Prasar Bharati CEO addresses TSDSI Tech Deep Dive Conference 2021

Evolution of Broadcasting in India

In this section, the speaker talks about the evolution of broadcasting in India from the early days of radio and television to the current scenario where video consumption is driving a revolution.

Historical Background

• Broadcasting started in India in the 1930s with All India Radio and later expanded to television broadcasting with Doordarshan.

• Until the late 1990s, public broadcaster was the sole provider of broadcast services in India.

• With the opening up of Indian economy, private broadcasters entered the market and offered more choices to consumers.

Shift from Terrestrial Broadcasting to Cable and Satellite

• Unlike other countries that evolved from analog terrestrial TV to digital terrestrial TV, India skipped a step and went directly from analog terrestrial TV to cable and satellite.

• This led to a dramatic change where households had access to multiple channels instead of just one or two.

Explosion of Internet Traffic

• With advent of internet and smartphones, there has been an explosion of internet traffic especially video traffic.

• Mobile data costs have decreased leading to an entirely new scenario where video consumption is driving a revolution.

• The evolution of broadcast standards is crucial for future broadcasting as consumers are no longer sitting in front of a physical radio or television set.

The Future of Broadcasting: Direct to Mobile

In this section, the speaker discusses the need for broadcasting to adapt to changing viewing habits and patterns. They argue that in order to remain relevant, broadcasting needs to be direct to mobile.

Broadcasting Needs to Capture Changing Viewing Habits

• Broadcasting needs to capture changing viewing habits and patterns.

• The evolution of broadcasting needs to capture internet-based use cases.

Broadcasting Needs to Be Direct-to-Mobile

• In the future, broadcasting has to be direct-to-mobile.

• Being direct-to-home was important a decade ago, but now being direct-to-mobile is crucial.

• If broadcasters are not direct-to-mobile in a decade from now, they will not be relevant anymore.

Unique Role of Public Broadcasters

• Public broadcasters have a unique role and responsibility in putting out information, news, live events, alerts of public importance national importance.

• Public broadcasters also have a unique role in disasters and emergency situations where content of public importance must reach citizens across platforms and devices.

Mandate for Content Availability on Mobile Devices

• A new range of broadcast capabilities must be mandatorily provisioned on end-user devices.

• The mandatory carriage law required TV channels of the public broadcaster are mandatorily carried on all set-top boxes.

• For mobile viewing and increasing consumption of video through mobile devices, an equivalent public mandate is needed requiring content availability on broadcast frequencies delivered directly to mobile phones.

Evolving Standards for Direct Mobile Broadcasting

In this section, the speaker discusses how standards should evolve for direct mobile broadcasting. They suggest enhancing existing architectures such as digital terrestrial television towers and building intrinsic capabilities into mobile devices.

Enhancing Existing Architectures

• Existing architectures such as digital terrestrial television towers can be enhanced to service mobile phones.

• Broadcast content should be sent out not just to fixed television sets but also to people on the go on their smartphones.

Intrinsic Capabilities in Mobile Devices

• Direct mobile broadcasting should become a capability inherent in mobile devices.

• End-user experience should evolve where these capabilities are built into the mobile phones, just like FM receiver capability is built into smartphones.

• Building various applications around this intrinsic capability will realize the true potential of direct mobile broadcasting.

India-Specific Dimension to Standards Efforts

• India-specific dimensions are required for standards efforts since other countries' work does not factor in unique needs and demands of the Indian market and scenario.

• There is a lot of innovation and research happening in India thanks to the leadership that TSDSI has taken and collaboration with ATSC in the United States.

India's Future in Direct Mobile Broadcasting

In this section, the speaker discusses the importance of India's emergence as an intellectual fountainhead for innovation in direct mobile broadcasting.

Importance of Collaboration between TSDSI and ATSC

• 5G broadcasting is a low-hanging fruit that can be realized through collaboration between TSDSI and ATSC.

• The speaker sees similarities between India and the United States, making it easier to collaborate.

• This collaboration can ensure that low-hanging fruits are realized between two of the largest markets for mobile data broadcast services.

Importance of Direct Mobile Broadcasting for India

• It is important for India's public broadcaster to see a future in direct mobile broadcasting.

• The speaker hopes to see a roadmap emerge for the evolution of terrestrial broadcasting with a direct mobile future in mind.

• Direct mobile broadcasting will have radio and audio streaming as important components.

Use Cases for Direct Mobile Broadcasting

• Radio content can be brought onto a mobile phone through an app delivered through traditional content delivery networks.

• Hybrid use cases where audience measurement can also be built-in so we can make radio measurable.

• A multitude of such use cases makes the direct-to-mobile broadcasting vision essential for the public broadcaster.

Call to Action

• The speaker calls on TSDSI to lead efforts to bring all stakeholders together and ensure that we have a D2M roadmap that emerges with everyone's buy-in.

• This should become a global standard in line with whatever is in store for the future, be it 5G, 6G, etc.

Conclusion

• The speaker thanks TSDSI for this online conference and wishes all participants well.

• They hope to have a live demonstration of direct mobile broadcasting with state-of-the-art mobile phones and a compelling user experience in the near future.