DTH
Hong Kong to launch digital TV next year
MUMBAI: The Hong Kong Commerce, Industry and Technology Bureau has set up working groups with Asia Television Limited (ATV) and Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) to ensure timely and smooth launch of digital services next year.
Led by the Hong Kong office of the Telecommunications Authority, the groups will work with the TV stations to solve technical issues related to the transmission and reception of digital terrestrial TV, and facilitate inter-departmental coordination to ensure successful migration from analogue to digital TV at different stages.
Media reports indicate that a new website has also been launched as part of a major publicity drive to raise awareness and improve understanding of digital TV. Beijing’s 2008 Olympic Games are the driving force speeding up the introduction of digital terrestrial television in Hong Kong. The administration will require the territory’s two terrestrial television broadcasters to start digital transmissions by next year.
In July 2004, Hong Kong Broadcasting Authority announced the implementation framework for digital TV in Hong Kong.
The bureau approved the investment plans of ATV and TVB for their digital TV programme service and network rollout.
According to the blueprint, ATV and TVB will start broadcasting their existing services in both analogue and digital format (simulcasting) and launch a new digital service on the respective additional frequency channel assigned to them by 2007.
The government has yet to decide its transmission standard. If the mainland has not promulgated a national standard before the end of 2006, ATV and TVB will adopt the European digital video broadcasting – terrestrial standard which has been widely adopted internationally.
The government has set up two working groups, led by the Office of the Telecommunications Authority, to work with the two broadcasters to ensure an integrated launch of digital TV.
According to the government timetable, ATV and TVB shall provide their existing services in both analog and digital format by 2007.
Subject to further market and technical studies, the government will direct ATV and TVB to cease analogue broadcasts by 2012, Lai said.
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.
