Questions swirl around India's digital-TV road map

[icernet-admin at listserv.cddc.vt.edu]

The Indian government's decision two years ago to allow the uplink of 
satellite television broadcasts from within the country is one of many 
factors driving India toward greater use of digital TV, but opposing 
factors standing in the way are equally strong and numerous. That's put a 
good deal of uncertainty, and guesswork, into this country's conversion to 
DTV broadcasts.

As in China and the United States, analog and digital TV transmissions 
coexist in India, though most transmitters and almost all televisions in 
use here are analog.

How soon the changeover to digital transmission occurs will depend largely 
on Prasar Bharati, the statutory body that operates India's radio and 
television channels. Doordarshan, the board's television arm, was India's 
only broadcaster for years; with 1,421 transmitters and 23 channels that 
collectively reach nearly 90 percent of the country's population, it still 
leaves private broadcasters in the dust. Most of the transmitters used to 
reach Doordarshan's 360 million subscribers are analog, though the operator 
is upgrading its systems for digital transmission and simulcast mode.

While broadcasting technology has only started to go digital in the last 
two years or so, content production is moving to the digital format, with 
only a few channels still sticking to analog. Most of the bigger private 
broadcasters, including the Rupert Murdoch-owned Star Television and 
regional language channels, have adopted the digital format for both 
transmissions and content.

Equipment that supports digital transmissions is not made in India, which 
is struggling to establish an electronics-manufacturing base, and therefore 
must be imported. Currently, import duties for much digital transmission 
equipment are 51 percent, an amount that seems tolerable only when compared 
with the 80 percent charges of three years ago. 

Source:
http://www.eetimes.com/sys/news/OEG20031124S0077