The broadcast equipment market during the year 2000-2001, stood at around Rs 5,500 crore. The market during 1999-2000, was estimated to be of the order of Rs 4,800 crore, as compared to the production of Rs 4,400 crore in 1998-99.

The market grew due to the massive investment plans of all major broadcasters, including DD and AIR, to expand their network by going digital, and starting various value-added services. DD and AIR, in order to compete with the new channels, were forced to start the process of upgrading their equipment, which opened new opportunities for vendors. The need for more programs on account of a 24-hour broadcast by most of the private operators, was the main driver for the growth in demand. Due to proliferation of news channels, the demand for newsroom automation equipment has also grown sharply. The European, Japanese and US companies, for e.g. Barconet, Sony, JVC, Panasonic, Tandberg, Tektronix, Scientific Atlanta and others, are the major suppliers of broadcast equipment in India. Most of these companies have their presence in India through some business partners or distributors.

On the policy front, there was tremendous enthusiasm about the decision of the government to allow DTH services in Ku-band. The Communication Convergence Bill, which is waiting to be introduced in the parliament soon, holds a lot of promise for the broadcast industry. The stakes are high, as there are a large number of viewers, with sixty million TVs and thirty million cable homes. The International Broadcast Engineering Society Exhibition and Conference held in Delhi last fiscal, was a clear indication of the tremendous interest that the Indian broadcasting market has generated for the equipment manufactures, broadcasters and others.

The manufacture of high-end broadcast equipment in India is negligible at present. A few companies do manufacture on their own or through joint ventures by some foreign companies. Bharat Electronics Limited is a major player in the radio/TV transmission equipment market in India, followed by C-DAC and Gujarat Communication and Electronics Limited. Manufacturing in the CATV equipment segment is mostly dominated by indigenous manufacturers, a highly disorganized segment. Equipment mainly includes headends, amplifiers, splitters, etc. The grey market also caters substantially to the CATV equipment. This segment is very cost-sensitive and the CATV operators are not ready to shell out more for better quality equipment from reputed manufacturers.

Scientific Atlanta, Barconet and Motorola GI are major suppliers of CATV equipment. The cable industry faces an imminent threat from the launch of DTH services, though the operator’s association denies any immediate impact on their business. With broadband network coming up with the creation of bandwidth capacity, there is also a talk of television channels being streamed on the Internet. Already, streaming portals like Numtv.com and Sharkstream.com are in place. Transponder space is also an area where satellite companies have an opportunity in the light of increasing number of channels. The government has allotted frequency to twenty-five top bidders for FM stations. But due to some controversy surrounding the setting up of a transmission tower, no private channel could start their operation during the last fiscal.

Most of the equipment manufacturers are more than satisfied with the fast pace of reforms on the broadcast front and are hopeful of the upcoming Communication Convergence Bill in the parliament. The permission to allow uplinking from India and the decision to permit DTH services in Ku-band have sent the right signals to the industry. Despite this, very few channels like Sun and Eenadu have actually set up earth stations to uplink their channels. Restriction on the foreign company’s equity participation is an important reason for this. These broadcasters are currently uplinking three to four channels, which is cost-prohibitive. In Singapore, one uplinking center is capable of playing 16-16 channels.

Going Digital is the Key

The number of television channels has increased to about sixty. A large number of FM radio stations are going to start services soon. Most of the channels have started realizing the importance of going digital. Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) and Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) are going to chart the future of Indian broadcasting in the years to come. The benefits of going digital are many. It means a lower transponder rental for the broadcasters, with high quality picture and sound. The spectrum is utilized efficiently, besides giving low transmission cost per program. More channels can be delivered using the same infrastructure. More value-added services can be delivered, besides more programming choices on a digital network. With the standardization of MPEG-2 for compressed video/audio and European DVB, the stage is set for this transition.

Future Prospect

Intensifying of competition on the broadcasting front has resulted in new, emerging opportunities for everybody—the broadcaster, equipment manufacturers, production houses and above all, the subscriber. This has also resulted in bad blood between broadcasters and cable operators, which is an ominous sign. The battle is on for the ground. The ongoing tussle between Star and SitiCable is an expression of that. Siti is said to be blocking Star’s channels on their network. Hathway, in which Star has a stake, does not want to air TV Today’s Aaj Tak channel as Star News competes with it. Cable operators are also peeved at arbitrary pay channel costs. It is these irritants which need to be overcome. One only hope that the independent regulator, which the new Communication Convergence Bill envisages, will take care of this issue.

Indian broadcasting is in for a major transformation in light of the global phenomenon of convergence of telecommunication, computing and audio/video broadcasting. This convergence has been possible due to technological developments in the field of digital signal processing, compression techniques, switching, etc. We are passing through a phase of transition from the predominant analog to digital transmission both in audio and video space. The way information, communication and entertainment services will be delivered through the audio-visual media, in India, in the coming years, is going to make a departure from the present, which is predominantly one way, to the point of interactivity.