DD FREE DISH PLANS TO ENCRYPT WITH MPEG-4, NEW CHANNELS FROM IST JULY 2014

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DD Direct Plus, (recently renamed
DD's FreeDish) is India's only Free-
To-Air (FTA) DTH platform. Fully
owned by Government broadcaster -
Prasar Bharati, it cannot officially be
termed a DTH platform, since the
DTH license norms specifically state
that no broadcaster can have more
than 25% stake in a DTH platform!
The free-to-view service was
launched by Prasar Bharati in 2004.
The public broadcaster obtained
funding for the service, on the basis
that it would be much cheaper to
cover the sparsely populated and
remote areas of the country, via DTH
than install additional terrestrial
transmitters. DD already had almost
700 terrestrial TV transmitters - the
largest network in the world. As part
of the program, Doordarshan even
distributed free TV sets and DTH
reception antennae to several
thousand remote villages and
communities, in the country.
Since the transmissions are non-
encrypted, any Indian home can
purchase their own Ku band Dish +
LNB + STB and perpetually receive
approximately 60 Free-To-Air
channels. The Ku band downlink
transmissions all utilise MPEG-2
compression. Now a mature
technology, FTA MPEG-2 receivers are
available for4 less than Rs. 1,000
each, in the retail market. "It is
almost impossible to ascertain the
total number of viewers because we
have never marketed the dish or set-
top boxes. More than 90% of the
boxes are from the grey market,"
says Jawhar Sircar, CEO, Prasar
Bharati.

FREEDISH REACH

Of India's 234 million homes,
television currently reaches 153
million. FreeDish hopes to reach the
remaining 81 million homes. In this
respect, the service is on the right
track. Industry estimates are that
more than 70% of the homes that
FreeDish reaches, never had
television in any other form. "These
are homes and towns that Zee, in
spite of being around for 20 years,
has never reached," says Bharat
Ranga, chief content and creative
officer, Zee Enterprises. He cites
places such as Phulpur,
Shahjahanpur and Jhunjhunu -
towns with populations of around
40,000 but outside the ambit of
TAM's coverage of towns with one-
lakh plus inhabitants. That is why
advertisers, desperate to reach
small-town India, love it.

THE FTA MARKET

In 2013, Free-To-Air channels had a
4% to 9% share of total TV
viewership.
FTA channels received more than
20% of the Rs. 18,000-crore ad
money spent on TV advertising. This
figure has been growing in double
digits year-on-year.
FreeDish is the largest FTA channel
platform and private sector
broadcasters have bid high in DD's
auctions, to get carriage on
FreeDish. Infact, Zee had even gone
to court when it was refused
carriage!
Today, more than 30 FTA channels
including Star Utsav & Zee Anmol
pay between Rs. 3.25 crore & Rs. 6
crore a year as carriage fees, to be
on FreeDish. "The cost is well worth
it," opines Zee's Bharat Ranga.
Prasanth Kumar, managing partner,
South Asia, central trading group,
GroupM, a media buying firm opines
"If an advertiser is looking at Tier II
and III markets, then FTAs are
critical."
FreeDish Charges Upto Rs. 6 Crore
Per Year As Carriage Fee

CASH COW

With such lucrative carriage fees
(several times the transponder
capacity cost), the cash strapped
Prasar Bharati has realised that its
FreeDish service is a cash cow. Even
the Pitroda Committee has
recommended increasing the
number of private channels on
FreeDish and simultaneously
reducing the large number of DD
terrestrial transmitters in remote
areas, to financial restructure
Doordarshan.

60 New FTA Channels Are Promised
On MPEG-4 Encrypted.
MPEG-4
However, Ku Band satellite
transponder capacity is an extremely
scarce resource for India. To use this
capacity optimally, Doordarshan has,
more than 2 years ago declared that
all its new channels will utilise
MPEG-4 compression that provides
twice as many channels per satellite
transponder, compared to MPEG-2.
However, MPEG-4 satellite receivers
are substantially more expensive,
and consumers who want to view the
new private channels to be added
on FreeDish will have to buy the
more expensive receivers.
Doordarshan has ensured that all its
own channels will continue to be
downlinked with the older MPEG-2
compression, so that all legacy
receivers and consumers continue to
receive these channels on their
older MPEG-2 STBs.

ENCRYPTION

Currently, FreeDish's downlink
signals are FTA, without any
encryption. As a result, DD is unable
to quantify and provide and
rectifiable viewership statistics,
against the carriage fee that it
charges.
To overcome this, DD has taken a
decision to encrypt all its MPEG-4
channels. The encryption is only to
quantify the number of viewers
(atleast initially) and there are
currently no plans to charge Pay TV
subscriptions.
The encryption system has not been
named. Maybe Doordarshan will
utilise the low cost Indian
Conditional Access System (CAS)
being developed by DeitY
(Department of Electronics and
Information Technology) ? (see
article elsewhere in this magazine).
On the downside, the Indian CAS is
planned to be marketed only to
Indian STB manufacturers. This will
severely restrict FreeDish STB choices
for millions of Indians.
Doordarshan's decision on the
encryption system is eagerly
awaited.
"We will launch call centres and
ensure that customers get a one-
stop solution for purchase and
service concerns," says Ranjan
Thakur, Additional Director General,
Doordarshan, and the man running
DD's FreeDish.
FreeDish Promises To Shift To A New
Sat In 2 Years & Offer 250 Channels

JULY LAUNCH

"We will launch 120 channels (an
addition of 60 channels) from July 1,
2014, encrypt them and move to the
MPEG4 format," DD's Ranjan Thakur
promised the press.
Ofcourse, during the past 2 years DD
has made many such commitments -
all unkept.

NEW SATELLITE

The I&B ministry has made a public
statement that it is in talks with
ISRO to increase Ku band
transponder capacity. Clearly a new
satellite is planned, but no details
are available.
However, Doordarshan has declared
that FreeDish will shift to a new
satellite within the next 2 years, and
offer a total of 250 Channels. We can
only hope that Doordarshan
maintains its commitment, this time.
 
RE: DD FREE DISH PLANS TO ENCRYPT
WITH MPEG-4, NEW CHANNELS FROM IST JULY 2014


It is good that they are increasing the number of channels but bad if it becomes encrypt
 
RE: DD FREE DISH PLANS TO ENCRYPT
WITH MPEG-4, NEW CHANNELS FROM IST JULY 2014


Guess there will be change in year mentioned. :D

None of the govt plans are on time.
 
RE: DD FREE DISH PLANS TO ENCRYPT WITH MPEG-4, NEW CHANNELS FROM IST JULY 2014

Only Commitments... :D
 
RE: DD FREE DISH PLANS TO ENCRYPT
WITH MPEG-4, NEW CHANNELS FROM IST JULY 2014


Moving to mpeg4 is good but why to encrypt the channels.. ?? , just to know the no. of subscribers ..? If they do so than it will be really a worst move by DD Free Dish..!!
 
RE: DD FREE DISH PLANS TO ENCRYPTWITH MPEG-4, NEW CHANNELS FROM IST JULY 2014

As the name indicates us "DD free dish" I think it is enough to declare this post as a fake post. Moreover, there is no source mention for this news. Admin please immediately lock this top.
 
RE: DD FREE DISH PLANS TO ENCRYPTWITH MPEG-4, NEW CHANNELS FROM IST JULY 2014

Hassan Syed said:
As the name indicates us "DD free dish" I think it is enough to declare this post as a fake post. Moreover, there is no source mention for this news. Admin please immediately lock this top.

This is a genuine News from IndianTelevision.com.

However, the Article is copy pasted from a Blog.
 
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