

The conditional access system has two goals. First, the system must enable access for subscribed

customers in order for them to view the content. The system must also prevent unauthorized

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viewers from accessing the protected content. The system works by using a set of codes or keys.

These keys are protected and hidden with the use of data encryption methods. These keys

scramble the signal, making it accessible only to authorized set-top boxes. Conditional access

systems are used in the different mediums of television distribution utilized by networks. They

work with satellite, cable and DSL television distribution systems.

Different kinds of conditional access systems 

There are several different types of conditional access systems available in the market today.

Some of the most commonly used systems are:

  DigiCipher II. The DigiCipher II was developed by the companies Jerrold, GI, and

Motorola 4DTV. It is compatible with the video format DVB-S2.

  VideoCipher II Renewable Security. This system, which is abbreviated as VCII RS, is

commonly used conditional access system by premium satellite television channels

broadcasting under the analog C-Band.

  Nagravision. This conditional access system was developed by the Nagravision Company

in the year 2003. Unfortunately, the security measures for this system have been hacked.

There are newer versions of Nagravision available in the market today. These new systems

are the Nagravision Carmageddon, Nagravision Aladin, Nagravision A, and Nagravision 3-

Merlin.

  VideoGuard. This conditional access system was developed by the NDS Group, which is a

subsidiary of the News Corporation. It is commonly used by the satellite broadcasting

company DirecTV. There are three versions of VideoGuard available in the market today.

These versions are NDS VideoGuard 1, NDS VideoGuard 2 and NDS VideoGuard 3.

  Irdeto. This conditional access system was developed by the Irdeto Company for use in

digital content protection.

  MediaGuard. This conditional access system was developed by SECA. The latest version

in the market is the Seca Mediaguard 3.

  Viaccess. This system was developed by France Telecom.

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In recent years, broadcasting and information society services (IS services) have been making

ever-increasing use of conditional access devices. This trend is expected to gather pace as the

market for these services develops. The conditional access device (CA) provides the user with a

technical facility which allows him to determine who has access to electronically-distributed

services and under which conditions. In order to improve the legal situation of providers of 

broadcasting and IS services, the European Commission has recently drafted and adopted a

Directive on the legal protection of services based on, or consisting of, conditional access

(CAD)This Directive introduces a common standard of legal protection for conditional access

devices. However, it focuses exclusively on conditional access devices that serve the

remuneration interest of service providers and makes no provision for CA devices that serve

other interests.

The traditional role of conditional access is to ensure that viewers see only those programs that

they have paid to view. In the digital environment, conditional access has evolved far beyond

this role. Today's conditional access systems still support traditional pay TV revenue generation.

In addition they enable TV operators to create and protect a unique gateway to the enhanced TV

experience - a world of interactive services, including home shopping, games, sports, interactive

advertising, and pay-per-view programming.

Using today's conditional access systems, you can target programming, advertisements, and

promotions to subscribers by geographic area, by market segment, or according to subscribers'

personal preferences you can take advantage of conditional access features to implement flexible

program packaging options and support new ways of generating revenue.

Conditional Access System (CAS) is defined as any technical measure and/or arrangement

whereby access to the protected service in an intelligible form is made conditional upon prior

individual authorization.

The definition of conditional access indicates the two key features of CA - the possibility:

- to exercise control over the access to a service or content which is transmitted electronically

- to control the conditions under which access is granted.

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The main conditional access techniques which are currently supported are:

- password devices

- encryption devices.

Evaluating and filtering devices are also increasingly used in the Internet domain, mainly to

prevent undesirable material from being delivered to minors, but also for other applications, such

as the secure delivery of professional documents. " Push technologies" in the Internet domain

could possibly also be assimilated into access control since, on the basis of this technology,

content or material is sent only to selected receivers. In the longer term, devices based on

biometrics will also be increasingly used to implement conditional access, particularly within the

framework of banking services or any other activity, which involves authentication of users,

certification of parties and integrity of data.

Fundamentals of CAS

A conditional access system comprises a combination of scrambling and encryption to prevent

unauthorized reception. Encryption is the process of protecting the secret keys that are

transmitted with a scrambled signal to enable the descrambler to work. The scrambler key, called

the control word must, of course, be sent to the receiver in encrypted form as an entitlement

control message (ECM). The CA subsystem in the receiver will decrypt the control word only

when authorized to do so; that authority is sent to the receiver in the form of an entitlement

management message (EMM). This layered approach is fundamental to all proprietary CA

systems in use today

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SATELLITE TRANSMISSION

In a relatively short time, satellites have become an essential part of global communication. In

1960, the first TV satellite, named Echo, was launched. It was basically not much more than a

reflector, which reflected the TV signals it received from earth. Two years later Telstar followed,

which was the first so-called active TV satellite. Instead of only reflecting the incoming signals,

it also converted the signals in order to avoid interference between the incoming and outgoing

signals.

