Synopsis
India has long had a fascination with television. After years of steady growth, the country has emerged as one of the largest TV markets in the world in terms of viewers. In the last decade the television programming landscape has been totally transformed. India now has one of the largest broadcasting networks in the world in terms of infrastructure. Doordarshan, the Indian National Television Network, reaches more than 90% of the population. But there remains much work to be done as India still has a significant component of the market that is analogue (an estimated 90 million analogue households by 2010). Transitioning the mass market to digital is a major challenge. There are already rapidly expanding digital segments in the TV market, notably IPTV/Broadband TV and with some digitalisation of the traditional platforms proceeding at a good pace. The type of expansion being witnessed in digital media is expected to continue at an increased rate.
Key developments:
Transitioning the mass market to digital is a major challenge for India; regulation of the pay TV market also remains a problem as there many unlicensed operators; the government had set 2013 as the target year for completing the conversion to digital; however pressure was building to extend the deadline to 2014.
Companies covered in this report include:
Doordarshan, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Tata Sky, Aksh Optifibre, Viacom, Network18, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL).
