As on 08.07.

08
 First telecast started in India in Delhi by All India Radio on Sept 15,
1959

 Doordarshan introduced colour TV in India coinciding with Asian

Games in 1982

 Terrestrial television broadcasting still remains in the exclusive

domain of only Doordarshan under Prasar Bharati

 C&S networks made their appearance in early 1990s

 First Direct To Home (DTH) Satellite television service was launched

in October 2003

 Over the years, the increase in viewership of cable television and

DTH has been at the cost of viewership of terrestrial television
broadcasts
Transmission of airwaves on radio frequencies
using transmitters, transponders and towers
established across the territory

Analog Mode
Transmission of waves that are continuous in terms of both time and
amplitude

Digital Mode
Transmission of discontinuous signals using discrete values to
represent information

Makes use of multiplex transmitters to allow reception of multiple

channels on a single frequency range (such as a UHF/ VHF channel)
Transmission of signals is in Analog mode
Signals are corrupted by noise and interference as they
propagate through terrestrial media
‘Multipath propagation'
 Signals reach a TV receiver by both a direct path and a
delayed path
 The delayed path occurs because the signals get reflected
by high rise buildings/trees etc in their path and reach the
receiver slightly delayed
 These two combine to produce pictures with ghosts
Transmitter transmits a single TV programme channel
through a 7/8 MHZ wide RF channel
 Low power Transponders and Amplifiers
Terrestrial Antenna
Satellite

Towers

Dish
Antenna

Set Top Box

Broadcast Uplinking Station

Digital Video/Audio Compression (DVC)
 Redundant Information of a TV Channel is
compressed (identified and removed) from the
incoming digitized signal
 Compression reduces the amount of
information to be transmitted in a given time,
leading to spectrum efficiency
 Psycho Visual property of human vision system
also helps prevent human eye from noticing
any such loss of resolution in compressed
picture
Enhanced Services - Broadcaster transmits a
separate data stream carrying some
programme related information. A viewer if
interested can run the application

Interactive Services - Involves a continuous

communication between the service provider
and the service consumer.

Internet Services - DTT network can also be

used for providing Internet access
ATSC standard, DVB-T standard, ISDB-T
standard

DVB-T standard is the most widely deployed

around the world, mainly because of its much
improved performance in the presence of
Multipath

Doordarshan's DTT service is based on DVB-T

standard
Flexible system
 Wide choice of user selectable transmission
parameters enables a broadcaster to tailor the
transmission system to his requirements

 Two layer hierarchical system

 Transmitter emits two data streams which may
contain the same programmes or entirely different
programmes.
 By separate transmission parameters for the two
streams, these two streams can be optimized for
reception under different conditions. E.g. for
stationery reception and other for mobile reception
‘ Forward Error Correction Coding’
 Signals can be protected from impairment caused
by noise/ interference by this technique
 It enables the receiving system to detect and
correct errors

Tailor-Made Content
 Provides a means for broadcasting content tailor -
made and targeted for the local population. This is
particularly important in a country with multiple
languages, cultures and customs like India
 COFDM (Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing)
 Makes signals highly robust in case of Multipath
reception
 Hence, signals can be received not only on fixed roof
top antennas but also by portable indoor/outdoor
antenna and also in moving vehicles
 Spectrum Efficient Technology
 Transmitter transmits a multiplex of 5or 6 TV channels
through the same RF channel
 This increased capacity helps deliver more TV
programmes and several new value added services to
viewers
 Technical issue:
 Replacement of all analog transmitters by digital ones if
intend to use the current infrastructure of DD
 Or set up the complete infrastructure
 Licensing Issue:
 Licenses for Private Terrestrial Television Broadcasting
Service not in place
 Licensing likely to be awarded for coverage on national,
regional or city level separately
 Penetration issue:
 Public will have to acquire digital TV sets or set-top
boxes to be attached to existing TV sets to receive
digital signals
 DTH gives better quality picture than conventional cable
TV because Cable TV in India is analog

 Even if the Cable might receive the signal through a

digital receiver, the transmission in his cable is still
analog

 Analog as we all know is subject to various disturbances

and degradations during transmission on cable

 DTH loses out on the fact that it will operate on the Ku

band, which has a peculiarity that during heavy rains the
signal just fades away
 Ku-band: Have shorter wavelength signals that tend
to get absorbed by rain and snow clouds
 DTH service providers charges Rs 3-4 Crores for a
GEC channel whereas carriage fee would amount
close to Rs 20 Crores
 Bandwidth requirement:
 A regular FTA channel would be 3 MHz
 A GE channel-4.5 MHz
 Any Sports channel-6Mhz
 With compression technology /Mpeg4 format
average bandwidth per channel is reduced 1-
1.2Mhz
 Bandwidth increases dramatically for HD quality
 Inflow of private capital in the sector and growth of
terrestrial TV channels
 Viewers will get FTA channels without having to pay any
subscription fee which otherwise is required through C&S
 Adopt alternative technologies such as MMDS particularly
where cable and satellite have not penetrated
 The right to receive and impart information
 More choice for consumers
 Possibility of enhanced coverage of local issues, events,
music and culture
 Complement the public service broadcaster
Infrastructure of Doordarshan
 24 Channels
(Parliament-2, National-5, International-1, Regional-11
and State-8)
 64 Studio Centers
 1401 transmitters
Thus in spite of a large number of transmitters,
the Studio Centers for producing programmes are
very limited. Private terrestrial television
broadcasters would complement the services of
Doordarshan by generating more content
India chose the DVB-T standard for Terrestrial
Digital Broadcasting in July 1999 after 18
months of study and testing
The state broadcaster Doordarshan started a
pilot trial in Delhi during 2002 which got
extended to Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai
Started experimental transmission of digital TV
in UHF band by installing 1 KW digital
transmitters in the four metros
Each digital transmitter of Doordarshan carries
five Doordarshan channels
Hong Kong
 Two commercial Terrestrial Broadcasters
controlling 4 stations in Chinese and English
Japan
 More than 100 Terrestrial Broadcasters (apart
from more than 60 Satellite and Cable
Broadcasters)
Singapore
 DTH is not permitted
Taiwan
 5 FTA Terrestrial Television stations
 Europe: Most of the European countries have taken
initiatives for the transition of analogue to digital terrestrial
TV broadcasting
 Germany: Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg
is the World’s first television broadcasting area to go
completely digital (switched over exclusively to digital TV
from 4th August 2003 )
 UK: Sept 1999, govt announced its plans to achieve digital
switchover. The Secretary of State said that digital
switchover could start as early as 2006 and be completed
by 2010 although the precise date would depend “on how
the broadcasters, manufacturers and consumers behave”.
Presently more than half of UK homes have digital TV
 Japan: In 1998, the Ministry of Internal Affairs &
Communications (MIC) issued its time frame and plan for
full digitalization of terrestrial by 2011
Terrestrial mode of transmission of multiple
TV channels
Perceived to supplement Cable TV particularly
in remote and inaccessible areas
MMDS transmitter covers a radius between 20
and 50 km depending upon the height of
transmitting antenna
MMDS signals are normally being encrypted,
to allow the service provider to control and bill
his services