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.