Doordarshan looks to offer
TV channels on smartphones; Prasar Bharati writes to I&B ministry with
blueprints.Public broadcaster Prasar Bharati is experimenting with a pilot
project to let people watch TV channels directly on their smartphones, without
using Internet or telecom broadband, in an ambitious attempt to reach the
largest number of audience ever.
"When the world was
moving from terrestrial to satellite, Doordarshan was only moving backward. Now
the only way to leapfrog is to use the existing infrastructure along with new
technologies," Jawahar Sircar, CEO at Prasar Bharati, told ET.
To begin with, Prasar
Bharati plans to create a bouquet of around 20 free-to-air channels, including
top DD channels and some popular free-to-air channels operated by big private
broadcasters.The idea is to catch the new age on-the-go viewers who are
spending a lot of time on smartphones and tablets. According to Sircar, Prasar
Bharati just needs to upgrade its existing infrastructure to achieve this goal.
There are a large number of
installed transmitters that can be used to send digital signals directly to a
device through an external dongle or an inbuilt chip designed specially to do
so, he said.
"Each viewer will be
able to view the content through a dongle attached to a hand-held device, which
ultimately could be inbuilt into their system by hardware manufacturers like
Samsung, Apple, Microsoft and HCL, as was done for FM radio channels,"
said Sircar.
Prasar Bharati has written
to the governing ministry of information and broadcasting with a blueprint of
the plan and is currently doing in-house tests from its transmitters in Delhi
using imported dongles.
As per the plan, viewers
will be able to get, in one single broadcast service, about 20 TV channels and
20 radio channels. These will be free to air and free for life. No dish, no
internet and no set-top box required.These broadcasts would be available over a
large geographical area covered by the transmitters larger than the coverage of
current terrestrial transmissions of DD.
Experts said the plan is
very ambitious and has its own set of limitations. But, if it works, it could
have far-reaching implications."This can work only if the technology is
outstanding and unique from what's already available," said Timmy
Kandhari, a senior media expert and managing director of Mumbai-based advisory
firm Sapphire Professional Services.
He said there could be
hardware issues. "Many phones like iPhones don't even have a provision to
use a dongle," Kandhari said, adding, "And private broadcasters are
already creating their own platforms for smartphones."Commenting on
marketing and advertising potential, Maxus India's managing partner Navin
Khemka said unless the content is unique, it will be difficult to attract
attention of smartphone users.
"Doordarshan has
traditionally worked in what we call the media-dark regions where the
traditional media cannot work. And the population of smartphones users in such
areas is still very low," Khemka said.Sircar of Prasar Bharati, however,
said the new system will be far more efficient than the existing analogue
superstructure.
Comparing DD's technology
with the one used by telecom operators to stream video and audio content, he
said the need for spectrum would not be linked to the number of users, unlike
the 4G services."The DTT (digital terrestrial television) technology is in
a position to compete successfully against OTT (over-the-top technology) and
meet the target of seamless streaming into over 200 million smartphones and
tablets," Sircar said. The number of smart-devices users in India is much more
than the 180 million TV homes currently.
Financially, the project has
to be self-funded, Sircar said. The plan is to charge private broadcasters to
have their free-to-air channels part of the proposed bouquet."They will
get the reach and Prasar Bharati will get funds, which will be ploughed back
into the system to improve content quality and other upgradations," he
said without sharing the exact timeline for the launch of the service.The
broadcaster also plans to leave it to private broadcasters to market and
generate advertising revenues.
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