India:: 11th Plan Spends US$350m on Radio and TV Networks

Indian Government Spends More on National Radio and TV Networks in Face of Growing Commercial Broadcaster Competition - Move to Benefit Audio and Video Equipment Manufacturers Digital Broadcast Vendor News Asia (DBVNA) has been following India's development of its terrestrial digital broadcasting under the country's 11th Five Year Plan (2007-2012). On April 8, 2010 the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure (CCI) approved proposals from the Ministry of Broadcasting for Doordarshan (TV) and Akashvani (All India Radio) to digitise its transmitter networks, and studio output. The move costing Rs 1,540 crore (nearly US$350 million) is to help maintain the state radio and TV broadcasters leading role in light of increasing challenges from the private broadcasters. This move will likely prove a true bonanza for digital broadcast equipment manufacturers. The Minister for Information and Broadcasting Minister, Ms Ambika Soni said that the expansion program was to bring people in the remotest regions of the country more program choice and highest quality of transmission, including HDTV. Some 60 per cent of the budget would go to AIR and the rest to DD. DD would see 40 new digital transmitters installed linked by satellite that would increase the choice from eight DD channels to 10 for most viewers. The liberalization of commercial radio has reached Phase III - bringing radio to towns with populations of around 100,000 population. Digital Broadcast Vendor News Asia notes that Minister Ambika sees Radio Phase III as posing a serious challenge to the current role of AIR in these areas/markets. This has prompted more urgent development of the Akashvani radio network to face head on the new market circumstances. The spending under the 11th Plan will involve replacement of Medium Wave transmitters with digital transmitters, digitalisation of studio operations and network links, establishment of regional digital archives and further newsroom automation.

Digital Broadcasters | India | Doordarshan Works with Envivio and SHAF

Digital Broadcasters Vendor News has learnt that San Francisco based, Envivio a privately held company supplied the digital Mobile TV Head End equipment for the Doordarshan Mobile TV digital terrestrial trials in New Delhi. The MPEG-4 head end (transmitter) package includes 4Caster M2 encoders and the 4Manager network management system. The Envivio system fits cross media deployment by supporting the most broadcast and telco network standards, including 3GPP, 3GPP2, DVB-H, DMB and ISDB-T. Envivio supplied the mobile TV transmission equipment to broadcast integrator, SHAF Broadcast Pvt Ltd. The digital broadcast pilot project is offering eight TV channels initially. Later in 2007 it will be expanded to 16 , the pilot is delivering a high quality mobile TV experience to Indian consumers. Doordarshan is not only testing the technical aspects of the broadcast distribution signals through Mobile TV but it is also exploring the different possibilities for service bouquets, including advertising and interactive services to through testing consumer feedback. The information is sourced via a release from Envivio Inc.