Gadget-friendly Shahrukh Khan says it takes only 20 minutes to digitise a film. And though shooting a film in the digital format is yet to take off in an organised manner in India, SRK?s production house, Red Chillies Entertainment, is planning to shoot a film in the digital format soon. It?s time the Indian entertainment industry woke up to the digital world because sweeping changes are underway elsewhere in the world, especially in the US.
Come February 2009, television viewing in the US will never be the same again as the US government has passed a resolution to completely move away from analog and embrace digital television. This decision in the US was triggered by the September 11 terror attacks. That day, messages couldn?t be sent as telephone lines were jammed and the television bandwidth wasn?t equipped to send messages all over the US.
But how will this decision affect Indian broadcasters and production houses considering Indian television content, especially teary soap operas, are widely distributed in the US? According to Farokh Balsara, head of media and entertainment division, Ernst & Young, ?Every broadcaster in the country today is present in the digital format. However, since we receive transmission through cable connection it comes to us in an analog format. Therefore to that extent television channels will not have much of a problem.? However, Balsara says movies on television, that are also a hit in the West, especially the old movies, need to be converted into the digital format.
Indian broadcasters including Star Television, Zee TV, Sony Entertainment Limited are gearing up to face this huge revolution in the US broadcasting space. For, programmes such as Saregama, Kyuki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Kahani Ghar Ghar Kii, Kasauti Zindagi Kii and so forth are favourites with the NRIs.
According to experts, the formats in which films are showcased today in India are not hi-definition and it uses a digital format known as Mpeg 4. The real hi-definition format is Mpeg 2 and it takes about 30-40 hours to convert films into this format.
Peter Mukerjea, chief strategy officer, INX Network, has been advocating this shift for a long time. He has been raising this issue at various forums. Balaji Telefilms is already producing a show called Kaaaani Hamaaray Mahaabharat Ki for 9X and the show is being made in the HD (high definition) TV format.
Says Indrani Mukerjea, founder and CEO, INX Network, ?Digital is the way ahead. A big challenge and priority for the broadcasting industry in India is to bridge the gap between analog and digital. We have always laid huge importance on technology and have made significant investments in network operations and infrastructure, in which broadcast quality plays a crucial role. From the very inception, INX channels ? whether it was 9XM or 9X, or our English news channel NewsX ? have been broadcast in Mpeg 4 compression, which is HDTV-ready and conforms to the highest international standards of digital quality.?
So, what exactly is digital television? The switch from analog to digital broadcast television is referred to as the digital TV (DTV) transition. In 1996, the US Congress authorised the distribution of an additional broadcast channel to each broadcast TV station so that they could start a digital broadcast channel while simultaneously continuing their analog broadcast channel. Later, Congress mandated that February 17, 2009 would be the last day for full-power television stations to broadcast in analog. Broadcast stations in all US markets are currently broadcasting in both analog and digital.
An important benefit of the switch to all-digital broadcasting is that it will free up parts of the valuable broadcast spectrum for public safety communications . Also, some of the spectrum will be auctioned to companies that will be able to provide consumers with more advanced wireless services such as wireless broadband. Consumers also benefit because digital broadcasting allows stations to offer improved picture and sound quality, and digital is much more efficient than analog. For example, rather than providing one analog program, a broadcaster is able to offer a super sharp ?high definition? (HD) digital program or multiple ?standard definition? (SD) digital programs simultaneously through a process called ?multicasting?.
Multicasting allows broadcast stations to offer several channels of digital programming at the same time, using the same amount of spectrum required for one analog program. So, for example, while a station broadcasting in analog on channel 1 is only able to offer viewers one program, a station broadasting in digital on channel 1 can offer viewers one digital program on channel 1-1, a second digital program on channel 1-2, a third digital program on channel 1-3, and so on. This means more programming choices for viewers.
Balsara says, ?It also provides substantial reduction in cost of production, storage and distribution of content. Low inventory cost for storing digital material, whether in the form of tracks or films and finally, digitisation leads to higher consumption of content due to multiple platforms being accessible to the consumer, thereby directly increasing its value.?
According to Nikhil Alva, CEO, Miditech, one of Asia?s leading independent production companies that has created award winning documentaries to international format game shows, for clients like MTV and National Geographic channels: ?In the US there is a certain amount of terrestrial broadcasting via cable operators so this won?t affect Indian broadcasters in a big way.? Alva says the law will not put much pressure on Indian broadcasters as they have most of the content available in high definition (HD) format. ?In India, Doordarshan will be going HD by 2010 for the Commonweatlth Games. This will set a trigger point in the country as most of the equipment manufacturers have already begun phasing out standard definition (SD) formats. This should be viewed as more of an opportunity rather than a challenge,? he adds.
?I am confident that India will be the first one to adapt to this change,? says SRK. Around three years ago the difference in the cost of converting content from SD to HD was around 70-80% of the total cost of production, whereas now it has come down to 15-20%.
The India story
In India, by 2010, thanks to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India?s (Trai) Conditional Access System (Cas) regulation along with the push from the digital platform players across the country, 28% of an estimated 100 million pay television households will migrate to digital pay television platforms. Among the three platforms, that is, direct-to-home (DTH), digital cable and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), DTH will emerge as the leader over the next three years, predicts Ernst & Young. IPTV is expected to gain close to 1 million subscribers by 2010. The growth of IPTV will, however, be limited due to high cost of additional infrastructure and low broadband penetration.
In the digital cable scenario, from a current share of 78% for local cable operator (LCO), 5% for multi system operator (MSO) and 17% for the broadcaster, ?we expect the share to be redistributed and stabilise at 54% for the LCO and 23% for the MSO and broadcaster, each,? says Balsara. In the DTH scenario, while the industry is still at a very nascent stage, the revenue share will stabilise in the range of 60%?70% in favour of the DTH operator. According to Ernst & Young data, in the film segment, digitisation of the distribution business will bring down the print duplication cost to a mere 8% of the current celluloid format duplication costs. This will allow film makers to reach out to wider theatrical markets, achieving 10 times the existing reach, on day one, thus maximising film revenues within a short span of time. This will further significantly reduce the release window for each platform and unlock value from ancillary revenues like home entertainment rights, which are currently under-utilised due to an extended theatrical window.
