Rushil
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ISRO wants DTH companies to share transponders on one satellite
MUMBAI: The Indian Space Research Organisation ( ISRO) is toying with the idea of all local direct-to-home ( DTH) players sharing the transponder capacity on one Indian satellite. For companies operating in the space, this would mean hundreds of crore of upfront cost and they are unsure about the success of such a move.
Except for Tata Sky and state-owned DD FreeDish, all DTH operators in India are currently using foreign satellites for uplinking and downlinking signals via Ku-band transponders. India's space policy allows DTH operators to use only satellites commissioned by the ISRO. In case the ISRO doesn't have sufficient capacity on its satellites, DTH players can use capacity leased by the state-run agency from foreign satellites.
According to a recent report by Hong Kong-headquartered media advocacy group CASBAA, over the last three years, the number of transponders contracted by Indian DTH operators has gone up to 78. Out of this, three-fourths are supplied by foreign satellites as the ISRO hasn't been able to meet the need through domestic launches.
Now the ISRO is considering using one Indian satellite where all DTH players can share transponder capacity. "A note was circulated on the matter of putting all DTH players on one satellite internally sometime back," a source who was consulting with the ISRO told ET.
"ISRO is studying the viability of the proposal. If implemented, the DTH players will have to incur a one-time cost of around 200 per subscriber for realigning or repositioning the dish antenna at the consumer premise," he said. "But look at the—positive side — six DTH players won't have to uplink and downlink the same channels six times.
These channels can be shared by all and DTH players can have separate conditional accesses system." International price for leasing a transponder is around .`8-10 crore per transponder per year and DTH companies end up paying .`120-140 crore in transponder cost every year. According to sources, ISRO also charges a similar fee.
The space agency didn't respond to an email seeking comment. "In theory, it looks good but is it executable practically, I am not sure. In longer run, DTH operators may save a lot on transponder fee," an analyst tracking the sector opined. Executives from multiple DTH companies confirmed to ET that they have also heard about the proposal "unofficially", but nothing has been conveyed as of now.
"It will be a nightmare," said a senior executive of a leading DTH firm. "On an average, most of us have over 10 million subscribers. So we will end up spending over .`200 crore in just realignment of dishes. It is a big discomfort for subscribers also, which will result in churn to cable."
Source
MUMBAI: The Indian Space Research Organisation ( ISRO) is toying with the idea of all local direct-to-home ( DTH) players sharing the transponder capacity on one Indian satellite. For companies operating in the space, this would mean hundreds of crore of upfront cost and they are unsure about the success of such a move.
Except for Tata Sky and state-owned DD FreeDish, all DTH operators in India are currently using foreign satellites for uplinking and downlinking signals via Ku-band transponders. India's space policy allows DTH operators to use only satellites commissioned by the ISRO. In case the ISRO doesn't have sufficient capacity on its satellites, DTH players can use capacity leased by the state-run agency from foreign satellites.
According to a recent report by Hong Kong-headquartered media advocacy group CASBAA, over the last three years, the number of transponders contracted by Indian DTH operators has gone up to 78. Out of this, three-fourths are supplied by foreign satellites as the ISRO hasn't been able to meet the need through domestic launches.
Now the ISRO is considering using one Indian satellite where all DTH players can share transponder capacity. "A note was circulated on the matter of putting all DTH players on one satellite internally sometime back," a source who was consulting with the ISRO told ET.
"ISRO is studying the viability of the proposal. If implemented, the DTH players will have to incur a one-time cost of around 200 per subscriber for realigning or repositioning the dish antenna at the consumer premise," he said. "But look at the—positive side — six DTH players won't have to uplink and downlink the same channels six times.
These channels can be shared by all and DTH players can have separate conditional accesses system." International price for leasing a transponder is around .`8-10 crore per transponder per year and DTH companies end up paying .`120-140 crore in transponder cost every year. According to sources, ISRO also charges a similar fee.
The space agency didn't respond to an email seeking comment. "In theory, it looks good but is it executable practically, I am not sure. In longer run, DTH operators may save a lot on transponder fee," an analyst tracking the sector opined. Executives from multiple DTH companies confirmed to ET that they have also heard about the proposal "unofficially", but nothing has been conveyed as of now.
"It will be a nightmare," said a senior executive of a leading DTH firm. "On an average, most of us have over 10 million subscribers. So we will end up spending over .`200 crore in just realignment of dishes. It is a big discomfort for subscribers also, which will result in churn to cable."
Source