What is the Status of Phase 1 of Digitization ? As per Ministry of Information and Broadcasting data,
(MIB), a total of 6.4m boxes had been seeded in the four metro cities by Nov,12. DEN networks installed 1.8m boxes in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. They expect that Kolkata would be digitalized by the end of January
Phase 2 digitization targets 38 cities and has a deadline of 31st March, 2013. The company is targeting 3.5m - 4m analogue to digital subscriber conversion spread across 23 cities of its presence in phase 2 digitalization. Currently, 0.6m boxes have been deployed in these Phase 2 cities. The mgt shared that government is tightly monitoring the progress by having meetings with stakeholders every 10 days to get latest updates. Additionally, the government is also roping in high ranking local authorities like IAS officers across the 38 cities to ensure the learnings of Phase 1 are utilized during Phase 2 implementation to ensure a smooth transition.
Friday, January 18, 2013
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Digitisation to drive cable subscription revenues of TV Channels
Complete transparency in the broadcasting distribution space would increase Zee and Other TV Channel's subscription revenue threefold, even without a price increase. At present, broadcasters barely receive their due share from the cable operators.
As per our calculations, Zee’s ARPU from its cable subscriber base is a third of that from its DTH subscriber base. We believe digitisation is the first and an important step in bridging this gap. It would be easier to increase cable tariffs and gain higher revenue share from LCOs in the digitised broadcasting distribution space.
As per our calculations, Zee’s ARPU from its cable subscriber base is a third of that from its DTH subscriber base. We believe digitisation is the first and an important step in bridging this gap. It would be easier to increase cable tariffs and gain higher revenue share from LCOs in the digitised broadcasting distribution space.
Zee TV - A to Z of Entertainment
Zee Entertainment (Zee), India’s leading television network, is the best play on booming consumption and structural improvement in India’s pay television market. Zee’s diversified bouquet of channels
and improving network market share would translate into above-industry ad-revenue growth. Furthermore, digitisation and its distribution joint venture with Star network would help secure a rightful share of subscription revenue.
Zee is creating newer genres and making renewed push in genres where the opportunity is now easier to exploit. We believe these initiatives would further strengthen its already strong channel bouquet, increasing the network’s market share. A stronger bouquet of channel would enable the company to exploit the subscription revenue stream in digital broadcasting distribution space better. Additionally, in the medium term, as these channels garner viewership share, it would enable Zee to beat industry’s advertising revenue growth.
and improving network market share would translate into above-industry ad-revenue growth. Furthermore, digitisation and its distribution joint venture with Star network would help secure a rightful share of subscription revenue.
Zee is creating newer genres and making renewed push in genres where the opportunity is now easier to exploit. We believe these initiatives would further strengthen its already strong channel bouquet, increasing the network’s market share. A stronger bouquet of channel would enable the company to exploit the subscription revenue stream in digital broadcasting distribution space better. Additionally, in the medium term, as these channels garner viewership share, it would enable Zee to beat industry’s advertising revenue growth.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Celebrate Maha Kumbh with nexGTv
nexGTv, India’s leading mobile TV service brings to its users an opportunity to watch live and repeat telecasts of all the six baths of the Maha Kumbh that started with Makar Sankranti on January 14, 2013 to Mahashivratri on March 10, 2013 in their mobile phones. Through the channels ETV Uttar Pradesh/Uttarakhand the users will be offered to watch all major six baths live from 6 am till 1 pm and a half-an-hour documentary on Kumbh Amrit Manthan from 8 am to 8:30 am each day.
The service can be downloaded by sending a SMS - mytv to 58888, or from any of the app store and from nexGTv website www.nexgtv.com
Kumbh Amrit Manthan is a
special feature – an eight episode documentary- to nexGTv users that
narrates mythological views on Maha Kumbh 2013 and celebrates the
religious spirit of the auspicious event. Also, nexGTv will telecast the
six major bathing rituals live from the Sangam. In order to enrich the
experience of its users, nexGTv will present musical soft stories and
views of experts through discussions on spiritual, sociological and
metaphysical aspects of the baths as a voice-over. Viewers can watch the
live baths on:
Day
|
Date
|
Time
|
Makar Sankranti
|
14 January, 2013
|
6:00 – 13:00
|
Paush Poornima
|
27 January, 2013
|
6:00 – 13:00
|
Mauni Amavasya
|
10 February, 2013
|
6:00 – 13:00
|
Basant Panchami
|
15 February, 2013
|
6:00 – 13:00
|
Maghi Poornima
|
25 February, 2013
|
6:00 – 13:00
|
Mahashivratri
|
10 March, 2013
|
6:00 – 13:00
|
The service can be downloaded by sending a SMS - mytv to 58888, or from any of the app store and from nexGTv website www.nexgtv.com
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
4K TV Looks Great Are broadband Networks Ready ?
While 4K, or Ultra High Definition, TVs have been around for some time, they were
prominently featured at each manufacturer's booth as a technology ready for high-end
consumers. At a film technology panel, studio CTO’s spoke of the superiority of the 4K
picture versus HD. Film studios have long been capturing films in 4K for the superior
resolution, later editing it to the correct format for distribution. While these 84-110” sets
and the picture quality are amazing, we are left concerned about network capacity.
