The idea behind converting analogue signals to digital is to provide audience with better quality services. With DAS, large number of TV channels with a variety of value added services can be provided and subscribers can choose bouquets basis their requirements.
DAS Phase III till date
As per the 13th task meeting held by MIB on the 31st December 2015, 86.25 per cent of TV households have been digitised in DAS Phase III.
According to Nagesh Chabria, Promoter, Riddhi Bhima, there are certain remote areas where digitalization process has not yet kick-started as they are still awaiting to receive the bandwidth from Telecom Companies.
“The states in which there is no Court stay order, districts and talukas will be converted from analogue to digital to the extent of 50-75 per cent and 30-50 per cent respectively by 15th January, and the process will take around 30 days more to reach 85-90 per cent. Whereas, the states in which there is a stay order there is very slight movement and conversion will be around 35-50 per cent by month end”, commented Chabria.
Out of 685 areas in total including West Bengal, 280 areas were removed soon after the Task Force meeting, 450 areas had less than 1000 TV households.
Rajiv Gupta, Partner, 9 Spheres Broadcasting Network, informed that DAS Phase III has covered only 30 per cent and a lot of time is required to cover the remaining 70 per cent. So the demand is huge without enough supply of STBs.
According to an MSO from East, implementation of digitalisation is happening in some pockets and this is almost negligible. According to MIB 80 per cent implementation of digitalisation has been completed and it is pegged at 25 per cent and 75 per cent is yet to be covered.
Likewise,Omeshwar Singh, Director, Den Enjoy Cable, only 30-35 per cent has been covered so far.
On the other hand, Punjab has successfully implemented Phase III. Fastway’s Peeyush Mahajan informed that Punjab has covered 100 per cent and in Himachal Fastway has covered 80 per cent, whereas overall around 50 per cent of implementation has been completed.
“In DAS Phase III so far we have converted about 45 per cent of our connection from Analogue to Digital. The STB movement was pretty good in the last week of December but has slowed”, opined Suresh Sethiya, Director, Indian Cable Net Company Limited.
Major issues
The major issues are scarcity of set-top boxes (STBs), unresolved issues related to interconnection agreements in Phases I and II, and cable operators’ plea for requiring more time to seed boxes.
“No re-work had been done for UP despite being the largest state in the country. There are many regions which have been included in Phase III but some of these regions should ideally be covered under Phase IV. Now, there is no scope left for phase IV and we are not prepared to cover all the regions in phase III itself,” commented Singh.
In comparison to the first two phases, DAS III is more gruelling, owing to its enormous geographical coverage as it covers more than 600 districts and over 7000 urban areas. So, the requirement is much greater than the supply. Whereas, comparatively Phase I and II did not have such a huge coverage and there were many players, so there was no shortage of boxes.
“Phase III requires getting bandwidth to remote talukas and municipal areas, where there is less public awareness about digitisation. On the other hand, the preceding phases covered the metros, where the level of awareness among people was much higher”, added Chabria.
DAS phase III was scheduled for completion by end of September 2014, however the government extended the deadline once and it further got delayed. This time around, when the government announced the final implementation date as 31st December, several operators expected another extension.
“One of the major issues faced is that the cable operators are taking it for granted and there is further lack of awareness in subscribers”, expressed Gupta.
Surprisingly, this time the Government did not approve to further extension and thus, released the fourth list of Provisional Registration of MSOs on 31st December. Unexpectedly, many States appealed for an extension and also managed to get an extension of about 2 months including Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Sikkim, Odisha etc.
Nand Chhapru, Partner, Konark Dossire IP believes that due to lack of awareness among the subscribers/audience, it will be difficult to meet the target in extended period as well. Chhapru further mentioned that there are many subscribers in phase III, who cannot afford the fees and installation charges.
“The cable rates in the slums are Rs. 100 to 150 per month and after DAS III it will easily cross Rs 250. That’s the reason those people want to opt for DTH services as they still provide packages from Rs 99 to Rs 150”, opined Chhapru.
In DAS I and II analogue delivery was not a concern, separate Analogue head ends were there but differentiating phase III and IV was little tough.
“A lot of networking changes had to be done for smooth DAS III and IV. Putting up offices in small towns was also done, added Sethiya.
DTH v/s MSOs
While MSOs are having a tough time across the country, DTH players have an opportunity to add more subscribers into their kitty.
Mahajan expressed that, 15 years ago there was no sign of DTH players in India and now DTH have reached to about 45 million subscribers, which is eventually covering 55 per cent of businesses.
On the other side, Sethiya pointed out that DTH will get benefitted only if the MSO’s fail to deliver STB’s in time, as far as we are concerned I do not see any opportunity for the DTH players.
Mahajan further doubts the growth of DTH players in rural areas. He however believes that to compete with DTH players MSOs will have to pay attention to the quality services provided.
To grab the eyeballs of rural subscribers, DTH players launched Rs. 99 pack, which consists of free to air channel.
“DTH players and DD Direct will get complete benefit and thus, it will increase piracy. In Rs. 99 DTH players are offering the services, which DD Direct is offering for free. Thus, these players are cheating the subscribers, commented Singh.
DTH holds an upper hand in rural market and MSOs are lacking behind, because of lack of infrastructure and interrupted services. If MSOs keep on working like this, eventually 50 per cent business will go to DTH players. Subscribers are currently seeking the best services and have a lot of options available.
However, Chabria is very positive. He mentioned that analogue will continue in the regions which have received 2 months extension, so there will not be any further opportunity for the DTH players. “Operators will get their boxes within 2 months and will be in a position to penetrate in these regions steadily”, expressed Chabria.
DTH players on the other hand have economic packages for as less as Rs. 99/- offering selective channels. Tata Sky’s My 99 pack offers upto 151 channels & services which include 147 SD channels & services, 3 HD channel + 4K Service. On the other hand, Dish TV offers Dish 99 offering 125+ Channels & Services. With such economic packages, DTH players have very few selective popular channels as part of the package giving it a miss to other popular channels which will surely impact its penetration in the long run.
