Broadcom to power Airtel DTH in India

MUMBAI,INDIA: Telecom service provider Bharti Airtel, which recently diversified into direct-to-home TV service, announced on Tuesday that it has selected the satellite set-top box system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions from Broadcom, a technology innovator in semiconductors.

This decision by Airtel digital TV marks Broadcom’s first commercial satellite product launch in India, said a press release.

Broadcom Corporation’s DVB-S2 technology will allow Bharti Airtel gain 30 per cent greater capacity and offer additional services, channels, and on-demand and interactive content within the same transponder allocation, providing subscribers with more television choices and a better overall user experience, the release said.

“Direct-to-home technology is emerging as the leading digital TV transmission platform. Consumer demand for better picture quality and advanced video services have become catalysts that are driving demand for DTH pay-TV services throughout India,” said Mike Paxton, a Principal Analyst at In-Stat, a leading market research firm.

According got In-Stat, India’s pay-TV subscriber base is expected to reach 90 million by 2012. The number of DTH subscribers in India is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 38.9 per cent from 2007 to 2012.

This includes 4.3 million DTH subscribers in 2007 that will grow to approximately 22.2 million subscribers by 2012. And the Indian DTH market is expected to capture 24.6 percent of the total pay-TV subscriber base by 2012.

To satisfy the growing market potential and demand in India for satellite TV, Bharti Airtel selected the Broadcom BCM7454 standard definition (SD) satellite STB solution with integrated H.264, MPEG-4 and VC-1 video decoding, and the Broadcom BCM4505 integrated satellite tuner and demodulator front-end solution, the release added.