Why do Doordarshan, Zee, Star think DTH will work in India?
Today, broadcasters believe that the market is ripe for DTH. The prices of the dish and the set-top box have come down significantly. Overall investments required in putting up a DTH infrastructure has dropped and customers are also reaping the benefits of more attractive tariffs. The major thing that DTH operators are betting on is that the service is coming at a time when the government is pushing for CAS (conditional access system), which will make cable television more expensive, narrowing the tariff gap between DTH and cable. Will DTH be cheaper than cable or more expensive? DTH will be definitely more expensive than cable as it exists today. A set-top box is a must for DTH. Earlier, when CAS made set-top box mandatory for households, the costs between DTH and cable would not have been too wide. But CAS on the backburner now — which means no set-top box (a must for DTH), the price gap between DTH and cable will be wide. In Oct 2002, Siticable, which is owned by Zee, said that the
