Transponder shortage hits DTH subscription

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Transponder shortage hits DTH subscriptionAshish Sinha / New Delhi June 27, 2007At least 45 more transponders needed to accommodate the spate of new channels, say experts. Direct-to-home (DTH) service providers are falling short of growth targets. These services are dependent on Ku-band transponders hosted on satellites. Depending upon the technology used, each transponder can host 12 to 15 channels. With the growing number of popular channels, DTH companies are unable to host them all, thereby losing subscribers. For April and May, Tata Sky and Dish TV (the two leading DTH companies) had set a target of 180,000 additional subscribers. They managed to rope in 150,000. Tata Sky recently dropped about 15 channels for want of space. Dish TV is also not carrying a number of regional channels for the same reason, sources said. “There is a marked drop in subscriber acquisition in Punjab and Haryana for Tata Sky in the absence of the popular Punjabi channel, ETC Punjabi,” a DTH dealer from Ludhiana said. Dish TV has been slow in acquiring subscribers in Orissa, West Bengal and Assam, sources added. Shortage of transponders will hit both existing players as well as new entrants like Sun Direct from Sun TV, Anil Dhirubhai's Reliance Bluemagic, Bharti and Videocon. “In order to attract new subscribers, DTH players will need at least 45 additional transponders for carrying 200-odd channels," an industry expert said. Apart from the scheduled launch of Insat 4R that will carry transponders for Reliance Bluemagic, there are no proposed launch plans for enhancing transponder strength for DTH companies. Currently, Tata Sky offers 108 channels to its 700,000 subscribers, while Dish TV offers 170 channels to its 2.1 million subscribers. Both Tata Sky and Dish TV are finding it tough to carry all the channels, even as at least 70 new channels are waiting for a launch by the year-end. Tata Sky did not comment on plans to expand its channel offerings or on the trend of fewer new subscribers. However, Dish TV Chief Executive Officer Arun Kapoor said that the shortage in transponders does affect subscriber acquisitions. “We will get five more transponders soon. These will help us offer about 225 channels to our consumers,” Kapoor said. Tata Sky, according to experts, can only add up to 30 new channels and there are no plans to enhance its transponder capacity soon.

Transponder shortage hits DTH subscription

Based on this article i belive that TataSky may add only very few few few few few channel. What do you say guys?
Now dish TV is getting better and better in adding that channels but not tata sky. Now i started to regret that why i have purchased Tata Sky.

The reason why i purchased tatasky is that it will have better customer service. No i realise why do we need customer service if we dont face any problem and one more thing why i purchased Tata Sky is that I read lot of negative comments of the forum members 1 year back. I purchased TataSky on the week it was launched i.e., i purchased on August 1 week. Now some times i regeret why did i purchase. What about you guys?
 
article is nothing but myth
 
There is one solution..They can remove all showcase channels for increasing the capacity of channels. Any way Tata Sky does not offer good movies on showcase.
 
they already have spare transponders, its just that they dont want to use them.
 
Well Dish tv is now much better than Tata Sky because now they give replay in mails too which is not got is past.They took 5 new TP and 1 TP is started with 5 channels. Also they will add more channels in next few days. Their target is 200 channels.
 
As per Tata Sky press release, it has 12 transponders and can beam about 150 channels. They have lot of free space in their existing setup. Non-addition of new channels may be something to do with their policy; dropping of channels is mainly due to pricing and perhaps viewer preference. They also use compression techniques to squeeze more per transponder.How can anybody add more transponders unless shift to a new satellite or existing lease vacates. Dish tv is lucky because of the exit of DD from NSS 6.Only Tatasky can provide answers
 

As per Tata Sky press release, it has 12 transponders and can beam about 150 channels. They have lot of free space in their existing setup. Non-addition of new channels may be something to do with their policy; dropping of channels is mainly due to pricing and perhaps viewer preference. They also use compression techniques to squeeze more per transponder.
How can anybody add more transponders unless shift to a new satellite or existing lease vacates. Dish tv is lucky because of the exit of DD from NSS 6.

Only Tatasky can provide answers
Rightly said, lets see how TATASKY responds to people's reaction about non-addition of channels for such long time, even if they are technically possible to do it
 
There's no point dropping any channel.......they shud beam all, let the viewer decide and pay for it
 
There's no point dropping any channel.......they shud beam all, let the viewer decide and pay for it
Your are absolutely right. Dish TV's pacakage is many times better than Tata Sky and they are adding channels too at the same rate. The only thing is that Tatasky is invested a lot of money for DTH which around 1600 crores.
Any way we are the customers and lets hope for the best and i hope atleast they add star cricket to their platform to the earliest.

I really really regret now that staying in chennai i should opted for CAS but i was not interested in CAS due to sun TV's dominance in cable industry.
 
Tata(Sky and DishTv are using 12 transponders so whats the problem if dishtv can show 200 channels why not Tata Sky.....

tata sky can use MPEG 4 compression where about 20 - 22 channels can fit on one transponder... so 12*20= 240 channels can be show on tata sky

so guys why simply jump to other dth

lets wait and watch...... may good things happen soon.....

