The Indian Digital Migration

India stands on the threshold of entering the digital cable television era, with cable operators in the country's largest cities—Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.

To speed up this ‘Digital Migration', India's broadcast regulator, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), supported by the judicial and executive branches, has sketched out a fine blueprint for the transition to digital cable operations. The entire switch to digital cable television is set to be completed by the time India hosts the Commonwealth Games in 2010.

Every society has its own set rules and ways of doing business, and soon the broadcast stakeholders—broadcasters, multi system operators (MSOs), cable operators and subscribers/viewers—will find themselves in new territory as the rules guiding digital migration are implemented in India. Based on the experiences of other countries that have gone through digital migration, along with regulations that fit each society, everyone in this broadcast value chain will discover a spectrum of new possibilities as this era unfolds.

India's expanding middle class, its vibrant Bollywood film industry, and its steady advances in broadcasting technologies are all laying the foundation for the introduction of digital cable television, which will deliver a new freedom of choice for viewers in terms of television channels and content, an enforced truce among broadcasters, MSOs and cable operators, and reduced fees for subscribers.

A unique feature of digital migration is that everyone in the broadcast value chain will become a stakeholder, since subscribers are identifiable, and every link in the chain can be managed through a Conditional Access System (CAS).

This CAS, or addressable system, is a description used for a matrix of set top boxes (STBs) and connected software used at different stages in the distribution of a TV network, through which normally the pay channels are transmitted in encrypted form. The subscriber is given an authorisation depending upon his request to view one or more encrypted pay channels of his choice. This authorisation is given and managed by the MSOs that own the conditional access system in a digital cable television network. Here, the MSO is often assisted by the local cable operator. The MSO and the broadcaster will know the exact number of subscribers per pay channel, and the amount that is due from each subscriber.

The present practice in India is that the MSO, after buying/receiving the signals of various channels from different broadcasters, bundles them into a single “bouquet” and transmits them to individual subscribers' homes through the cable operators, and charges for the entire bundle. This sometimes results in a subscriber paying for channels he does not want to see, but has to pay for because they are part of the bundle. However, with the introduction of conditional access following TRAI's mandate, it will be possible for the consumer to decide and choose which channels he or she wants to view and pay accordingly.