Finally, DTH!

The government may have lifted its three-year-old ban on direct to home transmission, but with the prohibitive link-up and subscription charges involved, it sure will not come cheap...
NOW that the government has blown the whistle on DTH, the question on everyone’s lips isn’t "Will it ever?" but "How much will it cost?" Sure it is an exciting prospect, for who, among us, wouldn’t want a little more variety in our TV viewing choices? The cablemen do offer between 440 and 70 channels already, but let’s face it, we’re still left surfing channels for something compelling enough to watch, most of the time. And we don’t find it. DTH sure has the variety we sorely need, even a choice of niche viewing to suit most tastes. But can we afford it?

Well, DTH clearly isn’t likely to come cheap. Viewers need to invest Rs 25,000 on equipment such as decoders, satellite dishes and smart cards alone. To start with, the operators may well subsidise part of the equipment costs, but that will still leave us with anything between Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000 to raise as one-time investment. Chances are that with the likely competition among operators, these rates will come down. Already, the Zee-Sterling combo has hinted at providing set-top boxes for as little as Rs 5000 in an effort to increase penetration.

Then, of course, there’s the subscription fee -- by the looks of it, operators may charge Rs 200 for the basic package and an additional Rs 50 for every additional channel. This means you will have to shell out Rs 500 or thereabouts for a medium-sized chunk of the DTH pie. And if you’re the sort who grudges the measly Rs 60-150 you pay your local cableman, it may not be an option you would want to consider.

The glut of choices, in terms of premium niche channels isn’t DTH technology’s only upside. Theatre-like digital quality in picture and sound and hi-fidelity colours is another, a proposition that’s bound to be even more enticing if you’ve already invested in home theatre equipment. Another inducement to making the switch to DTH is, it allows you to do without that pesky irritant called cable operator. As a breed, more often than not, they’ve inspired little trust, and even proved to be eminently resistible. Now, here’s your chance to settle his dues and send him packing.

Wait, there’s more. DTH will soon also provide the broadband backbone for convergence and IT-enabled services. Email, Internet access, home-shopping, net-banking and tele-education are being cited as additional attractions, that may however, require a few add-ons in terms of hardware and software. But these are already on offer on cable, with the big league players like SitiCable, In Cablenet, Hathway Cable and Asianet already entering the fray. Multimedia services like interactive and pay-per-view TV and on-screen programme guides, programme bookings and parental locks are among other advantages of DTH.
There are around nine million computers in India, and operators will have an eye on this market, too, in addition to television. The Zee-Sterling alliance claims it can hook-up computers to DTH with DTV cards that cost as little as Rs 995.

WILL CABLE BE HISTORY?
The question is, are these sufficient to lure India’s huge middle-class into hooking up? Obviously, the glut of operators keen to jump into the fray -- Star, Zee, Modi Entertainment, the Hindujas, DD, Ispat and Reliance, and foreign players like Loral and Measat -- aren’t looking at an early break-even. With entry fees of Rs 10 crore, licence fees of Rs 40 crore and royalties for the spectrum used, setting up shop is going to entail such huge outlays of money that breaking even will not be easy. Neither are these players banking on early market penetration. DTH, by the looks of it, isn’t likely to attain more than 3-5 per cent of the market share in India. A FICCI-Arthur Andersen survey pegged potential subscribers at 1 million by 2002 and 5 million by 2006 -- compare that with the combined connectivity of 24 million that the cable industry has already attained.

No, there is no reason for the cablemen to fear an imminent takeover. They’re
already too well entrenched and even those who’re keen to get hooked on to DTH are likely to wait awhile, until the market settles down and the link-up charges rationalise. What’s more, the receiving-end technology also needs to be put in place. Clearly, it’s a long way away, yet.


Shaju George Alex