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| Photo: Open Channel ApS |
Public service plans to broadcast 20 free DVB-T2 Lite channels and radio on mobile phones
Television broadcaster Doordarshan plans to start broadcasting directly a bouquet of 20 free-to-air television channels in partnership with private media on mobile phones from next year. The service on mobile phones is being planned in Mumbai and Delhi to start with.
Doordarshan will use DVB-T2 Lite technology which can be accessed through a dongle at present. Target is to start with all free-to-air channels operating at our DTH platform, said Shri Jahwar Sincair, CEO of Prasar Bharati, the public broadcasting company operating Doordarshan and All India Radio.
DVB-T2 - 2nd Generation Terrestrial Broadcasting - will transmit signal from TV towers and will not consume mobile Internet for TV viewing. The transmission will be facilitated through an application which will act as a switch to on TV service on mobile phones.
The moment telecom companies see it picking, they may embed it inside mobile phone said Sircar. We now don’t get to watch television during 10-12 hours of office time. Most of the things happen on either tablet or on mobile phone. There are so many people who travel daily and can watch channels on mobile phone as long as their battery supports without paying for the service. It will be supported by ad revenue, Sircar said. India will have about 225 million smartphones by the end of this year and he expects it to be around 185-190 million which is humongous and more than the population of many countries.
Doordarshan will also broadcast digital radio with DVB-T2 Lite. There are no plans to introduce DAB in India, but there are plans for DRM starting with in the mediumwave AM band. At the moment Doordarshan is testing one TV channel and three radio channels in New Delhi. (Sources: The Hindu Business Line, Kenneth Wenzel CEO at Open Channel ApS Copenhagen)
DVB-T2 Lite provides a 2 ½ to 4 times increase in capacity compared to the DAB/DAB+ standard under the same broadcasting conditions. It is also better for indoor reception and less sensitive to impulse noise, as well as being better suited for in-car reception. DVB-T2 Lite is used in VHF band III (also used by DVB-T(2) television and T-DAB radio) as well as in the UHF band. This technical system should not be confused with DVB-T2 LTE broadcast (eMBMS) which is a mobile transmission technology for television and radio broadcasting on mobile broadband.
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