As India’s latest satellite, the GSAT-10, was launched today, Tata Sky must have heaved a sigh of relief. Constrained for space in the sky so far, it will lay claim to quite a few transponders on the GSAT-10. The transponders, which will be operational from November on, will allow the DTH player to focus on two key markets it had a weak presence in.
Tata Sky had so far carried 200 channels on the Insat 4A satellite with 12 transponders. The additional transponders, expected to number 8-10, on the new satellite, will be able to carry 100 to 180 channels, depending on the compression rates at which the channels are beamed back (one transponder can carry 20 standard definition channels or 10-11 high definition channels). The immediate benefit will be the improved number of channels for the Tamil Nadu and Kerala markets on the Tata Sky platform.
Tata Sky MD and CEO, Harit Nagpal, says: “We were never on the backfoot in most of the markets because of the space crunch. We did have to make a choice of whether to spread the content gap across the country, or in a few states. So, we had chosen to concentrate our content gap on the two states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. That is because the difference between the number of regional channels needed in these two states and what we could have offered then was large to bridge. We were already strong in the other states . We can now stop making the trade-off and compete at par in these two major markets as well.”
Apart from the regional markets of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Tata Sky will also line up more of its Active (value-added) channels and regional channels for other markets. As Devendra Parulekar, Partner, Ernst & Young, points out, “Regional channels for DTH players will become crucial for a level-playing field because that remains one of the biggest USPs of cable providers.”
The satellite beam will be in the same direction as its earlier satellite feed, so that once the satellite starts functioning in November, Tata Sky will not have to spend the one-two years needed to realign customers’ dish antennae to a new signal direction. Airtel had made a transition from one satellite (Insat 4CR) to another (SES 7) on ISRO’s recommendation last year because the latter promised a greater number of transponders. As a result, Airtel Digital TV (DTH) has some of the highest numbers of channels with 300 channels with 15 HD channels on offer. In the southern markets that Tata Sky plans to ramp up in , Airtel Digital TV already has a high number of channels, with 21 channels in Tamil and 14 in Malyalam, comparable to the numbers offered by Videocon D2H and Dish TV. Tata Sky has three channels in Malyali (Kerala) and 14 in Tamil (Tamil Nadu).
In August 2010, Sun Direct, the DTH service from the Sun TV Group had shifted several of its channels to Malaysian satellite Measat after INSAT 4B, which hosted its channels, encountered snags. In the absence of self-sufficiency in transponder requirement, Indian DTH operators are managing 30 per cent of their requirements using leased capacity.
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Shashi Arora, CEO - DTH/ Media, Bharti Airtel, says: "It is our endeavor to give the best television viewing experience and we are on the constant lookout for enhancing existing capacities. We have reached out to TRAI and ISRO for additional transponders, and would be happy to have additional capacities in GSAT 10 or any other satellite they may accommodate us on.
" Observers point out that for most players adding a couple of channels in the next six months will not be a challenge. But once cable is digitised, DTH might have to counter 500 or so channels offered by cable providers. The need for more transponders will be felt then in the years ahead.
Globally, the transponder capacity has seen a growth of 30-35 per cent during the last five years. More than 6,000 transponders are said to be available in the space now.