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Tuesday, November 4, 2008

DTH services to open up for Interportability

Government is finally waking up to allow real competition into the DTH market. Till now, there is no portability amongst the DTH player which gives players upper hand in pricing ones the subscriber chooses a particular service as the subscriber can no longer switch to other service without incurring huge cost.

Lack of regulation on the technology front has resulted into lack of uniformity amongst the DTH players, though the two biggest players, Tatasky and Dishtv, use MPEG 2 technology the new entrants into the market are using MPEG 4 technology. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has asked the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to draft a norm on DTH setup box technology, which will enable Interportability of services.

This decision will benefit the present subscribers which are estimated at around 6.4 million. But, this decision will have major impact on the future growth of DTH market as consumers will find it more attractive to have DTH service with Interportability feature. DTH segment has attracted two new players in recent months and is expected to heat up the competition and growth of this segment.

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