Telstar had a rotational speed which was different from the rotational velocity of the earth, so it

had to be followed very accurately by both transmission and reception stations. In 1964, this

problem was solved, when the first earth-synchronous satellite, Syncom, was launched. Many

others have followed since. The most well-known is probably Intelsat I, which was launched in

1965. By 1969 the satellite net had expanded to a worldwide communication and TV network.

In December 1982, the Astra I satellite was launched, which generated new interest in satellites

from the general public in Europe. With its coming it has become possible for people in Europe

to receive TV and radio transmissions with a small dish antenna.

Communication Satellites

All current communication satellites are earth-synchronous or geo-stationary. This means they

circle the earth in a specified orbit, at the same speed as the earth itself. As a result, they appear

to stand still. All geo-stationary satellites revolve around the earth at a height of 36,000 km,

precisely over the equator. Here, the centrifugal and gravitational forces of the earth are in

equilibrium, ensuring that the satellites stay in their position and do not fall back to earth. Their

speed is approximately 11,000 km per hour and the distance to Central Europe is approximately

41,000 km. As neither the distance nor the position over the equator changes, transmission and

receiving stations can remain fixed, maintaining their aim at the satellite. The geo-stationary

orbit where the satellites are in is also called the Clarke Belt, named after Arthur C. Clarke. He

was a British writer and scientist who first proposed the idea of the geo-stationary orbit used by

today's satellites.

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The Clarke Belt used by geo-stationary satellites. 

Fixed Service Satellites

Fixed Service Satellites (FSS) are satellites designed to transport telephone calls, data

transmission and TV signals for broadcasting and cable organizations. Because these satelliteshave a relatively low power output of 10-20 watts per transmitted channel, it means that a large

dish antenna is required for good reception. (Less power means a weaker signal which is harder

to pick up, therefore requiring a larger antenna.) However, the advantage of low power satellites

is that more programs can be broadcast.

Consumer Satellites - DBS and MPS

A DBS, or Direct Broadcasting Satellite, is a satellite with high transmission powers, especiallydesigned to transmit radio and TV programs. Because of its high power (up to ten times the

power of a FSS satellite), its signals can be received with smaller dish antennae of 25-40 cm in

central receiving areas.

Another kind of satellite is the Medium Powered Satellite (MPS), which is a satellite with a

transmission power of 50 watts. The advantage of this type of satellite is that it has more power

than a FSS and its signals can therefore be received much easier. Although it has less power than

a DBS, its advantage over a DBS is that it allows the satellite to broadcast more programs. The

ASTRA satellite is an example of a MPS. MPS and DBS satellites are also referred to as

consumer satellites.

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Direct broadcast via satellite 

Direct broadcast satellite, (DBS) also known as "Direct-To-Home" can either refer to the

communications satellites themselves that deliver DBS service or the actual television service.

DBS systems are commonly referred to as "mini-dish" systems. DBS uses the upper portion of the Ku band, as well as portions of the Ka band.

Modified DBS systems can also run on C-band satellites and have been used by some networks

in the past to get around legislation by some countries against reception of Ku-band

transmissions.

Most of the DBS systems use the DVB-S standard for transmission. With Pay-TV services, the

data stream is encrypted and requires proprietary reception equipment. While the underlying

reception technology is similar, the Pay-TV technology is proprietary, often consisting of 

a Conditional Access Module and smart card. 

This measure assures satellite television providers that only authorised, paying subscribers have

access to Pay TV content but at the same time can allow free-to-air (FTA) channels to be viewed

even by the people with standard equipment (DBS receivers without the Conditional Access

Modules) available in the market.

Television receive-only 

The term Television receive-only, or TVRO, arose during the early days of satellite television

reception to differentiate it from commercial satellite television uplink and downlink operations

(transmit and receive). This was before there was a DTH satellite television broadcast industry.

