PRESENTATION ON DIRECT TO HOME

DTH
DTH stands for Direct-To-Home television. DTH is defined as

the reception of satellite programmers with a personal dish in an individual home. DTH services were first proposed in India in 1996. But they did not pass approval because there were concerns over national security and a cultural invasion. Finally in 2000, DTH was allowed. The new policy requires all operators to set up earth stations in India within 12 months of getting a license. DTH licenses in India will cost $2.14 million and will be valid for 10 years. There is no limit on the number of companies that can apply for the DTH license.

 DTH in India commenced in 2004 with the launch of Dish TV. India currently has 7 major DTH service providers and a total of over 35 million subscriber households in mid 2011.

CONDITIONAL ACCESS SYSTEM

CAS stands for conditional access system, which is a digital

mode of transmitting TV channels trough a set-top box (STB). The transmission signals are encrypted and viewers need to buy a set-top box to receive and decrypt the signal. The STB is required to watch only pay channels, not free-to-air channels, like Doordarshan .
The idea of CAS came in 2001, due to a charge hikes by

channels and subsequently by cable operators.

The information and broadcasting ministry set March 31, 2015 as the deadline for shift from analog to digital systems. Digitization, where the feed will be received through set-top boxes, is expected to be executed in phases and the four metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai have to shift to digital addressability by June 30, 2012. Phase II will include 35 cities with population of more than one million, such as Patna, Chandigarh, Pune and Bangalore by March 31, 2013. All urban areas are expected to digitize by November 30, 2014 and the remaining areas by March 31, 2015.

Advantages of CAS
To viewers
To broadcasters To cable TV operators

DTH PROVIDERS

Dish TV :It is one of the old players in DTH sector that commenced operations in 2004. It allows the customers to access content from Shaadi.com and Shaadi Active service helps in searching for potential partners. Moreover, customers can also access content from monster.com and ICICI Bank. BIG TV: It offers excellent picture quality by using the MPEG4 technology. It provides better pay-perview movies packages. It is owned and operated by ADAG.

TataSky : It is considered to be the most popular DTH Service of India. It offers 247 customer support in 11 Indian languages. The packages of Tata Sky are expensive than other DTH providers. TataSky offers maximum number of interactive services and it is only DTH company of India that is ISO:2009 certified. Airtel Digital:It provides numerous advanced interactive services. The iNet feature allows the customers to access latest news, latest weather with widgets. It is only DTH Company that offers World space Radio service. It has also partnered with CNBC for stocks news and NDTV for News widget.

GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS
The key features of the guidelines are: The total foreign investment cannot exceed 49 per cent. No broadcast or cable company can own more than 20 per cent. The applicant company will have to pay an entry fee of Rs 100 million, pay 10 per cent annual revenue and execute a bank guarantee of RS 400 million for the duration of the 10 years license. Violation of license conditions can include revocation of license and / or penalty of up to RS 500 million. The licensee will have to set up an Indian earth station in 12 months and provide access to various content providers on a non-discriminatory basis. The DTH license cannot be used for other modes of communication including voice fax, data Internet unless specific licenses for these value added services have been obtained from the competent authority.

Advantages of DTH over Cable Tv

There is the Direct-to-home (DTH) service ensuring sharp picture and voice quality, giving you the power to choose the channels you want and even offering interactive elements such as video-on-demand and gaming. On the other hand, you have the analogue cable television with poor reception and a whole bundle of channels you never want but have to pay for Another advantage of DTH is that customers have the convenience of selecting their mode of payments. They have the option of buying a recharge coupon, getting a recharge done from a local dealer or they can simply make online payments. While in the case of cable operators, the payment mode is mostly limited to cash payments made to the operator directly. So in the case of DTH, the power of selecting the mode of payment rests in the hands of the consumers.

COMPARISON

DTH WOES DTH companies high customer-acquisition costs continue in the HD space. While a consumer can buy a basic HD set-top box at Rs 1,500, the cost to the company is around Rs 4,000. The per-month charge for the HD channels is also nominal. Sometimes broadcasters are monopolistic and offer content at unreasonable prices. During the cricket world cup, ESPN charged DTH companies Rs 12,000 per customer for its HD channel, which the DTH companies sold to the customer at just Rs 100.

DTH Future India will become the largest direct-to-home (DTH) market in the world in terms of subscribers by 2012, overtaking the US. The number of Indian DTH subscribers will estimated to 58 million by 2020, and 45 million by 2014 from a net installed base of 17 million in 2009. Pay television industry sales in India are also seen growing to $12.1 billion by 2014 and 18.5 billion by 2020, Most directto-home (DTH) satellite pay-TV operators will start making money after 2013.

CONCLUSION
The growth rate of DTH industry is very good & is having a good potential but the operating cost are very high. The broadcasters are also increasing their subscription charges which the industry is not charging from the customers resulting loss to the companies. With the coming up of digital cable TV there has been an alternative to consumer of DTH but many consumers are preferring DTH connections as they provide better clarity & HD .