Even as DTH continues to take away consumers, many cable operators have been resisting digitisation

Vanita Kohli-Khandekar / Mar 13, 2012

Cable operators are fighting, multi-system operators (MSOs) are lobbying, broadcasters are worrying and direct-to-home (DTH) operators are rubbing their hands in glee. So far the whole mandatory digitisation story in India is playing to script. With just under 90 days to go, how ready are we?

The answer: it is going to be a last-minute dash but we might just make it, at least in Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. Delhi is a problem. Chances are all the four metros will be digital by June 30 this year, thanks to aggressive DTH operators rushing in to fill the gap.

A quick background. The 142-million home TV market in India is one of the largest in the world along with China and Brazil. However, in top line ($7 billion, or Rs 35,000 crore) or margins, it is way behind either of those countries. One big reason is that just about 15 to 20 per cent of the money cable operators collect comes back to broadcasters, against 70 per cent globally. This leads to revenue leakage and tax loss.

To view the complete article, please visit http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/vanita-kohli-khandekar-the-painful-path-to-digitising-tv-/467468/

Global Satellite Industry denounces UNIDROIT Protocol

Brussels, 9th March 2012 – The European Satellite Operators’ Association (ESOA), the US Satellite Industry Association (SIA), the Space Industry Association of Australia, the Canadian Satellite and Space Industry Forum, the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia and the Global VSAT Forum today voiced continued satellite industry opposition to the UNIDROIT Space Assets Protocol to the Cape Town Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment, which was approved today at a UNIDROIT diplomatic conference in Berlin.

The global satellite sector continues to show unprecedented unity in its opposition to the UNIDROIT Space Assets Protocol. In December 2011, nearly 100 companies and trade associations signed a letter to the UNIDROIT Secretary General expressing concerns regarding the draft Protocol.

Signatories included established and start-up satellite operators on all continents, most of the world’s satellite manufacturers and launch providers, the major satellite insurance brokers and underwriters, many banks participating in the satellite sector, and the major satellite and space-related associations.

“It is disappointing that the Berlin Conference moved ahead with a Protocol on space asset financing, over the clear and unified opposition of those involved in the actual business of constructing, launching, operating, insuring and financing communications satellites,” said Patricia Cooper, President of SIA.

Brett Biddington, Chairman of the SIAA, noted “The potentially adverse consequences of the Protocol – especially for manufacturers and smaller, start-up satellite operators – should have been a guiding consideration in the Protocol’s adoption.”

Simon Twiston Davies, CEO of CASBAA said: “This new layer of supra-national law can only make the financing of new satellite projects more difficult and expensive, including those planned by developing nations to serve their citizens.”

Aarti Holla, Secretary General of ESOA, said: “The Protocol comes at a time when the industry benefits from a robust and highly successful satellite financing market. We will now work with our colleagues in the satellite industry on other continents to inform nations of the negative impact of the Protocol on this market as they consider ratification.”

David Hartshorn, Secretary General of the Global VSAT Forum, said: “We hope that States will note the concerns of the global satellite industry and not ratify the Protocol. If they do, it will increase the cost of financing and make it extremely difficult for developing nations to benefit from the delivery of satellite services.”

A full analysis of this issue can be found at www.esoa.net, www.sia.com and www.spaceindustry.com.au

NEW DELHI (March 12, 2012): The direct-to-home (DTH) platforms have made a strong plea for doing away with the entertainment tax levied by the states and the 10.3 per cent service tax levied by the Centre.

The DTH Operators Association of India has said that the entertainment tax is unethical as only the broadcasters or those who generate programmes should be taxed.

Harit Nagpal, President of the Association, told indiantelevision.com that the entertainment tax varies from state to state and the average percentage was around 10 per cent.

To view the complete article, please visit http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k12/mar/mar90.php

(March 9, 2012) SINGAPORE – Data from copyright-holders show Singapore has one of the highest incidences of online digital piracy in the Asia-Pacific region, Law Minister K Shanmugam told Parliament yesterday.

On average, it is estimated there are more than 300,000 cases of illegal downloading each month, the worst among 15 countries in the region, he said.