Satellite television channels at that time were intended to be used by cable television networks

rather than received by home viewers. Satellite TV receiver systems were largely constructed by

hobbyists and engineers. In 1978 Microcomm, a small company founded by radio amateur and

microwave engineer H. Paul Shuch, introduced the first commercial home satellite TV receiver.

These early TVRO systems operated mainly on the C band frequencies and the dishes required

were large; typically over 3 meters (10 ft) in diameter. Consequently TVRO is often referred to

as "big dish" or "Big Ugly Dish" (BUD) satellite television.

TVRO systems are designed to receive analog and digital satellite feeds of both television and

audio from both C-band and Ku-band transponders on FSS-type satellites. The higher frequency

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Ku-band systems tend to be Direct To Home systems and can use a smaller dish antenna because

of the higher power transmissions and greater antenna gain.

TVRO systems tend to use larger rather than smaller satellite dish antennas, since it is more

likely that the owner of a TVRO system would have a C-band-only setup rather than a Ku band-only setup. Additional receiver boxes allow for different types of digital satellite signal

reception, such as DVB/MPEG-2 and 4DTV. 

The narrow beam width of a normal parabolic satellite antenna means it can only receive signals

from a single satellite at a time. Simulsat or the Vertex-RSI TORUS, is a quasi-parabolic satellite

earth station antenna that is capable of receiving satellite transmissions from 35 or more C- and

Ku-band satellites simultaneously.

 Direct to Home television

Many satellite TV customers in developed television markets get their programming through a

direct broadcast satellite (DBS) provider. The provider selects programs and broadcasts them to

subscribers as a set package. Basically, the provider’s goal is to bring dozens or even hundreds of 

channels to the customer’s television in a form that approximates the competition from Cable

TV. Unlike earlier programming, the provider’s broadcast is completely digital, which means it

has high picture and stereo sound quality. Early satellite television services broadcast in C-band -

radio in the 3.7 GigaHertz (GHz) to 4.2 GHz frequency range. Digital broadcast satellitetransmits programming in the Ku frequency range (10 GHz to 14 GHz)

Programming sources are simply the channels that provide television programming for

 broadcast. The provider (the DTH platform) doesn’t create original programming itself. The

broadcast centre is the central hub of the system. At the broadcast centre, the television provider

receives signals from various programming sources, compresses these signals using digital video

compression (encryption if necessary), and sends a broadcast signal to the proper satellite.

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DTH

The DTH (Direct to Home) service is basically a digital satellite service that provides satellite

television programming directly to subscribers home anywhere in the country. Since it employs

wireless technology, the television programs are transmitted to the subscriber’s television

directly from the satellite. This service does not involve the usage of cables and any other wiring

infrastructure.

A DTH network comprises of a broadcasting center, satellites, encoders, multiplexers, DTH

receivers and others. A DTH service provider is required to lease Ku-band transponders from the

satellite. The function of encoder is to convert the audio, video and data signals into the digital

signals. These digital signals are then mixed by multiplexer. On the receiving end at user home,

the set up includes a small Dish Antenna and Set-Top Boxes which decode these signals and

convert them back to audio, video and data signals.

Some of the popular DTH providers in India include Tata Sky, Airtel Digital, Videocon D2H,

Sun Direct, Dish TV, Big TV and others.

Features of DTH

  DTH services offer exceptional picture and sound quality that is unparalled to any other

picture quality worldwide. It has become possible to experience the excellent quality live

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concerts, home theatres, daily television programming and surround sound from the

comfort of home due to DTH services.

  Viewers can enjoy the modern movie theatre like viewing experience at their home. This

service is especially significant and valuable in those remote and difficult to reach areas

where the cable infrastructure is not present and there are no terrestrial television services

existed.

  DTH services allow the viewers to only pay for the channels and services they want to

use. Thus, viewers can select from the list of dynamic program packages as per their

preference. This feature is in sharp contrast to the services provided by cable operators

where one makes payment for all the channels offered by them.

  DTH provides Advanced Viewing Control Features such as the Electronic Program

Guide (EPG) that allows the viewers to check current and future programs on all

channels. The presence of Parental Lock, Pre-booked Pay-Per-View and Impulse Pay-

Per-View features truly makes it an extra ordinary and comfortable service available at

the home.

  DTH services provide amazing DVD sound quality that includes MPEG4 with DVB-S2

digital transmission that has the provision of HD quality. Customers can also enjoy

various enhanced interactive services such as Internet access, Movie on demand, etc.

Things to consider for buying DTH services

  Before purchasing any DTH service provider plans, one should check the reception

quality in his/her area. The improved and better signal strength leads to high quality

reception.

