Direct To Home (DTH) services will soon be launched in the country. This was stated by Minister of State for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb while Chairing a meeting in Islamabad today.
This technology is aimed at providing quality entertainment to the people, she said.
In November 2016, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) auctioned the country’s first three Direct-To-Home (DTH) licenses for Rs. 14.7 billion but many of the television users in Pakistan are still unaware of the basics of the service.
The DTH technology enables a broadcasting company to directly beam the signal to your TV set through a receiver that is installed in the house. There is no need for a separate cable connection.
The dish is placed outside a home which helps in receiving the signals and broadcasting the transmission onto a television. The signals are digital by nature and are received directly from the satellite.
These digital signals provide better quality in all features and make viewing an absolute pleasure.
With DTH, you will also be able to view High Definition (HD) channels, more number of DTH channels and you can customize the package as per your choice.
There are also widespread complaints of piracy of foreign channels by some of the local cable TV operators as well as individuals. Establishment of DTH service with proper authorization is expected to eliminate such gray market activity to a large extent.
The way DTH reaches a consumer’s home is different from the way cable TV does. In DTH, TV channels are transmitted from the satellite to a small dish antenna mounted on the window or rooftop of the subscriber’s home. So the broadcaster directly connects to the user. The middlemen like local cable operators are not there in the picture.
DTH can also reach the remotest of areas since it does away with the intermediate step of a cable operator and the wires (cables) that come from the cable operator to your house. As we explained above, in DTH signals directly come from the satellite to your DTH dish.
Also, with DTH, a user can scan nearly 700 channels.
DTH will definitely cut into the existing cable user base. It will make the local cable operator less important and take business away from them but, it will give consumers greater choice.
The DTH Operator would receive/downlink the eligible channels (which are authorized by PEMRA for distribution in Pakistan) from various satellites including free to-air and encrypted channels at the head-end / DTH station.
For the encrypted channels the DTH operator would have make payments to the channel operator in accordance with the PEMRA prescribed tariff.
Once downlinked the channels can be edited, where required, to make them conform with the PEMRA code of Conduct. After this the channels would be combined through multiplexer to form a bouquet/channel mix and then uplinked to a designated satellite with adequate transmitting power for distribution to the subscribers.
The subscribers are then able to receive the television channels through a small dish antenna and digital decoder on payment of subscription charges to the DTH operator.
The number of channels will be decided by PEMRA based on the study of local needs, public interest, availability of channels and their conformity with the Code of Conduct .
