DTH
Conexant’s satellite set-top box solution wins ‘leading product award’
MUMBAI: Conexant Systems Inc., a supplier of semiconductor solutions for broadband communications and the digital home, has announced that its CX2430X family of MPEG decoders for free-to-air satellite set-top boxes (STBs) has received the leading product award in the consumer electronics category in the EDN China innovation award 2006 competition.
The system-on-chip (SoC) decoders were developed in Conexant’s Shanghai design center, which is focused on developing STB chips for worldwide applications.
The award was presented to Conexant at a ceremony in Shenzhen. The 131 entries in the competition were judged by a panel of specialists that included representatives from academic and research institutions, universities, and Chinese original equipment manufacturers.
Conexant’s broadband media processing business, executive vice president and general manager Lewis Brewster said, “We are honoured that our CX2430X MPEG decoders were chosen for this important award by a group of esteemed industry experts. We remain focused on delivering innovative solutions that will help Chinese manufacturers design and develop products for domestic and international markets.”
The CX2430X family can be used for applications ranging from basic STB functionality to advanced STB applications. The devices include an integrated high-speed data port that easily interfaces to a variety of broadband front-ends, allowing the decoders to serve as a common back-end platform for satellite, terrestrial, and cable platforms, asserts an official release.
In addition, the decoders can be used with our satellite tuners to form a complete front- and back-end system solution. This flexibility, along with the robust feature set, provides manufacturers with economies of scale as they can leverage a single device across multiple product offerings.
DTH
Prasar Bharati’s WAVES earns Rs 2.9 crore in first year
Platform scales content, users but monetisation gaps limit revenue growth.
MUMBAI: Big waves, small ripples at least for now. When Prasar Bharati launched its OTT platform WAVES at the 55th International Film Festival of India in November 2024, it pitched a bold vision: a homegrown rival to global and domestic streaming giants, blending video, audio, gaming and commerce into a single digital ecosystem. Five months into FY2024–25, however, the platform’s revenue stands at just Rs 2.90 crore, a figure that underscores the gap between ambition and monetisation.
On paper, WAVES looks anything but modest. The platform has ingested 13,608 titles, totalling 9,495 hours of content, with over 13,000 titles already live. It has streamed more than 575 live events from the Mahakumbh Amrit Snan and the 76th Republic Day parade to the Hockey India League, Kabaddi World Cup and Mann Ki Baat while offering 74 live TV channels and 12 radio channels. With over 10 lakh registered users and more than 200 content partners onboarded, the scale resembles that of a fully operational streaming service rather than a pilot project.
The architecture supporting this scale is equally robust. Built under Prasar Bharati’s Central Archives vertical, WAVES runs on a cloud-based infrastructure with DRM, encryption and an integrated analytics dashboard. It includes dedicated units for content ingestion, quality control, publishing, graphics, marketing and billing, and is distributed across platforms such as OTTplay, Tata Play and BSNL. The offering extends beyond video to include audio-on-demand, e-games and even e-commerce via ONDC integration.
Yet, the numbers reveal a core disconnect. Despite its scale, WAVES generated just Rs 2.90 crore in a market where India’s OTT industry crossed Rs 23,000 crore in 2024. A key bottleneck lies in monetisation infrastructure: subscriptions cannot currently be purchased within the app and must be completed via an external website. In a mobile-first country where over 95 per cent of OTT consumption happens on smartphones, this extra step creates friction that most users are unlikely to overcome.
Ironically, content is not the problem, it is the platform’s biggest strength. Prasar Bharati holds one of the world’s richest broadcast archives, including 45,154 hours of digitised Akashvani programming and 35,723 hours from Doordarshan. For WAVES alone, over 3,800 hours of archival content have been made OTT-ready, including classics such as Ramayan and Shaktimaan, alongside rare cultural recordings and historical broadcasts.
There are early signs that this library holds commercial potential. Revenue from archival content licensing rose sharply to Rs 3.38 crore in FY24, up from Rs 67 lakh the previous year. Meanwhile, free digital platforms continue to drive massive reach, the PB Archives Youtube channel clocked 119.78 million views and added 4,02,000 subscribers in FY2024–25, crossing 1.7 million in total, while DD News has over 5.84 million subscribers.
That, however, presents a strategic dilemma. While free distribution builds scale, it also conditions audiences to expect content at zero cost making it harder to transition to paid models. WAVES, designed as a hybrid AVOD-SVOD platform with advertising and subscription layers, is yet to fully crack this balance.
The broader challenge is not technological but strategic. In an ecosystem dominated by platforms offering seamless payments, aggressive pricing and high-budget originals, WAVES is still bridging the gap between being a content repository and a commercially viable product.
For now, the platform reflects both promise and paradox. It has the scale, the content and the infrastructure but until monetisation catches up, WAVES remains less a revenue engine and more a digital showcase of what India’s public broadcaster could become.
