GOA: The 11th Indian Digital Operators Summit (IDOS 2016) is slated to be flagged off today evening - 30 September -- at south Goa’s prestigious Hotel Leela. India’s largest gathering of India’s broadcast, distribution, investment, technology players and the regulators is happening at a time when the industry is grappling with issues related to the government mandated digital addressable system (DAS) which seeks to digitize India’s 100-million viewer strong cable TV ecosystem.
While two phases of DAS have been progressing gradually, the third phase has been stalled awaiting a decision from the Delhi high court. The logjam despite, the countdown to the fourth phase deadline of 31 December 2016, has commenced.
It’s challenging times for the whole video distribution ecosystem. OTT live streaming and VOD platforms, telco companies are all marching into what was traditionally a broadcaster, cable TV operator’s or DTH or HITS operator’s turf. And, though they are yet to come up with robust business models, some of them have deep pockets. DTH players, on the other hand, are beginning to bear the fruits of their early investments in delivering quality, transparent services across India.
Churn rates are stable, and, in fact, the subscriber numbers for many of these players are rising.
A large part of the smaller cable TV community -- especially in phase III and phase IV - is fragmented, undercapitalised and is fearful for its future and, in some areas, is resisting digitisation. Larger MSOs have brought in some organization to the ground in phase I and phase II over the past few years and will continue doing so as the years pass by, even in the interiors. Niggling issues such as interconnection and tariff agreements, carriage fees with broadcasters continue to seek resolution.
Free to air DTH services such as DD FreeDish serve the needs of some of the viewers in the heartlands. And HITs platforms are waiting on the sidelines and are hoping to plug the infrastructure gap for delivering video signals to the undercapitalized cable operators in the phase III and phase IV areas.
The regulators, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and the ministry of information and broadcasting, are seeking to put in place a regulatory framework which would fuel DAS nationally, keeping everyone’s interests in mind.
“It is against this backdrop that IDOS 2016 is being held,” says Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO & editor in chief Anil Wanvari.
“Over the years it has proved to be a fertile ground for moving the needle on distribution further. We hope this year’s DAS will also help in supporting the progress.”
Among the major speakers at IDOS are: DEN Networks CEO SN Sharma, Prasar Bharati CEO Jawahar Sircar, Hathway Cable CEO Jagdish Kumar, Times Television Network CEO M.K. Anand, Sony Pictures Networks India executive vice president and head - digital business, Uday Sodhi, Indusind Media CEO Tony D’Silva, Walt Disney Co India vice president Nikhil Gandhi, Asianet Satellite Communications president & COO G.
Sankaranarayana, India Cast EVP Amit Arora, Ortel Communication CEO Bhibhu Rath, CastleMedia executive director Vynsley Fernandes, Reliance BIG TV business head Vivek Garg, GTPL COO Shaji Matthews, Akamai head of mobile strategy Vijay Kolli and regional vice president, media sales Sid Pisharoti, Chrome Data CEO Pankaj Krishna, and TRAI adviser Sunil Kumar Gupta.
The conference will end on 1 October late evening.
Among the partners who have come forward to support IDOS 2016 are:
Walt Disney Co India (Title Partner); Discovery India (Summit Partner), Elemental and Hathway (Associate Partner), Akamai Technologies (CDN Partner), Friends MTS, Sony Pictures Network and Zee Distribution Networks (Support Partners), SES (Name Badge Partner), and IndiaCast (LanYard Partner).
