[Satellite News 06-18-10] B4U, a leading Bollywood broadcaster, does not expect to launch an HD channel any time soon, despite strong growth in the DTH market in India. Ashok Shenoy, head of business & international distribution, B4U told Satellite News, “Currently, the Asian market is not matured enough and are not ready to pay the premium for HD content. Capacity utilization is so high that right now, you can’t recover the costs through the subscriber. Bollywood has recently started shooting the content shot in HD and there are very few movies, which are HD. We need to upscale all of the existing content for making it HD ready. I think we are at least 2-3 years away from launching our HD channel.”
    Other Indian broadcasters are also cautious about moving to HD. Uday Shankar, president of Star India, recently told Via Satellite, “We are working very actively on creating HD content. We are already shooting and recording content in HD. It is not really a limitation on behalf of the broadcaster that is holding back HD – it is the bandwidth. I think that is going to change very quickly as the DTH operators, in order to differentiate themselves from cable and other DTH players, will have to look aggressively towards HD.”
    However, while an HD channel launch might be some time away for B4U, the company is beefing up its online content offering, as well as looking to the iPhone to boost revenue streams. “If you are a serious player in this business than you need to make your content available across all the current and futuristic distribution modes. We are only (Bollywood) TV channel that has an online TV service. Both of our channels are streamed online. Apart from that, we are also launching our B4U, Bollywood iPhone application this month.”
    Bringing the power of Bollywood content to the Internet is no easy challenge though. “We as a company are taking all the necessary steps required to distribute our channels in all the modes possible. However Internet delivery is also one of the challenges we are facing currently due to bandwidth and speed constraints. Also digital rights management is a big issue for Bollywood on the Internet,” Shenoy says.
    The company did a deal with GlobeCast earlier this year, which will see GlobeCast provide playout and media management services for eight of B4U’s worldwide channels. The five-year deal also includes the initial ingest and archive of 22,000 hours of content as well as the implementation of a fully tapeless workflow. In terms of the significance of this deal for B4U, Shenoy says, “We were looking for a one- stop shop service provider who could provide us with playout and all modes of signal delivery solutions. We found a ideal partner in GlobeCast as they were offering us playout, satellite solutions, fiber and occasional feeds etc at a ideal price, which is very important in the current economic climate. Our objective of foot print expansion in all the corners of the Globe can be achieved due to this deal as GlobeCast has a wide infrastructure network already in place.”
    Despite the economic recession, Shenoy believes the company will still have a strong 2010. “The global economic recession has definitely affected us, though our revenues have grown compared to last year,” he says.