Hong Kong, 4 March 2008 – The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) will host two high-powered industry forums in New Delhi on March 17th and March 18th designed to encourage the further development of India’s fast-moving digital video communications market.
The March 17th “invitation-only” roundtable “Advanced Video Communications: Convergence=Choice” will be keynoted by Smt. Asha Swarup, the Secretary for the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting in India, and focus on increasing the deployment of digital services for India’s 76 million pay-TV subscribers.
Other participants will include Jawahar Goel of Dish TV, Deepak Shourie of Discovery Networks India and Jaggi Panda of cable MSO Ortel. Among the crucial issues covered during the invitation-only briefings for senior industry executives and government officials will be means to increase the quality and variety of content from which Indian consumers can choose, and the affect of current regulatory practices on investment in new infrastructure.
“This a unique period of development for India’s communications market, when decisions need to be made quickly and transparently,” said Simon Twiston Davies, CEO of CASBAA. “CASBAA, with its mixture of domestic and international expertise, intends to make a substantive contribution to this process.”
Meanwhile, on March 18th CASBAA will host the India Satellite Forum – “New Horizons, New Challenges” for satellite services, a conference designed to explore ways to develop additional satellite capacity over India if increasing demand for DTH, broadband, cable TV and VSAT services is to be met effectively.
The India Satellite Forum will be staged at The Oberoi Hotel, New Delhi as the international satellite industry’s first-ever public forum in India. Senior executives drawn from telecoms carriers, pay-TV platform operators and content providers, as well as government bodies such as the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), will be among the participants.
Featured speakers on Tuesday March 18th will include:
– Sujata Deb, Managing Director, Time Broadband
– Ravi Mansukhani, Managing Director, INCablenet
– Vikram Mehra, Chief Marketing Officer, Tata Sky
– Amitabh Kumar, Director Corporate Affairs, Zee Networks
– Dr. N Bhaskara Rao, Chairman, Centre for Media Studies
– Prashant Gokam, Partner, Spectrum
– D.P. Vaidya, President, VSAT Association of India (VSAI)
– N. Sampath, Managing Director, Intelsat India
– R.N. Choubey, Advisor (B&C), TRAI
The high-profile satellite industry event will include panel discussions on DTH business opportunities, India’s satellite market demand and supply, and prospects for growth in delivery of network services via satellite.
“In recent years, India’s vibrant communications industry has demonstrated exceptionally strong demand for satellite services but this has not been matched by adequate supply. The international industry is looking forward to greater cooperation with Indian market players, so that together we can ensure that India has access to all the satellite capacity it needs,” said Anjan Mitra, Executive Director, India for CASBAA.
“The objective of the India Satellite Forum is to give industry leaders the chance to analyze and share their insights on the latest development of the India satellite services market,” said Twiston Davies. “India should be the leading Asian market for satellite communications with huge opportunities for every sector.”
For more details about the two events as well as registration, please visit:
The CASBAA’s “Advanced Video Communications” roundtable –
The India Satellite Forum
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About CASBAA – www.casbaa.com
The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) is an industry-based advocacy group dedicated to the promotion of multi-channel TV via cable, satellite, broadband and wireless video networks across the Asia-Pacific. CASBAA represents some 128 Asia-based corporations, which in turn serve more than three billion people. Members include Asia Broadcast Satellite, AsiaSat, Astro, Australia Network, Bloomberg Television, Chello Zone, Chunghwa Telecom, Discovery Networks Asia, Genesis Networks, Granada International/ITV Worldwide, HBO Asia, Intelsat, Macquarie Group, MediaFLO Technologies, Motorola, MTV Networks Asia Pacific, Nokia, now TV, PricewaterhouseCoopers, SES NEW SKIES, Sony Pictures Television International, STAR Group, Sun Microsystems, TrueVisions, Turner International Asia Pacific, Walt Disney Television International, Al Jazeera, Amarchand Mangaldas, Asian Food Channel, BBC Global Channels Asia-Pacific, Celestial Movies, Deutsche Welle, ESPN STAR Sports, Hallmark Channel, GMA Network Inc., GroupM, Hong Kong Cable TV, INX Network, Irdeto, KDB Skylife, Lovells, Measat, MGM Networks, Microsoft Corporation, Minter Ellison, National Geographic, Network18, Paul Weiss, Playboy TV, ProtoStar, Providence Equity, PT Direct Vision, SAT-GE, Spectrum Value Partners, Tandberg Television, Tata Sky, TBN, Ten Sports, TFN Media, TimeWarner, TV5MONDE, Viaccess and Zee TV.
For enquiries, please contact:
CASBAA
Helen Shek / Carmen Mak
Marketing Communications
Tel: +852 2854 9943
Fax: +852 2854 9530
Email: pr@casbaa.com