DTH: Size of thali, more impact than Pokhran
By Roopinder Singh

Direct-to-Home telecast. It hardly seems a big deal, especially since what we get on our TV sets is a telecast, which reaches our homes. So why has this not-so-new technology become the talking point among the chattering classes?

Traditionally, television and radio signals are broadcast through antennae placed in high towers, and this places a limitation on their range or reach. In order to increase the range, either the towers are raised, or the strength of the signal increased, often both. As radio and television broadcasting became common, there was a need to make the transmitted message reach all over the globe, by means other than building gigantic towers.

This is where satellite broadcasting came in. In the 1960’s the first generation of satellite services called C-band was introduced. This low-powered system requires a large satellite dish antenna, usually measuring 4 to 10 feet in diameter, and can receive programming from many different C-Band satellites.

What we have seen as the satellite boom in India was based on C-band satellites. These operate in the downlink microwave frequency band between 3.7 and 4.2 gigahertz (GHz).

Gigahertz is a measure of radio microwave frequency equivalent to one billion cycles per second. The higher the GHz, the more powerful the satellite signal and the smaller the satellite dish antenna.

Digital Broadcast Satellite (DBS) is a newer and more advanced method of DTH satellite distribution. Since it operates with more power, its signal can be received with much smaller (usually 18 to 36 inches in diameter), and therefore more affordable, dish antenna. DBS satellites operate in the Ku-band of microwave frequencies between 11.7 and 12.7 GHz. It is such satellite services that Star TV and others want to introduce in India.

DTH is a term used by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to refer to the satellite television and broadcasting, and industries associated with it.

DBS systems are Earth-orbiting satellites that receive signals sent by programmers such as the American pioneer, HBO (Home Box Office). When the satellite receives a signal, it amplifies it and beams it across a wide area, called its footprint, on the Earth. If you live within that swath, your personal 18-inch dish brings the signal into a set-top box decoder, which translates it into an analog signal for a great TV picture and CD-quality audio. You need the decoder because the signals are scrambled and you have to pay the programme providers for the decoders.

Arthur C Clarke, the famous science fiction author, is credited with the concept of establishing a global communications system using three satellites placed in geosynchronous orbit, equi-distant from each other. This was in 1945!

From the realm of science fiction to reality took over 15 years, and it was in 1962 that the first satellite transmission took place from France to the USA via Telstar1.

It was the adoption of an "Open Skies" policy in the USA in 1972 that encouraged private industry to enter the satellite business, which gave a fillip to DTH. In 1975 that HBO established its first operational satellite broadcast system on Satcome 1 to send programming to its cable affiliates.

In fact, DTH is not something new for India. We were one of the first few nations to implement information technology in education through the successful implementation of the SITE (Satellite Instructional Technology Experiment) programme. India was selected by NASA in 1968 to receive free time on ATS-6 (Applications Technology Satellite-6).

SITE was primarily undertaken to experiment with television through satellite communication to broadcast special programmes to six rural clusters, which included a total of 2, 400 villages. Its objectives were to improve rural primary education, provide teacher training, improve agriculture, health and hygiene, and nutritional practices, and contribute to family planning and national integration. After a year of broadcasting to Indian villages in 1975-76, the ATS-6 was repositioned to broadcast again to the USA. This was, in a way, the first DTH project in India.

Technically, what is being proposed is, on similar lines, though in a more advanced form. As Pramod Mahajan, Minister of Information and Broadcasting said, "The government would have to be cautious while taking a decision on Direct-To-Home TV services as it would have more power than the Pokhran explosions." It is not that we don’t have DTH in India. It is available on C band, and by allowing DTH on Ku-band, there would be a significant reduction in the size of the dish antennae, and an increase in the number of channels. (Please see the accompanying glossary for further details.)

Though there was a proposal to introduce DTH earlier, it was scorched by Department of Telecommunications’ December ‘96 order which prevented the use of dish antennae for receiving television signals in frequency bands above 4800 MHz without a licence. The move effectively banned the small, thali-sized dishes that receive high-intensity Ku-band transmissions, used for DTH, broadcasts.

Other than the technical aspects, the basic issue is control. Since the reach of television programmes is ever-increasing, everyone wants control — the government wants it, as do the business companies that run such services, both for their own reasons. There is no doubt that some kind of regulatory authority has to be set-up, and this has not yet been done. Even in the USA, as well as the UK, service providers and legislators do have their tussles. The Information and Broadcasting Minister has announced that there will be a regulatory body in India also, though of course its functioning will show how much promise the future holds for DTH in India.

Often concern is expressed about the threat of foreign broadcasting networks beaming in their programmes onto unsuspecting Indian public, and the kind of programmes that are being beamed from the sky by media conglomerates, which are merging into ever-larger megacorps. These mergers are taking place because the companies are trying to achieve economies of scale in a marketplace where costs are extremely high. Thus it comes as no surprise that Star TV’s Rupert Murdoch has reportedly pumped in $480 million in DTH, and is very keen to get open access into Indian homes, as well as Chinese ones. But that’s another story, since both these nations are seen as the new growth areas for DTH.

DTH is a very expensive game. This kind of high tech endeavour is money intensive, and in fact, even abroad, various big companies have found that it is not an easy task to bring about profitability in DTH operations. India might have an impressive market as far as numbers are concerned, but nobody can really predict whether people will spend or not. It has been estimated that for a subscriber, a connection could cost Rs 15,000. A figure of Rs 500 per month has also been mentioned, though all this is a matter of conjecture. The advantage of DTH is that there would be many channels and much more clarity. Other than entertainment, DTH has potential in education and training applications, as was shown by the SITE experiment.

When DTH is allowed, there will inevitably be a cable vs. DTH battle. Cable TV in India is relatively inexpensive, though the trade-off is at the cost of picture and sound quality, as well as various other advanced features that DTH offers, like parental lock (you lock out any channels that you do not want your children to see); on screen programming guide and upgradeable software — via the satellite.

Of course the market will decide who emerges the winner in the DTH vs. Cable TV battle, but whether this technology gives the consumer more of a choice in his entertainment/infotainment fare, or the cable companies rally to give better service, the winner is going to be the consumer.