New Indian Government Gives CASBAA Hope for Satellite Policy Reform

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CASBAA is hopeful
that India is closer to enacting long-awaited
reforms to its satellite policies under the
leadership of new Prime Minister Narendra
Damodardas Modi. Following his election to
office in May 2014, Modi has shown greater
interest in India’s space economy. He attended
the Indian Space Research Organization ’s
(ISRO’s) latest launch of the Polar Satellite
Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in June, and has even
proposed a South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation (SAARC) satellite
project. Though less than three months into his
term, these moves give hope that larger
satellite policy reform might soon follow.
“The new Indian government has shown several
signs of being interested in technology policy
in general and satellite policy specifically,”
John Medeiros, chief policy offer at CASBAA,
told Via Satellite . “We are hoping that they are
going to take a good close look at India’s
satellite policy, perhaps reissue its satellite
policy paper, which hasn’t been reissued in 14
years — its been on the books since the year
2000 — and hopefully make some
improvements in the way it has managed its
satellite capacity consumption.”
India has been experiencing a “capacity
crunch” as the country’s economy continues to
show positive growth. The demand for Direct-
to-Home (DTH) satellite services has exceeded
the available capacity made available through
ISRO’s commercial arm Antrix. However,
India’s satellite capacity has not been
managed in a market-responsive way that
allows broadcasters to keep pace.
CASBAA produced a paper aptly titled “Easing
India’s Capacity Crunch” in 2013 detailing
India’s strong growth and ways the country
can quit stifling DTH operators. Suggestions
include switching from short three-year
contracts to the industry’s preferred 10 to 15
year agreements, and simplifying the process
for international contracts with foreign
operators.
“Satellite operators have to take a very big leap
of faith in order to build capacity to supply
the Indian market. They have to believe and
hope that they won’t lose their business
halfway through the life of the satellite,” said
Medeiros. “Frequently what happens in Asia is
that the satellites are built with multi-
directional beams in locations where they can
serve India and maybe somewhere else.”
Furthermore, Medeiros added that India’s
digitization policies for the cable industry have
bolstered terrestrial broadcasting. This makes
the satellite industry even more desirous of
capacity in order to compete, as cable
operators gain ground in large cities. CASBAA’s
2013 paper suggests ISRO share more of its
long-term satellite plans with industry so
companies can plan ahead, and that ISRO open
up access to additional Ku-band frequencies
such as the Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) and
Broadcasting Satellite Service (BSS) planned
band frequencies.
“The number of homes connected to DTH Ku-
band broadcast platforms is estimated at
around 60 million … [DTH operators] want to
compete with digital cable, they want to
compete with each other, [but] they can’t offer
enough channels because they don’t have the
bandwidth available. They can’t get into HD or
Ultra-HD as fast as they would want because
there aren’t enough transponders, and they
can’t structure a modern operation with
redundancy of transponder supply because
there aren’t any transponders,” said Medeiros.
According to Medeiros, the proposed SAARC
satellite would be unlikely to solve India’s
capacity needs, as other satellite services more
relevant to developing nations would likely take
priority over television. Another challenge to
both ISRO and the satellite industry is a lack of
orbital slots, he said. Most of the available
locations are owned by ISRO. Any domestic
operators would have to strike an agreement
with the agency for orbital rights — something
not at all unconsidered by Indian companies.
Medeiros said CASBAA has learned of
companies that want to become domestic
satellite operators in India. A larger private
satellite industry might be brooding under the
surface, just waiting for the right regulatory
environment in order to hatch.
“There are some large Indian companies that
are interested in investing in the satellite
industry. We [at CASBAA] know this. They’ve
been sniffing around, contacting others; this is
something that we think the new Modi
government will want to encourage and this
may be one reason that they are thinking
about reissuing satellite communications
policy,” said Medeiros.
Thus far, no change has been seen, but
CASBAA remains hopeful that policy reform is
on the horizon. The growth of DTH in India is
more than strong enough to justify putting
additional satellites in orbit to compete with
cable. Reforms that create greater stability
could spur on greater growth in satellite and
lead to a more competitive broadcasting
industry, especially if there are companies
simply biding their time before making their
debut into satellite.
“No private Indian company has yet made the
decision that they are going to build and
operate their own satellite, but we know they
are out there and they are interested,” said
Medeiros. “We hope the new government
listens to them.” http://www.satellitetoday.com/regional/2014/08/07/new-indian-government-gives-casbaa-hope-for-satellite-policy-reform/
 
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