The telecommunications market in India – along with many other spheres of business – is booming. At present India has an estimated 120 million TV homes, second only to the US. Industry forecasts suggest that India will be the world’s largest pay-TV market within a few years.

Despite the impressive forecasts, implementation of advanced television technologies has been slow. For example, although there are almost 5 million DTH satellite subscribers in India, there are an estimated 73 million pay-TV subscribers – most of whom have analog cable. Only three percent of the cable market is digital.

The Indian pay-TV market faces a number of issues. For example, there is a proliferation of small operators and most of their revenue is generated from advertising rather than from subscribers’ fees. In addition, while these fees are relatively low, the quality of services is generally poor and is marked by frequent interruptions to service, substandard picture quality and a lack of channel navigation or electric program guides (EPGs).

Clearly the stage is set for the introduction of wide scale improvements.

VideoGuard Express™ solution for the Indian market

With this as background, NDS recently announced a new solution tailored to the Indian cable market. VideoGuard Express offers conditional access security at a price that suits local providers. It is also pre-integrated with a set-top box that features an electronic program guide (EPG) so it is ready for almost instant deployment.

“VideoGuard Express is the right solution at the right time,” says Sue Taylor, Vice President and General Manager of NDS Asia Pacific. “Many cable operators in India are looking for a CAS (conditional access system) solution they can implement now to support their pay-TV business. VideoGuard Express gives a low-cost solution now and an upgrade path for operators to implement new features and services in the future,” she says.

VideoGuard Express is based on NDS VideoGuard®, the most widely deployed conditional access and digital rights management system in the world. It presently secures content in 78.6 million set-top boxes worldwide.

NDS supports advanced pay-TV platforms

While small cable operators may be the rule in India, there are some notable exceptions – both satellite and cable.

For example, in mid-2006 India’s TataSky began offering a DTH service that features a superior subscriber experience which represents a change from what was available previously. With VideoGuard security supplied by NDS, TataSky now offers multiple programming and pricing packages that enable viewers to choose from more than 100 channels. NDS’ MediaHighway middleware and interactive infrastructure enable TataSky to offer enhanced services to subscribers. Engineers at the NDS development center in Bangalore play a central role in the design, delivery and service support of the end-to-end solution.

TataSky has reached 1 million subscribers. By offering customers an impressive array of programming and interactive features along with superior picture and sound quality, they aim to become the country’s largest digital pay-TV platform.

Among Indian cable operators Hathway launched its digital system in 2003. Their platform uses VideoGuard conditional access as well as MediaHighway middleware and EPG. They recently upgraded their system and added NDS Value@TV interactive applications and a games portal. With an estimated 100,000 subscribers, Hathway is the largest Indian MSO with strong penetration in metropolitan areas.

Within the last month Bharti Airtel, India’s leading cellular operator announced that it is preparing to launch a digital satellite pay-TV service. It has selected NDS to provide a suite of digital broadcasting solutions including VideoGuard conditional access as well as MediaHighway middleware and a customized EPG. These solutions give Bharti Airtel the flexibility to introduce future enhancements including interactive applications and additional advanced services for subscribers.

“Bharti Airtel has successfully focused its strategy on offering a full range of integrated telecom services, and today is one of the world’s fastest growing telecom companies,” says N. Arjun, Executive Director of Bharti Airtel. “The launch of DTH services is part of our ongoing strategy to offer consumers in India the most extensive range of converged services in the market,” he says.

Protecting market share

The less established cable operators are interested in looking after their market share by protecting and increasing their subscriber base. VideoGuard Express is designed to help them do this, particularly in the new, competitive digital environment

With DTH customers like TataSky and Bharti Airtel, cable customers like Hathway, and a host of smaller cable operators that will be attracted by VideoGuard Express, NDS is optimistic about the growth of the Indian pay-TV market. “We continue to increase our commitment to the Indian market and the service we provide to our customers here,” says Kishore Shirekar, General Manager of NDS India. “The company has over 750 staff in India of whom more than 700 are in technical and development positions.”

“In addition to world-class technology which all operators are interested in, NDS is uniquely able to provide complete local support to both DTH and cable operators, all of whom are keen to deploy CAS and to fast-track digital deployment across the country,” he says.

For more information:

MediaHighway middleware
TataSky
Bharti Airtel