DTH
Discovery Gardens in Dubai issued warning to remove dishes & TV antennas
MUMBAI: The residents of Discovery Gardens in Dubai have been warned that the satellite dishes or antennas outside the roofs and balconies are expected to be removed, according to a report in Emirates 247 News which adds the violators of the issue will be made liable to vandalism charges.
Nakheel Facilities and Owners Association Management has placed notices in the community comprised of over 20,000 residential apartments saying satellite dishes need to be removed by 10 March 2016.
According to the notice, “During our inspection we have noticed that there are satellite dishes/ antennae installed on the external façade/balcony/roof of some buildings. Hence, we would like to remind all residents in Discovery Gardens that such practice is deemed illegal”.
Under Section 6.2 of the Community Use Rules, the users must maintain at all times the exterior appearance of their properties in a manner which befits the overall standards of development contained within the master community to the reasonable satisfaction of the managing agent, it is stated.
The notice also mentions restriction includes installation of satellite dishes on or over the balconies/roof tops exposed to public view that materially alters the appearance and integrity of the building.
Furthermore, Section 7.1.2 states that community users must not make any modifications affecting the appearance of the exterior of any property, including but not limited to balconies, awnings, canopies, sunshades, front and rear fencing, air conditioning units and related equipment, fans, screens, gutters, storm doors, satellite dishes, external radio or TV antenna and enclosures of any kind, painting of the exterior, permanent decorations (excluding holiday decorations) or any other changes, “without the prior written approval of the Managing Agent and relevant authorities (including the Civil Engineering Department and Environment Health and Safety Departments of the Ports and Customs and Free Zone).”
“If you fail to comply within the stipulated timing, satellite dishes will be removed at the owners’ cost, with the involvement of the local authorities, Trakhees and/or Dubai Police, if necessary,” the notice states.
It goes on to advise residents that du, the telecom service provider, reserves the right to provide satellite service and other telecom services in Discovery Gardens.
The main reasons for residents opting for satellite dish antennas is that they are cheaper than the official TV packages within the country. A Dish TV package, beamed through a satellite dish antenna, costs between Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,000 (Dh 200 to Dh 240) for a year, with a bouquet of Indian channels on offer, compared to Dh 120 a month for basic Hindi channel package.
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.
