Trendspotting

As the curtains close on another year, the industry braces itself for the changes that 2011 will bring with it. Chesta Shah Sengupta analyses the emerging trends set to shape the future of broadcast and production in India

1. high on definition

A shift to digital broadcasting is the first major change in transmission standards in 50 years. This allows the broadcasters to provide content in new, more striking formats. We have seen that digital signals take up less bandwidth, the transmissions that are sent out are far superior to their analogue counterparts: broadcasters are providing sharper pictures (or more channels with standard quality pictures), wider pictures (with a 16:9 aspect ratio, similar to motion pictures) and slowly content is beginning to be broadcast in Dolby 5.1 digital surround sound.

The marked trend towards increased graphic content in almost all of today’s productions is a strong indicator of the important role being played by high definition content – when it comes to driving consumer demand, higher quality pictures will be the key.

The coming year will definitely see more channels embracing HD. At present only a few are available in HDTV format depending on the dish television service provider. The Common Wealth Games held in October 2010, gave the desired shot-in-the-arm to this format, with Doordarshan commencing HD broadcast. Though considered expensive, India will see a gradual growth of HD.

Eventually when HDTV broadcast starts in India who will be the content providers? Will it be the private DTH players or the state run DD? These questions remain unanswered. Will new content be created or current content upscaled and converted for HDTV transmission?

Can we receive HDTV content with the current set top boxes provided by the lot of DTH providers? Will HDTV content be viewable on a non-HD display and will the HDTV signal carry HD surround formats like Dolby True HD, DTS HD Master? Let’s wait and watch.

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From buying candies at vending machines to travelling in subways, mobiles are used everywhere, especially in Japan, where there is fast, unparalleled 3G connections.

In India too, the mobile with the availability of the 3G is set to expand and there are a few learnings from the DTH industry, which has grown in the way the mobile industry was revolutionised - Both the markets (Mobile and DTH) thrive on the basis of subscription numbers and there is no boundary when it comes to urban or rural subscribers. However, in both the industries, the average revenue per user (Arpu) is way lower in India than across the globe. But huge market potential gives a rosy long-term picture with the big boys competing in both these industries - Airtel, Tata and Reliance.

In India, Live TV on mobile phones is a thrilling vision, where more than 230 million mobile phone connections and about 120 million TV sets, are in use. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) - the broadcasting regulator, has considered and approved the idea of accessing TV on mobiles. Taking into account that one among six people across the world has a mobile phone and watching TV is one of the most popular pastimes, the prospective for mobile TV in India appears vast in time. It is expected that there would be 5 to 8 million mobile TV users in the country by next year.

3 Growth in regional content

It is a known fact that regional channels have a larger share of advertising in the evening than the general entertainment channels. With the population of most Indian states greater than the combined population of Canada and Australia, Orissa shows a jump of over 65% jump in C & S and DTH homes over the last year. Of the 1,288 films certified in 2010, 35% were non- Hindi. The expanding non-metro markets are mainly because shooting has got much easier, there is a growing consumerism, and exposure to content beyond films and television.

The growing number of Youth organised funding, big players expanding into niche and regional channels, Hollywood’s localised content and adviser’s increased interest in non metros have all contributed to the expanding non metro markets. Digital Cinemas, media schools across India, penetration of internet and broadband and government initiatives have considerably added to the increasing figures. The underlying drivers funnelling this growth are mini plexes, mobile 3G, Wi max and education for all.