DTH
DirecTV selects Harmonic’s MPEG-4 AVC digital video solutions
MUMBAI: Harmonic Inc. announced that direct-to-home (DTH) satellite television provider DirecTV, Inc. has selected the DiviCom MV 100 standard definition encoder for new MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) based video services.
The most widely deployed MPEG-4 AVC-enabled encoder in the industry, the advanced technology of the MV 100 makes it possible to generate superior full resolution digital video. DirecTV is also utilising Harmonic’s DiviTrackXE statistical multiplexing solution and NMX Digital Service Manager, a unique service-oriented video infrastructure monitoring and control system.
“Harmonic is a long-time video headend solution partner to DirecTV. Harmonic’s DiviCom MV 100, which is being deployed to encode channels using MPEG-4 AVC, combined with the DiviTrackXE statistical multiplexing system is a technically advanced video compression solution,” said DirecTV chief technology officer Romulo Pontual.
“In the competitive North American market where there is a constant demand for new services, Harmonic’s digital video solutions offer DirecTV improved flexibility. Worldwide, our DiviCom MV 100 systems are powering more real-time and storage encoding applications for satellite DTH and content distribution services than any other platform. DirecTV’s selection of the MV 100 attests to the system’s advanced capabilities and Harmonic’s market leadership in ready-to-deploy MPEG-4 solutions,” said Harmonic Inc executive vice president Patrick Harshman.
The unique architecture of the MV 100 permits operators to select from a range of compression cores — MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC or SMPTE VC-1 — according to their unique technical requirements. Field-installable software modules allow an easy and cost-effective transition from one compression technology to another in a timeframe most appropriate to the operator’s business, in addition to continuous performance and video quality improvements.
Harmonic’s DiviTrackXE closed-loop statistical multiplexing system dynamically allocates bandwidth to each channel based on the complexity of the video being encoded, making it possible to achieve a significant scaling of channel density. NMX Digital Service Manager offers a powerful set of tools designed to streamline problem detection, analysis and resolution, implement advanced redundancy architectures, automate service and resource scheduling, as well as to facilitate system installation and configuration.
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.