The now almost universal MPEG-2 digital encoding standard was approved almost 11 years ago.
Last year, almost 10 years after the MPEG-2 standard was declared, a new standard : H.264 also called MPEG-4/AVC was declared and patent licensing is being finalised in 2004.
NEW STANDARD
The H.264 standard is a radical change over the earlier MPEG-2 standard. The use of MPEG-4 (See SCAT July 2001) enables a television channel to be compressed and transmitted in half the bandwidth required if MPEG-2 compression was used. Looking at it the other way around, H.264 can transmit twice as many channels on a single satellite transponder compared to the existing MPEG-2.
Most satellites in the region compress 6 to 8 TV channels per transponder. Scientific Atlanta and GI infact offer statistically multiplexed MPEG-2 compression streams capable of 16 channels per transponder. H.264 will now, in a single stroke double this figure!
MPEG-4 H.264 is a compression standard that can be widely used not only for satellite transmissions but even for terrestrial TV, CATV, and even IP (Internet Protocol) TV.
DISADVANTAGE
The new H.264 standard has a single disadvantage. It is not backward compatible with the older MPEG-2 compression. This means that existing (MPEG-2) digital satellite receivers cannot receive H.264/MPEG-4 compressed content.
Much like MPEG-2, MPEG-4 also introduces some visible digital compression errors (artifacts). These artifacts are quite different from MPEG-2 artifacts but somewhat less noticeable.
APPLICATIONS
Due to H.264 incompatibility with MPEG-2, the new compression scheme is most likely to be adopted first by "green field" applications, which have not used MPEG-2 in the past. The top contender is probably mobile phones to receive TV programming. H.264 can efficiently deliver low bit rate video to mobile phones, palm hand helds, and other devices.
The video phone, offering both video and audio on an existing phone line could become a reality using H.264. Several telephone companies infact are exploring use of H.264 compression to deliver video over DSL lines.
This may be a key to delivering IPTV over bandwidth starved twisted pair copper lines that were originally designed to carry only 0.03 MHz (3 KHz) for a telephone conversation.
HDTV
High Definition TV (HDTV) is now being rolled out in the USA, Canada, Japan and Europe. HDTV offers 4 times the resolution of regular (Standard Definition or SD) TV. The higher resolution also implies the requirement of 4 times the SDTV bandwidth for HDTV. Hence instead of 5 MHz for a single NTSC channel, a single HDTV channel demands a 20 MHz bandwidth!
H.264 offers broadcasters the option of either carrying more channels within the same bandwidth or alternately, upgrading their channels to HDTV, using the same bandwidth but shifting to MPEG-4 H.264. This option could well turn out to be popular over the next couple of years.
DECODERS
Satellite broadcasters ofcourse stand to gain the most from H.264. The new compression scheme will cut in halve, their recurring cost of satellite bandwidth. However, existing DTH providers cannot deploy H.264 because they would have to scrap the several thousand MPEG-2 decoders already deployed with their customers.
On the other hand satellite broadcasters (such as those addressing India) who broadcast from satellite, primarily to a limited number of cable headends can consider using the new H.264 technology.
H.264 is ofcourse the ideal solution for a new satellite channel that targets last mile carriage through a cable network. The new satellite channel can from day 1 deploy MPEG-4 / H.264 boxes to all cable headends. The reduction in transponder cost by 50% would ensure that the box is paid for themselves probably within the first year of operation.
COSTS
As with any new technology, the current cost of H.264 hardware is high. H.264 encoders currently cost between US $20,000 to US $50,000 each. Ofcourse, encoders are only required by the broadcaster before uplinking to the satellite.
Currently, H.264 decoder boxes are available for US $2,000 to US $5,000. These figures will almost certainly crash once mass production commences. Industry experts project that within 2 years, an MPEG-4 H.264 satellite TV decoder will cost the same as today's MPEG-2 digital satellite receiver.
COMPETITORS
MPEG-4 is an open, non-proprietary standard, like MPEG-2. This will almost certainly ensure its widespread adoption. As an open standard, H.264 does not have a significant competitor. However, Microsoft has been promising VC-9, a compression scheme for Windows Media 9, which is even more efficient than H.264. Ofcourse VC-9 will only work with Microsoft's proprietary software. Also, VC-9 is likely to be ready atleast a year from now.
THE FUTURE
After reigning supreme for more than 10 years, MPEG-2 will have to make way for MPEG-4. Given the huge savings in bandwidth, H.264 is likely to become the defacto digital compression standard for satellite broadcasters, within the next 2 to 3 years. n

MPEG-4 transmissions will soon commence for Indian DTH audiences.
SUN TV's DTH platform as well as ADA Reliance's Blue Magic DTH platform will both utilise MPEG-4 transmissions. This is to maximize the number of channels that can be carried on the limited KU band transponder capacity currently available to Indian DTH players.
MPEG-4 also can provide High Definition Television (HDTV) which is eagerly awaited by Indian TV viewers. It is hoped that the Beijing Olympics in March 2008 will offer Indian audiences their first glimpse of HDTV, utilizing MPEG-4 transmissions.
 
Hey Stev, interesting post. Interesting also because it seems the only possible way we will get more channels!But as I've posted in the IPTV forum..only IPTV technology will open up the realm of literally infinite content. DTH will be constrained by satellite availability..but hopefully, ISRO and others will respond to the demand and send up more satellites.
 

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