News Broadcasting
Eutelsat C&S survey claims DTH spreading fast
PARIS: Satellite operator Eutelsat, which claims to be the main capacity provider for TV and radio broadcasting in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, has announced the headline results of its 2003 Survey on cable and satellite reception.
Highlights include
– 43 per cent of all TV homes in 38 countries surveyed are now equipped for cable or satellite (direct-to-home / community) reception (132 million homes compared with 122 million in 2001) showing a growth rate of seven per cent last year.
– For the second consecutive year, direct satellite reception (DTH and community) progressed five times faster than cable. Of the 132 million C&S homes, cable remains the largest method of reception with a market share of 54 per cent (72.1 million homes) compared to 58 per cent in 2001. Direct reception via a satellite dish (DTH or community) rose by 11 per cent between 2001 and 2002 (61.9 million homes) while cable experienced a two per cent growth over the same period. Between June 2000 and June 2001, growth rates for direct reception and cable were 18.6 per cent and 3.7 per cent respectively.
– From June 2001 to September 2002 digital cable and satellite reception increased by 26 per cent in western and eastern Europe (to 28.9 million).
– 23.3 million homes now subscribe to digital pay-TV in western and eastern Europe. This represents a 17 per cent increase between 2001 and 2002.
– 104.8 million homes receive channels via the HotBird satellites and Eurobird 1, confirming an 80 per cent penetration rate for Eutelsat in the 38 countries surveyed in 2002 (same as 2001). This result combines audience growth between June 2001 and September 2002 of 5.8 million homes for the Hot Bird satellites (98.6 million homes in September 2002) and one million homes for Eurobird 1 (6.3 million homes in September 2002).
The penetration levels in cable/satellite households for each region are: 83 per cent in western Europe, 75 per cent in eastern Europe and 72 per cent in North Africa and the Middle East.
Set up in 1994, the key objective of Eutelsats survey is to measure the growth of four indicators in broadcasting: type of reception (cable or satellite), ratio between analogue and digital reception, pay – TV take-up and the use of PCs and Internet access in TV homes as a result of the increase in interactive services and video and audio through the Internet. The survey also enables Eutelsat to monitor the increase in the number of homes receiving the channels from its Hot Bird satellites and Eurobird1 that broadcast 60 per cent of the 1,250 channels and interactive services it delivers.
This update, conducted last September took in 21 countries that represent 80 per cent of the total cable/satellite population in the 38 countries covered by the Survey. 15 market research groups (including Taylor Nelson Sofres, GFK, Nielsen, Ipsos and Gallup) conducted interviews with 26,400 households using a standard questionnaire. Analysis of digital growth was carried out in western and eastern Europe where an installed base of digital homes was identified for each country.
News Broadcasting
Newsrooms rethink AI, trust and revenue models
Editors and tech leaders debate tools, deepfakes and viability.
MUMBAI: If yesterday’s newsroom ran on caffeine and chaos, tomorrow’s may well run on code but with a human still holding the pen. At the 22nd edition of the Video Broadcast and Broadband Tech Summit hosted by IndianTelevision.com, some of the sharpest minds in Indian media gathered to examine how artificial intelligence, automation and shifting audience behaviour are reshaping journalism. The session, titled The Newsroom of Tomorrow Tools, Trust, and Business Viability In Focus, did not descend into techno-utopian hype. Instead, it wrestled with a more uncomfortable question: how do you stay relevant, credible and profitable when the audience is changing faster than the headline cycle?
The panel featured Govindraj Ethiraj, Editor of The Core, Dr Nilesh Khare, COO of Sakal Media Group; Prakaran Tiwari, Chief Executive Producer at NDTV Profit; Manoj Padmanabhan, Head of Business Media and Entertainment at AWS; Neeraj Mishra, Key Account Manager at Vizrt and session chair; and Mayuresh Konnur, Bilingual Correspondent at Collective Newsroom, publisher for BBC in India.
Govindraj Ethiraj set the tone with a frank assessment. “The reason people do not consume as much news through us is because they are consuming news through other sources they trust more,” he said. In a fragmented ecosystem flooded with content, trust has become the real differentiator.
Yet AI is undeniably transforming workflows. Ethiraj admitted he now uses AI tools to proofread his own articles. “Sometimes it is scary how much it picks, but it helps,” he said. What once required layers of sub-editing can now be assisted by machines trained to flag errors, inconsistencies and structural weaknesses.