  Most of the DTH service providers offer competitive plans and packages. Almost, every

DTH service provider offer special packs for the southern region, packs designed for

regional language channels, small packs of few channels, Mega Package for all the

channels, etc.

  Customer should make the list of channels that he/she wants to view and then select the

plan or package that provides these channels at the competitive price. It is important to

get desired combination of channels rather than the number of channels available in a

pack.

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  Direct to Home (DTH) has emerged as the good substitute to cable TV system. It does

not require any cable running through the streets and highways. There is extensive

implementation of Conditional Access System (CAS) across the country that makes it

suitable alternative to cable system.

  There are many DTH service providers in the market and one has to carefully select the

service provider after considering the various factors such as transmission in inclement

weather, picture quality, plans & packages, package pricing and other value added

services.

IPTV

IPTV is TV-style content delivered via internet protocol directly to the consumer via a closed

network  – a walled garden.

Globally IPTV market has successfully reached an advanced stage (Highlighted Stage in above

picture) where it has been growing rapidly since last 3 to 4 years. IPTV has grown from strength

to strength from its first deployment in 1999 to 2009 in terms of numbers of subscribers and

revenues. At the end of 2008 global IPTV subscriber base was 23 million grown to 26.7 million

in 2009 and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 32% to 81 million by end 2013. In terms of 

service revenue Global IPTV market is $6.7 billion in 2009 and is expected to grow to $19.9

billion by 2013 as per industry estimates. Globally there are around a hundred and twenty IPTV

providers in over sixty countries, with Europe and the far eastern markets taking the top spots.

Currently Hong Kong, France, Taiwan and Belgium are leading the pack in terms of IPTV

penetration. By 2013, Europe and North America will generate a larger share of global revenue,

due to very low ARPUs in China and India, the fastest growing (Ultimately, the biggest markets)

in Asia

In the last few years major developments have taken place in the global IPTV market. One of the

major developments that should interest companies who are planning to foray into IPTV

deployment in India, China and other emerging markets is the deployment of IPTV services over

ADSL access on telephone wire or without internet connection. Operators like Deutsche

Telekom (German telecoms operator) and Akash Optifibres in India are providing IPTV without

internet/broadband connection. Other major milestone for IPTV was approval of a new ITU

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standard that supports global rollout of IPTV services. This should definitely encourage many

global IPTV service providers to look at the Indian market either to provide services directly or

the cable operator route. This is another major development in the global IPTV space wherein

cable operators are providing IPTV services through their existing network. Butler-Bremmer is

one such recent example of leading cable operator providing IPTV services. Though examples

like these are still few and far between, but cable operators abroad are starting to deliver IPTV

services over Docsis 3.0, a CableLabs platform that bursts data in excess of 100 Mbit/s.

IPTV in India – Current Status

Indian IPTV market is at a nascent stage where it is being deployed over DSL, ADSL and

ADSL2+ network infrastructure owned by operators like BSNL, MTNL & Airtel. Indian market

has witnessed an interesting battle where for the first time state owned companies are

aggressively promoting IPTV when private players have kept a low profile. Till now state-owned

telecom companies BSNL and MTNL were not considered formidable competitors to private

telecom companies. But interestingly these two are aggressively marketing IPTV in India.

Recently BSNL and MTNL along with Smart Digivision (Official franchisee for IPTV)

announced ‘MyWay’ which will be launched in over 54 cities, the largest IPTV launch in the

country.

Smart Digivision plans to offer IPTV services to 1.6 million to 1.7 million broadband subscribers

of BSNL and MTNL in these selected 54 cities which comprise 80 per cent of the country’s

broadband subscriber base. Private players like Airtel and Reliance have not aggressively

promoted their IPTV services. Infact Reliance has quietly launched their services in some areas

in Mumbai without much fuss. While on the other hand Airtel has been going slow on IPTV,

they are still in the process of evaluating more cities (Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai) before

launching aggressively. Private players believe DTH is for masses and IPTV is for the classes.

However private players do realize that IPTV in the long run can become ARPU driver. Some of the other interesting developments that took place in the Indian IPTV market in the last few

months were the roll out of wireless STBs (hardware essential for accessing IPTV, digital cable

or DTH services) for its Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) services by Akash Optifibre.

