India Broadband Forum

icar · 07-08-08, 11:04 AM

Dish TV gears up to take on MPEG 4 competition

Quote:

Direct-to-home (DTH) service provider Dish TV India Ltd is gearing up for competition from rivals Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel, who are launching their services on the latest technological platform MPEG 4. Dish TV and Tata Sky currently provide services on the MPEG 2 format. However, Dish TV says it is “quite confident” of meeting the competition from the new entrants as MPEG 4 and MPEG 2 offer virtually the same video and audio quality. The only difference is in the cost of set-top boxes, which is much higher for MPEG 4.

Dish TV currently offers set-top boxes for free and plans to launch its own satellite to further enhance its capacity. “MPEG 4 boxes are much more expensive and may put extra burden on the subscriber. Moreover, the MPEG 4 format is not in accordance with BIS (Bureau of Indian Standard) and the government’s regulations and, hence, is not interoperable with MPEG 2 boxes,” Jawahar Goel, managing director, Dish TV, told DNA Money.
Experts say MPEG 4 set-top boxes are 50% more expensive than set-top boxes for MPEG 2 formats.

Dish TV, which is endorsed by Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan, said new players need to come out with a device “to make their services interoperable” to millions of boxes that are already owned by consumers.
Dish TV, which has a first-mover advantage in this business, has 3.4 million subscribers. There are around 5 million DTH subscribers in the country.
“We feel there is room for everyone. The enhanced competition will see customers getting more educated, which will lead to faster adoption of the category and everyone will enjoy a secular share,” Goel added.
As the satellite transponder costs have shot up, many DTH operators are opting for the latest compression technology MPEG 4, which allows them to squeeze in more channels in the same bandwidth capacity.
However, the Essel Group-promoted Dish TV has no plans to upgrade its format to MPEG 4 as it makes “no business sense,” especially after it launches its own satellite.

“It does not make business sense for us to upgrade to MPEG 4 at the moment. Those who don’t have enough satellite capacity are going for MPEG 4 compression technology,” Goel said.
Dish TV posted revenues of Rs 416.1 crore in the financial year ended March 31 2008.

DNA - Money - Dish TV gears up to take on MPEG 4 competition - Daily News & Analysis

aktmnr · 07-08-08, 02:47 PM

And finally the much awaited channel NDTV Imagine is out on DishTV thanks for the competition from tata sky

just4kix · 07-08-08, 05:19 PM

I cannot understand all that fuss about MPEG4. The players should be start thinking about HD transmission... but I guess that nobody cares too much about that.

aktmnr · 07-08-08, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by just4kix

I cannot understand all that fuss about MPEG4. The players should be start thinking about HD transmission... but I guess that nobody cares too much about that.

But for that we should have channels broadcasting in HDTV format. I don't think we have any channel in India being broadcast in this format.

just4kix · 07-08-08, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aktmnr

But for that we should have channels broadcasting in HDTV format. I don't think we have any channel in India being broadcast in this format.

All programs are recorded using very high end Canon or Sony cameras. They are all HD compliant. The same is especially true about Sports. So there is no worry about the source.

If the infrastructure exists for HD, you will get HD. But the cavaet is, HD channels will be pricier than SD - this is how it is abroad.

neo001 · 07-17-08, 11:03 AM

but my question is are you able to see any difference in picture quality with MPEG 2 amd MPEG 4....No. and above all if you were thinking of HD channels then you need a tv set which is compatible to HD channels as well to recieve those. with normal tv's their is no difference in SD and HD channels.

just4kix · 07-17-08, 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by neo001

but my question is are you able to see any difference in picture quality with MPEG 2 amd MPEG 4....No. and above all if you were thinking of HD channels then you need a tv set which is compatible to HD channels as well to recieve those. with normal tv's their is no difference in SD and HD channels.

MPEG4 uses better compression and optimized codecs. This way more channels can be squeezed into the same bandwidth. For HD transmission, MPEG4 will become a boon because of this.

You are right about TVs - to enjoy HD you will require HD TV. But right now HD TVs are costly. And why? Because of less demand. When HD transmission is available, demand for HD TVs will increase boosting demand and production. With more units in sales, prices will come down. This is what happened elsewhere too. And the same thing is happening for TVs in India too.

So DTH should start offering some HD channels - at least the sports channels.

players_player · 07-17-08, 12:32 PM

you know if there is anything i dont like to believe, its that...

When demand is high then prices fall!!...

Because lets take for example if prices ARE less then demand is even higher... cos consumption is even higher with regards to that particular item.

BASICALLY IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH DEMAND BUT EVERYTHING TO DO WITH HOW MUCH THOSE BUSINESSMEN WANNA EARN AND BECOME MORE RICH.

just4kix · 07-17-08, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by players_player

you know if there is anything i dont like to believe, its that...

When demand is high then prices fall!!...

Because lets take for example if prices ARE less then demand is even higher... cos consumption is even higher with regards to that particular item.

BASICALLY IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH DEMAND BUT EVERYTHING TO DO WITH HOW MUCH THOSE BUSINESSMEN WANNA EARN AND BECOME MORE RICH.

When Demand is high, the prices do not fall. In fact they rise. It is only when Supply is high and there is good competition that prices fall.

Actually I made an ass of myself by making a half statement in the previous post.

Strong demand induces production to increase and new players also jump in to cash in on the demand. When production rises the prices come down. In the Hi-Technology industry, there is a very short product life cycle and new innovations/superior technology is always outdating the old products. Thus price drops are frequent and steep.

This is, unless some bodies form a cartel to keep demand high, production low and thus prices high.

dishtvdishtv · 10-10-08, 11:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aktmnr

But for that we should have channels broadcasting in HDTV format. I don't think we have any channel in India being broadcast in this format.

I think newsx in HDTV format, thats what their adv says

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07-08-08, 02:47 PM	#2
aktmnr Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Age: 26 Posts: 83 Rep Power: 2	And finally the much awaited channel NDTV Imagine is out on DishTV thanks for the competition from tata sky

07-08-08, 05:19 PM	#3
just4kix Platinum Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Pune Posts: 8,899 Blog Entries: 6 Rep Power: 19	I cannot understand all that fuss about MPEG4. The players should be start thinking about HD transmission... but I guess that nobody cares too much about that.

07-17-08, 11:03 AM	#6
neo001 Bronze Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Delhi Posts: 255 Rep Power: 2	but my question is are you able to see any difference in picture quality with MPEG 2 amd MPEG 4....No. and above all if you were thinking of HD channels then you need a tv set which is compatible to HD channels as well to recieve those. with normal tv's their is no difference in SD and HD channels.

07-17-08, 12:32 PM	#8
players_player Silver Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Mumbai Age: 29 Posts: 295 Rep Power: 2	you know if there is anything i dont like to believe, its that... When demand is high then prices fall!!... Because lets take for example if prices ARE less then demand is even higher... cos consumption is even higher with regards to that particular item. BASICALLY IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH DEMAND BUT EVERYTHING TO DO WITH HOW MUCH THOSE BUSINESSMEN WANNA EARN AND BECOME MORE RICH.

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Dish TV gears up to take on MPEG 4 competition

Dish TV gears up to take on MPEG 4 competition

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