Mr Shanmugam revealed this as he announced the setting up of an Intellectual Property (IP) Steering Committee to develop Singapore as an Asian IP hub.

To view the complete article, please visit http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC120307-0000065/Singaporeans-among-worst-online-piracy-offenders

Seven satellite webs to bow in Japan: Disney Channel, Imagica BS among new channels

TOKYO — Six satellite pay channels, including the Disney Channel, will launch on Japan’s Sky Perfect JSAT on Thursday plus one free channel on March 17, bringing the total to 31.

The other pay TV webs are Imagica BS, which will offer U.S. and Asian pics, J Sports 3 and 4 (sports), BS Tsruri Vision (fishing) and BS Nihon Eiga (Japanese pics).

To view the complete article, please visit http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-201202291157reedbusivarietynvr1118050861feb29,0,343571.story

March 5, 2012 – Momentum behind digital content initiatives for home entertainment continues to pick up steam. The latest development is a digital rights management (DRM) scheme by content owners to put movies and TV shows on USB sticks and other standard storage devices.

The idea is to give consumers an easier and faster way to organise, store and move their high-definition digital movies and TV shows across screens and endpoints. And, the content will be backed up via the UltraViolet industry standard for cloud access.

Dubbed ‘Project Phenix,’ the intiative is backed by Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, SanDisk and Western Digital as part of the newly formed Secure Content Storage Association (SCSA), a coalition that will create and licence DRM solutions to secure copyrighted content on local and portable hard drives, and flash memory products like USB flash drives, SD cards and solid state disk drives (SSDs). Once downloaded, the content can be accessed via any SCSA-enabled device such as a connected TV, laptop, Blu-ray player, tablet, mobile phone or game console.

To view the complete article, please visit http://www.rapidtvnews.com/index.php/business/media-investment/studios-want-to-put-films-tv-on-usb-sticks.html?utm_source=newsletter_599&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=rapid-tv-news-current-edition-0403

March 1, 2012 – Residential gateways are expected to become the new hub of the so-called digital living room when they take over from set-top boxes, with the vigorous gateway market projected to triple from 2012 to 2015, according to a report from information and analytics provider IHS.

Shipments of residential gateways and thin client boxes that act as receivers are miniscule at present, but their numbers will grow dramatically as cable and wireless operators begin to roll out services offering broader connectivity and seamless access. Worldwide gateway and thin client shipments are projected to reach 4.2 million units in 2012, up from just 345,000 last year and a mere 1,000 in 2010. Shipments then are expected to continue to climb quickly during the next two years—rising to 6.7 million units in 2013, to 10.4 million in 2014 and to 12.6 million by 2015, as shown in the figure below.

To view the complete article, please visit http://advanced-television.com/index.php/2012/02/29/residential-gateway-market-to-triple-from-2012-to-2015/

February 27, 2012 – Following 3.8 per cent growth in 2011, global advertising spending is expected to grow by 4.9 per cent in 2012 to $465.5 billion, according to Strategy Analytics.

Although total UK advertising spending is expected to increase by slightly less than the global rate, at 4.2 per cent this year – to $20.9 billion – it is a significant improvement on the 1.4 per cent growth in 2011. The UK outperforms Europe as a whole, which is expected to grow by 3.7 per cent to $136.3 billion in 2012.

To view the complete article, please visit http://advanced-television.com/index.php/2012/02/27/global-ad-spend-to-increase-4-9-in-2012/

February 27, 2012 – The latest IPTV forecast from research firm MRG indicates that the number of global IPTV subscribers will grow from 53 million in 2011 to 105.1 million in 2015, a CAGR of 18.7 per cent.

The service revenue for the global IPTV market was US$21.8 billion in 2011 and is projected to grow to US$45.3 billion in 2015, a CAGR of 20 per cent. By 2015, Europe and North America will continue to generate a larger share of the global revenue. New and innovative services of key Operators described in the report reveal that IPTV Operators are aggressively developing these new services to compete with other local pay-TV Operators.

To view the complete article, please visit http://advanced-television.com/index.php/2012/02/27/iptv-growth-outpacing-cable-and-satellite/