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  Prasar Bharati  to start high-definition TV (HDTV) services 

              Taking its step towards making TV-viewing a better experience for Indians , public broadcaster Prasar Bharati is soon going to start high-definition TV (HDTV) services on an experimental basis. The broadcaster plans to introduce HDTV in the country by 2010 when viewers would be able to watch the Commonwealth Games in high-definition mode.

                The Central government is looking at formulating a policy framework to introduce and promote HDTV which provides TV viewing at a much better resolution. Also, the government is considering stopping all analogue broadcast before the Commonwealth Games in the Capital and across the country by 2015.

               HDTV is a digital television broadcasting system with greater resolution than traditional television signals. It is digitally broadcast and requires less bandwidth, if sufficient video compression of content is done.

              The Planning Commission’s Working Group on Information and Broadcasting report for the 11th Five Year Plan has stressed on the importance of and the need to establish HDTV which enables delivery of better quality pictures to viewers’ homes and is considered as an important area in upcoming technologies.

               The Central government believes that HDTV format is fast catching up globally and needs to be established for the telecast of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi before 2010 and later across the country.

               However, information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry sources point out that HDTV may not be financially viable and therefore initially, Prasar Bharati is likely to start HDTV services on an experimental basis. “The investments on production systems and receiving equipment for HDTV signals is high,” added a senior Prasar Bharati official.

               The government also wants to set a target date by which the analogue broadcasting system would be completely stopped. The country’s Capital, which is also the host of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, would be the first city to switch to digital transmission through conditional access system (CAS) by 2010 and the government wants the entire country to switch to digital cable by 2015.

               “Telecom regulator TRAI has submitted its recommendations to the I&B ministry, under which the regulator has suggested that in the first phase, cities which have over one million population be digitised,”said a TRAI official.

                The   regulator has already launched consultation paper for emerging technologies like Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), mobile television, HITS (head-end in the sky). As far as the digitisation plans are concerned, the I&B ministry is running behind schedule for launching the first phase.

 

              

 

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