Where the content industry and consumers see better picture quality, we see continued network congestion. A 4K TV signal carries 4x the data of an HD signal, and current networks could not carry them in significant numbers. We estimate HD is transmitted a 6-8Mbps; a 4K TV signal at 25-30Mbps represents half the average network capacity of an existing AT&T U-Verse household. For a cable company, a single 6MHz channel can carry 8-10 SH channels or 2-4 HD channels; the same 6MHz allows for just one 4K TV channel.
Where the content industry and consumers see better picture quality, we see continued network congestion. A 4K TV signal carries 4x the data of an HD signal, and current networks could not carry them in significant numbers. We estimate HD is transmitted a 6-8Mbps; a 4K TV signal at 25-30Mbps represents half the average network capacity of an existing AT&T U-Verse household. For a cable company, a single 6MHz channel can carry 8-10 SH channels or 2-4 HD channels; the same 6MHz allows for just one 4K TV channel.
Tuesday, January 08, 2013
Siticable Reaping Compulsory Digitisation of TV Signals
Siticable, a part of the Essel group, is one of the Big 5 national multi-system operators (MSO) in India, along with HATH, DEN, Digicable, Incable. According to the management, the company has a total subscriber reach of ~10mn with a particularly strong presence in Eastern and Northern India. About 2.5mn of its subscribers are in phase-1 digital addressable system (DAS) cities, and another 3-3.5mn are in phase-2 cities
The Company has already seeded ~1.7mn set-top boxes (STB), a majority of these in FY13, and expects to roll out another 0.5-0.6mn in the phase-1 areas. It has an inventory of 0.65-0.75mn boxes. In terms of key cities, Siticable aims to seed STBs for 1.35mn subscribers in Kolkata and 0.8mn in Delhi. It also has 14 digital head-ends across the country
Management indicated that 70%+ of the local cable operator (LCO)/distributor agreements have been signed. Under the agreement, LCOs receive a third of subscription revenue plus 25% of carriage fee while distributors receive 5% of subscription, 25% of carriage fee and Rs 2 per active subscriber a month.
Siticable mentioned that all broadcaster agreements are in place and DAS packages have been announced. Billing systems and call centres too are ready. Given the management’s experience in running a B2C model for pay TV services (DITV is a promoter group entity, albeit a DTH platform), teething problems during DAS rollout could be minimal
The Company has already seeded ~1.7mn set-top boxes (STB), a majority of these in FY13, and expects to roll out another 0.5-0.6mn in the phase-1 areas. It has an inventory of 0.65-0.75mn boxes. In terms of key cities, Siticable aims to seed STBs for 1.35mn subscribers in Kolkata and 0.8mn in Delhi. It also has 14 digital head-ends across the country
Management indicated that 70%+ of the local cable operator (LCO)/distributor agreements have been signed. Under the agreement, LCOs receive a third of subscription revenue plus 25% of carriage fee while distributors receive 5% of subscription, 25% of carriage fee and Rs 2 per active subscriber a month.
Siticable mentioned that all broadcaster agreements are in place and DAS packages have been announced. Billing systems and call centres too are ready. Given the management’s experience in running a B2C model for pay TV services (DITV is a promoter group entity, albeit a DTH platform), teething problems during DAS rollout could be minimal
Wednesday, January 02, 2013
Cable TV Digitization - steady progress and going firm
LCOs have largely procured and seeded digital boxes at subscriber premises. While
transparency levels between MSO and LCO has always been a contentious issue,
under reporting continues to be high even down the chain as LCOs typically operate through few individuals who act as collecting agents for localities. Under digital addressable system (DAS) transparency levels have improved at last mile and demand for boxes including two TV homes has been higher than anticipated.
LCOs have already received MSO agreements which provides for revenue sharing mechanism and the quality of service levels to be maintained by LCOs as per TRAI recommendations. Checks indicate that at least 60-70% of agreements are in place now. Agreement provides for 45% share in FTA channels and INR75 for pay channels (including FTA).
As highlighted earlier MSOs have already announced packages for DAS markets. A few LCOs have proactively started communicating to consumers about various packages and are also collecting CRF forms (mandated by TRAI), we believe this activity is seeing considerable delay. Checks with MSOs now indicate bill generation likely in month of January/ February vs November earlier. We think it is much likely that MSO will push mid end packages which could help improve ARPU.
Ability to negotiate content at attractive rates from broadcasters could help expand subscriber universe. LCOs pointed out that both Hathway and Den had attractive packages at the mid level and consumer acceptance likely to be high. For e.g. popular channels such as Star Plus is available at intro packs of Hathway/ Den and not available with Digi and In Cable as per LCOs.
LCOs have already received MSO agreements which provides for revenue sharing mechanism and the quality of service levels to be maintained by LCOs as per TRAI recommendations. Checks indicate that at least 60-70% of agreements are in place now. Agreement provides for 45% share in FTA channels and INR75 for pay channels (including FTA).
As highlighted earlier MSOs have already announced packages for DAS markets. A few LCOs have proactively started communicating to consumers about various packages and are also collecting CRF forms (mandated by TRAI), we believe this activity is seeing considerable delay. Checks with MSOs now indicate bill generation likely in month of January/ February vs November earlier. We think it is much likely that MSO will push mid end packages which could help improve ARPU.
Ability to negotiate content at attractive rates from broadcasters could help expand subscriber universe. LCOs pointed out that both Hathway and Den had attractive packages at the mid level and consumer acceptance likely to be high. For e.g. popular channels such as Star Plus is available at intro packs of Hathway/ Den and not available with Digi and In Cable as per LCOs.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)