Digital television coming on stream

Digital television coming on stream

By I. Christianto

JAKARTA (JP): You will soon be able to enjoy cinema view and
compact disc sound on your television sets as local broadcasters
are starting to embrace the latest digital technology.

At least two Indonesian companies are planning to offer
digital services throughout the archipelago using satellite
networks.

But this pay television will not be cheap.

The pay-television will come via Direct-to-Home (DTH)
satellite services. PT MediaCitra Indostar (MCI) will be the
first company to operate this type of satellite, which is called
Indostar-1 to provide DTH.

The satellite which is to be launched in October, by the
European space consortium Arianespace, will offer at least 40
channels in Indonesia immediately after it becomes operational.

MCI is controlled by media tycoon Peter F. Gontha, who already
has interests in some of Indonesia's existing private television
stations. MCI is affiliated with PT Matahari Lintas Cakrawala,
which currently operates the pay satellite television service
Indovision.

Indovision currently uses the Palapa-C1 satellite for 20-odd
channels, including CNN, TNT, STAR TV, BBC, HBO, Discovery and
ESPN. These channels, along with some additional new and
Indonesian-language programs broadcast from overseas, will be
switched to the Indostar-1 satellite when the 1,150-kilogram
satellite becomes operational.

In addition to MCI, the privately owned PT Satelindo, also
plans to launch a satellite to offer direct-to-home television
broadcasts.

Satelindo currently operates cellular, international
telecommunications and the Palapa C series satellites. Company
managing director for satellites, Janto Warjanto, said the
company would, from next year, operate a new satellite to provide
direct-to-home television.

He said that the service would allow users to enjoy satellite
broadcasts by using small dishes. The project was still being
prepared, he added.

Apart form using satellites, DTH technology is also possible
through traditional terrestrial stations, cable or fiber optic
networks.

DTH usually works within the Ku band, C band, S band or Ka
band of the satellite's transponders.

Decoder

Since the country's first private television RCTI stopped its
decoder operating system, none of the five private TV stations
(TPI, RCTI, SCTV, ANteve and Indosiar) has required viewers to
use such a device to enjoy the programs.

People wanting to watch the upcoming digital television
programs will be able to do so on standard televisions but will
need decoders and small satellite dishes (with diameters ranging
from 45 centimeters and 120 cms) to convert the digital signals.

Pay-television operators require viewers to use smart cards to
access the encrypted programs. The smart cards, similar to credit
cards but containing an embedded microprocessor, will allow users
to pay for and unscramble encrypted digital TV programs.

A smart card usually contains certain zones, each of which
will have the capacity to receive certain TV channels and other
applications, allowing the operator to mix together a variety of
digital services, like as pay-per-view movies, sports and home-
shopping.

The large number of channels is possible because of digital
compression technology, which has the ability to compress as many
as ten channels in a single satellite transponder. In
conventional analog TV, one transponder can only transmit one
channel.

DTH will feature Compact Disc-quality sound and access to
dozens of pay-television services offering particular programs
accompanied by high-quality sound and pictures and round-the-
clock programs. The digital signals offer better use of the
broadcasting spectrum than traditional analog ones. The signals
provide the opening up of many additional channels, all with
sharper audio and vision.

Pay-television services usually offer cultural shows, movies
and dramas, historical documentaries, and science and education
and programs.

The operators usually finance the services through
subscriptions: both from the content providers and the viewers.

Subscribers

The launch of the Indostar-1 satellite will not only expand
the number of channels in Indonesia, it will beam programs
regionally.

The Indostar series will include four satellites, orbiting at
107.7 degrees, 119.1 degrees, 107.5 degrees and 118.9 degrees
East longitude. The three other satellites will be launched by
2003.

The satellites, each with a 12-year life expectancy, will
offer the digital modulation of the Quadrature Phase Shift Keying
(QPSK) for television and the Offset-QPSK and FEC coded for
radio.

Some 30 million homes in Indonesia have television sets. The
upcoming digital TV revolution will probably bring benefits. But
will society be ready to face the possible impacts? Viewers will
be confronted with the choice of a fascinating wide range of
programs and services. Do they really need this?

Despite the existence of possible negative impacts, Warjanto
of Satelindo said that the DTH, or pay-television, business had
good prospects.

"There are some five million telephone line subscribers in
Indonesia. Two-to-four million DTH subscribers will be good," he
said.

He said that the DTH satellite would be able to beam not just
video and audio signals but also data. "This will be a multimedia
service."

He said that almost every satellite operator in the world was
developing DTH satellites, following the success of digital
television technology and the MPEG-2 digital video broadcast
standard.

What about fees? The government is expected to introduce a
regulation similar to the ones through which it sets
telecommunications tariffs and television fees.

Satelindo's executive director of satellites, Louk Jurgen,
said there would be several fee categories like pay-per-view,
company selected packages and personally selected packages.

"But it's common for there to be extra charges for special
events such as world championship boxing fights as there will
usually be rights payments involved," he said.

Jurgen stressed that DTH services would not just concentrate
on entertainment, but education as well.

Viewers' monthly fees will be set at around US$15. They will
have to pay extra for interactive services, such as tele-shopping
and home banking or other multimedia services. And for
interactive pay-per-view, viewers will be charged between $20 and
$40 per special event.