India’s Public broadcaster Prasar Bharati has revealed its plans to diversify and start broadcasting 20 free to air channels through DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcast-Terrestrial). The Broadcaster will tie up with private media companies for this program.
This service will begin in the Mumbai and Delhi regions. These channels will be beamed through DVB-T2 lite which can also be accessed by a dongle.
Prasar Bharti CEO Jawhar Sircar said that “At present you have choice of dish, cable and antenna. The fourth choice that will come up is digital antenna which will offer a bouquet of 20 free channels on TV this year and next year on mobile'
Prasar Bharati plans to start free to air channels at DTH level and also partner with the private media firms. The channels are accessible through the dongle and once this technology picks up it is sure that the cell phone manufacturers will embed the chip in their devices reports Television Post.
We already have many such applications from service providers like Tata Sky which allow us to watch our favorite program at a nominal fees but the thing is that they consume a huge chunk of Mobile Data for streaming. The DVB-T will be transmitted from the TV Towers just like the other Doordarshan franchise and will not need Mobile Data to function.
This mode of transmission seems to be already very efficient in Europe owing to the lower costs and increased advert revenues due to the higher number of viewers. Would love to know how you would perceive this newest technology.