He pointed to how newsroom roles have evolved. The desk editor, widely advertised over the last 15 years, barely existed in its current form before the internet boom. As digital publishing accelerated, tasks such as curating listicles, ranking stories and optimising headlines became specialised functions. Now, many of those responsibilities can be performed or at least supported by AI systems. The disruption is not hypothetical; it is operational.
Dr Nilesh Khare approached the issue from both a business and technological standpoint. Sakal Media Group is developing its own large language model, built on 60 years of text and photo archives. The goal is independence. “We won’t need to depend on other platforms to develop ours,” he said, underscoring the strategic value of proprietary data.
For Khare, AI represents opportunity as much as anxiety. It can help expand content across geographies and languages, particularly in bridging North and South Indian markets. It can streamline production and reduce costs. He did not shy away from the implications. “As a journalist I feel bad but as a content producer I feel good that we will require less manpower,” he said, articulating a tension many in the room recognised but few openly admit.
He also highlighted how audience behaviour is evolving. Today, a retail investor can follow a stock using Gemini or GPT instead of toggling between multiple news channels. News is no longer consumed linearly; it is queried, personalised and synthesised. The newsroom must therefore produce content that survives not just on screens but within AI-generated summaries.
Prakaran Tiwari offered a more philosophical reflection. “AI has developed itself and adapted on the basis of how news is consumed. It’s all about giving a perspective,” he said. In his view, the competitive edge will not lie in speed alone but in interpretation. Facts are increasingly commoditised; context is not.
He also suggested that formats are fluid. While short-form video dominates social feeds, long-form audio is resurging. Govindraj Ethiraj noted that in the United States the 2024 election was described as the “podcast election”, reflecting how audiences are investing time in deeper, long-form discussions. The newsroom of tomorrow must cater to both scrolling and sustained listening.
Manoj Padmanabhan of AWS reframed the debate. Technology, he argued, is not an existential threat but an amplifier. “The power is given to the human journalist with all this technology in their hand, with it acting as a support or assistant to deliver the correct and relevant news to the people,” he said.
The traditional divide between a “normal” newsroom and a “digital” newsroom is fading. “It will not be two newsrooms,” he said. “It will be one newsroom.” In that integrated environment, the storyteller remains central. AI may assist with research, editing and distribution, but editorial judgement remains human.
Neeraj Mishra of Vizrt echoed the assistive narrative. India, he said, is a market of organised chaos, where news broadcasters are pushing ever-increasing volumes of content. AI will help manage scale. It is not here to replace people but to assist them.
Production barriers are already collapsing. “You don’t need a green screen to produce content now,” Mishra observed, hinting at virtual production tools and real-time rendering technologies. And this, he said, is only the beginning. In a cost-conscious market like India, AI adoption in both B to B and B to C segments is likely to rise sharply. The skills are available, he argued, the real question is whether organisations are willing to invest.
If opportunity was one half of the conversation, risk was the other. Mayuresh Konnur warned that fake news is now being peddled with alarming ease using AI tools. Deepfakes, synthetic audio and fabricated visuals can damage credibility overnight. Several journalists, he said, have already faced instances where manipulated content was circulated in their name.
“Eventually it becomes a question of how authentic you are in the market,” Konnur noted. In a crowded information economy, credibility is the ultimate moat. Regulations and clear guidelines, he argued, are necessary to curb misuse without stifling innovation.
Mishra added a note of caution against overuse. “AI should not be everywhere. It has to be used optimally,” he said. The value lies not in blanket automation but in strategic integration.
One of the most resonant metaphors came from Padmanabhan. AI, he suggested, is like a brush in a human hand. Powerful, versatile, transformative but inert without the artist. It cannot survive without the human touch.
Konnur distilled the session’s core takeaway, AI is inevitable, but the art of storytelling will never disappear.
In a media landscape defined by speed, shrinking attention spans and intense competition, the newsroom of tomorrow is not simply a technological upgrade. It is a recalibration. Between efficiency and ethics. Between automation and authenticity. Between reducing manpower and retaining meaning.
The algorithms may write cleaner copy and generate sharper graphics. They may even predict what audiences want before audiences know it themselves. But the enduring task remains unchanged to tell stories that inform, interrogate and inspire.
And for that, the human newsroom is still very much open for business.