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Akash has plans of commercially rolling out its wireless STBs for IPTV services. This will

enable consumers to access IPTV services in any part of their home without having to physically

make wire connections from the STB to the TV sets. Though this is very expensive right now

(three times costlier than the a normal box for accessing digital cable or a DTH, IPTV service)

but if this is commoditized just like mobile handsets it can penetrate throughout India creating a

mass consumption drive eventually resulting in price reduction

India’s first IPTV deployment was in 2006, when MTNL rolled out its IPTV service in Mumbai

followed by BSNL. Other major players like Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications were

given the go ahead to launch their IPTV services in the Indian market in Feb-2008 by TRAI.

Airtel has launched its service in Jan-2009 while Reliance has quietly launched their services in

Mumbai Scenario for IPTV market in India is driven by certain factors like:

  Interactivity

  Value added services

  Customer-end benefit

  Fuelling broadband demand

However India still has a long way to go before IPTV can pick up momentum like wireless

communication or DTH services. India has a lot of problems that exist as a barrier for growth of 

IPTV in India. Some of key issues are listed below:

  Physical Infrastructure

  Broadband penetration and n/w capability

  Network Capability

  QOS (Quality of service)

  Content Readiness and cost

  Cost of service for user

  Regulatory framework  – Some of the potential regulatory issues identified includes

o  Advertising  –  Targeted advertising and advertisement-less content delivery to

allow next-generation business models

o  Time Shifted TV – Legal framework to support content storage, redistribution and

super-distribution (e.g. access from multiple devices)

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o  Privacy – Protect privacy of user content (with consideration for lawful intercept)

o  Piracy  –  Provide a framework for detection and prosecution. Alternate models:

watermarking, crawling, etc.

o  Multimedia Communications – Triple play: voice, video and data regulations

o  Content Classification – Larger scale production

VIDEO ON DEMAND

Video on demand is a technology that provides entertainment on demand to all the subscribers of 

the service. Video on demand provides customers with informative and entertaining streams of 

multimedia and video information. Some of the services that can be offered by video on demand

technology are:

   Movies-on-demand: Movies, TV shows, special interest programs and music videos can

be watched by home users at their convenience.

   E-commerce: Customers can shop from home for some of their favorite items such as

books and software from various web sites.

   Interactive advertising: Customers can interact directly with full motion video

advertisements and order the product on-line while they watch the advertisement.

There are two distinct types of video on demand applications, each requiring different

technology.

   Near-Video-on-demand: This technology delivers the same content using multiple video

streams with staggered start times. For example, twelve video streams – each starting at

ten minute intervals can deliver a single, two-hour video. Users wishing to watch the

video may have to wait. The waiting time is no longer than ten minutes. In this

technology many users share a single video stream.

 True-Video-on-demand: This technology provides the users with the requested contentimmediately. In response to a user request, the video server delivers the content in a

video stream immediately, without any waiting time. Generally video streams are

dedicated to users unless multiple users request a single content title at exactly the same

time. Using this technology, it is possible to provide interactive control of the video

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stream to the users. For example, users can be provided with VCR controls such as play,

 fast forward, rewind,  pause. True video-on-demand will be the focus of this report.

Components Required in a Video-On-Demand System

  Video server 

Video server plays a major role in video on demand systems and is a critical component

of the system. A video server has access to the video content and is responsible for the

delivery of the video content in continuous streams that are free of unacceptable video

artifacts. A video server therefore has to store and manage large and complex video files.

  Back office software/hardware 

This component is required to do the following tasks:

o  Keeping track of the content: where is it coming from, royalty issues, advertising

services.

o  Content management.

o  User account management

o  Standard billing systems and customer management systems.

  Other components

Digital set-top boxes, application server and the network configuration are the other

components of a video-on-demand system.

PAY PER VIEW

Pay-per-view TV has actually been around since the 1950s in America. In its infancy, viewers

who wanted to watch PPV had to order movies two weeks to one month in advance. It was so

inconvenient that PPV at that time was not very successful and not popular. At the time, there

were two main ways to operate the systems then: by plug-in decoders and by meters (operated

with tokens). In 1977, the first addressable decoders were invented and installed in viewers’

homes. But it took another ten years to make PPV feasible in the whole country. In the 1990s,

most of the cable operators provided the addressable converter to their standard cable boxes. The

addressable converter uses the phone line to track the subscriber. With these converter boxes,

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cable companies can add or drop services to subscribers by phone calls. Some cable operators

provide Impulse PPV, which enables viewers to use only a remote tuner to order the program.