TRAI calls for upgrading DD Free Dish to an addressable system

While giving its recommendations for the National Broadcasting Policy, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) took cognizance of the stakeholders’ concerns about free-to-air DTH service DD Free Dish being a non-addressable platform.

In response to a questions in the Consultation Paper brought out by TRAI regarding content production and dissemination by public service broadcaster, some of the stakeholders opined that the public service broadcaster should be subjected to similar regulations as with other DPOs to ensure level playing field. They stressed upon the need to upgrade DD Free Dish to an addressable system to reduce piracy, create a level playing field with other DPOs and obtain an accurate subscriber count.  

The Authority noted that at present, there is no effective mechanism to authenticate data about the number of subscribers accessing DD Free Dish services.

Various reports reveal different data for DD Free Dish households. While some reports indicate there are 45 million households with DD Free Dish, other sources suggest that the number of DD Free Dish households are at 58 million, reflecting a huge difference in subscribers’ data. Addressability of DD Free Dish STBs would provide a possible breakthrough to get the exact subscriber counts.

The Authority is of the view to upgrade the non-addressable DD Free Dish platform to addressable systems. It noted that addressability enables efficient transmission of television signals through a STB installed at the customer’s premises, facilitating conditional access and ensuring content security. The installation of a Subscriber Management System (SMS) linked to the STB enables the generation of accurate subscriberwise data, management of subscriber information, channel details and other related activities, thereby enhancing the quality of service provided to subscribers.

Therefore, the Authority is of the view that to leverage the potential benefits of the addressable system and to fulfil the mandate of Prasar Bharati of delivering quality content and services in public interest, DD Free Dish platform needs to be upgraded to addressable systems in a time-bound manner with a defined sunset date. This would also address the issue of level playing field with private television channels.

TRAI emphasised that migrating DD Free Dish from unencrypted non-addressable system to digital addressable systems would prevent piracy and unauthorised re-distribution of the content.