DTH in Pakistan: A distant dream?

Posted by Arsalan

January 10, 2009

Introduction to DTH

Direct-to-Home (abbreviated as DTH) is a satellite-based TV broadcasting system intended primarily for home users. From Pakistan’s perspective, it is different from traditional cable TV system in a numbers of ways like:

1. It provides digital transmission. So, you can never have snowy channels.

2. Since it’s satellite based, no cables are used between the service provider and your home.

3. DTH is a multi billion rupees project. It is operated by trustable and established corporations who maintain quality and standards. On the other hand, every Tom, Dick and Harry has started a cable TV system with investment of just a few hundred thousands of rupees.

4. DTH also facilitates other benefits like Parental Lock, Electronic Programming Guide, Interactive Channels etc.

DTH in Pakistan

I try to explain in simple words how it works. There are various satellites over the sky that contains the TV channels that we see on our TV. For example, ARY Digital (and other ARY channels) are on satellite Intelsat10. Geo TV (and other Geo channels) are on another satellite Asiasat 3S. Many local language channels (like Sindh TV, Apna TV etc) are on another satellite called Thaicom. So, the different channels we see on our TV are dispersed on different satellites. Remember, all these channels are broadcasting in digital video & audio. What our cable TV company do is to use several satellite dishes to catch all those channels. Then, those channels are broadcasted to our homes through the cable that the cable TV company has laid. The medium that the cable TV company uses is not digital (the cable laid to our home and the equipment used by the cable TV company). So, the digital signal of the TV channel, that is got through the satellite dish, doesn’t remain digital anymore.

Now, let’s see how DTH works. the DTH company acquires their own satellite. Just like cable TV company, they install several satellite dishes on their premises to get the TV channels from different satellite but instead of sending us them to our homes through cables, they send those signals on their own satellite. For example, they get about 100 TV channels from 10 satellites but send those 100 TV channels to a single satellite. This getting of TV channels through satellite is called downlinking and sending those TV channels to a satellite is called uplinking. At our end, what we do is to install a small dish on our roof pointed towards the satellite of the DTH provider, enabling us to view TV channels in digital format.

DTH in Pakistan

In all the aspects, DTH technology is far superior that analog cable TV system that we have in Pakistan. So, what’s stopping Pakistan to start it? The main reason is the huge investment. DTH project requires hundreds of millions of dollars of investment. It is more than 10 times of investment required to launch a TV channel. Due to uncertainty of policies in Pakistan, privately owned organizations are reluctant for such huge investments.

During Musharraf government In 2003, PEMRA (Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority) awarded DTH licenses to ARY Communications (i-e the group behind ARY TV Network) and The Cross Currents (the group behind Geo TV). Cross Currents offered the maximum bid of Rs 250 million and ARY offered Rs 192.5. ARY then matched Cross Current bid.

From 2003 till the end of that government in 2007, the government claimed at many occasions that “DTH Project will be started soon“.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said Saturday that the Pakistan Television Corporation will soon launch a 100 channel Direct To Home (DTH) service for its subscribers.

Dated: 20th December 2003

Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) will soon launch Direct-to-Home (DTH) service with a bouquet of 50 channels, PTV Managing Director Akhtar Waqar Azeem said on Thursday. The DTH channels will commence functioning within the next six months, especially in areas where cable is not available, he added.

Dated: 2nd April 2004

Pakistan will soon open its doors to direct-to-home (DTH). Pakistan’s minister for information and broadcasting and senator Muhammad Ali Durrani says that the ministry would soon launch DTH in collaboration with the private sector.

Dated: 26 December 2006

The latest update we have about PTV’s DTH is that two tender notices were published in newspapers by PTV on 25th June 2007 and 5th July 2007 for provision of DTH equipment. No news till then! There is a rumour floating nowadays that Wateen and ARY have joined hands to start DTH by the mid of 2009. Let’s hope for the best.

Our neighbour India has already six DTH operators:

1. Dish TV (a ZEE TV subsidiary)

2. Tata Sky (a joint venture of Star TV and Tata Group)

3. Sun Direct (owned by South India based Sun TV Network)

4. Big TV (owned by Reliance Group)

5. Airtel Digital TV (owned by Airtel)

6. DD Direct (owned by state-owned Doordarshan)

Even Sri Lanka has a DTH service by the name of Dialog TV operated by Sri Lankan company Dialog Telecom.

It’s the time for the big private media groups like Geo & ARY and Telecom groups like Wateen & Mobilink to wake up and initiate at least one DTH service in Pakistan. No hopes and expectations from PTV, the personal servant of whichever government is it!

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