NEW DELHI: About seven companies have shown interest in doing work for broadcast and cable regulator, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), relating to global and technical scenarios in cable TV.
 

The companies who have pitched in for the Trai account include the Hong Kong-based Media Partners Asia, which has already done some work for the regulator, Ernst & Young, Boston Consulting, PwC and Deolite & Haskins.

Trai went through some presentations today and is likely to make the final choices for two consultants by early next week.

The two consultants would be required to furnish their reports on the following points:

Consultant 1 (International Trends):

o Study of international trends on the digitalisation of cable television.

o The report should cover four developed countries, including the USA and the UK as well as some developing countries with per capita income similar to that of India.

o The report should cover the statutes and regulations adopted by these countries towards the objective of digitalisation of cable TV as well as implementation schedules.

o The report should also cover the technical standards adopted by these countries.

o The technical status of plug and play digital television, which can be directly plugged with digital cable services without the need for a STB (set-top box).

Consultant 2 (Technical & Costing)

o Details of technical set-up (including costing) from head-end to customer-end required by multi-system operators and local cable operators for the delivery of 30 FTA channels, 36 scrambled pay channels requiring analogue or digital STB, incremental details for further 144 digital channels in steps of 36.

o The details should be provided for different levels of subscriber base of up to 500 subscribers, up to 5000 subscribers, up to 50,000 subscribers and up to 200,000 subscribers.

o The details of technical setup (including costing) required at the cable head-end to receive signals from broadcasters through satellite, optical fiber etc.

o The details of technical setup (including costing) required to provide interactive TV services such as pay-per-view, video on demand, etc.

o The consultant would be required to study the status of digitalisation of TV in India and visit at least two towns where the MSOs have started digitalisation of their services. This should be a part of the report.

o The consultant will take into account the relevant ITU, IEC and BIS standards and suggest need for change, if any.