GUEST COLUMN

MONROE PRICE	STEFAAN VERHULST

Doordarshan- WILL IT SERVE AS A DTH BEACON FOR THE WORLD

Now that it seems almost certain that Doordarshan will control India's DTH platform for at least its initial two years of operation, a number of interesting questions and challenges arise. How DD undertakes this responsibility will be keenly watched: we do not know of any other case, anywhere in the world, where a state or public service broadcaster (existing in a competitive public-private television environment) will play exactly this role. Many governments have drafted must-carry requirements for DTH platforms with regard to public broadcasters but none have awarded an exclusive use or management function to them. The experiment is also important because public service broadcasters everywhere are trying to determine an appropriate adjustment to the digital world. How can the public service broadcaster maintain standards, help improve services to consumers, or otherwise redefine itself given the digital opportunities.

One pretty clear task for DD is to consider how its use and management of the DTH platform can push it toward new forms of programming excellence, providing some institutional space for innovation, particularly in format. Not only should there be new kinds of programming for the home, but DD should also use this as a moment to experiment with complementary uses of the high-definition and high-cost of delivery signals. These could include socially important uses, as, for example, in telemedicine training, where DTH and digital imagery can make an important contribution.

The introduction of new technology offers new opportunities to increase the reach, potential and benefits of electronic communications. There were some dreary and some exciting aspects of the early SITE experiment in terms of television and social and economic development. Perhaps DD might find some exciting aspects that would echo the best aspects of SITE. DD can explore linking universities with uses that are possible only with digital signals from a DTH platform.. In each of these areas, the key is content, content of quality, content that is produced for the specific new purposes that DTH allows. From a practical standpoint, even more important will be how DD, as platform manager, decides which of its commercial competitors should have the magic opportunity of access to the platform.

This problem of conflict of interest between the manager of a platform and its competitors is emerging world-wide In the UK, the contour of the problem is the similar, though the manager is not the BBC, but BSkyB. BSkyB owns the dominant DTH platform and makes decisions about what signals are carried and how they are bundled. The Office of Fair Trading has been concerned about monopoly power here and has conducted several reviews of BskyB's position. It is still a question of monitoring. BskyB has not been adjudged guilty of abuses. In the US, in the Cable Act of 1992, the Congress constructed a cumbersome approach-called the Open Video System-that applied to telephone company managers of multi-channel television distribution platforms. The telephone company was limited to a specified portion of the number of channels and the remaining channels had to be made available almost on a common carrier basis.

Access to the platform is not the only barrier for competitors to entry to the DTH market. Other barriers that a dominant player can impose include the following: control of quality programming rights for DTH (including sports); means of managing the subscriber base; control of programme selections through control of navigational devices; and control of encryption technology compatible with the installed dish base.

DTH can be a light unto the nations by dealing fairly with all these questions, carving out a programming role that is consistent with its public service mandate and providing a fair deal for its commercial competitors. DD can play an important role to promote open standards that may boost the roll-out of DTH services and universal reach. Moreover, in most countries, the set-top box has been cross-subsidised when introduced by the main operator to attract as many subscribers as possible. How this would work with DD as the manager presents yet another intriguing question.