Types of TV in India

There are at least five basic types of television in India: broadcast or "over-the-air" television, unencrypted satellite or "free-to-air", Direct-to-Home (DTH), cable television, and IPTV.



1. Broadcast television


In India, the broadcast of free-to-air television is governed through state-owned Prasar Bharati Corporation, with the Doordarshan group of channels being the only broadcaster. As such, cable television is the primary source of TV programming in India.





2. Cable TV


cable television, generally, any system that distributes television signals by means of coaxial or fiber-optic cables located in the subscribers’ premises rather than through the air. These cable systems use a “community antenna” to receive broadcast signals (often from communications satellites), which they then retransmit via cables to homes and establishments in the local area subscribing to the service. Subscribers pay a specified monthly service charge in addition to an initial installation fee.






3. Conditional Access System CAS or conditional access system


It is a digital mode of transmitting TV channels through a set-top box (STB). The transmission signals are encrypted and viewers need to buy a set-top box to receive and decrypt the signal. The STB is required to watch only pay channels.

As of April 2008, only 25 percent of the people have subscribed to the new technology. The rest watch only free-to-air channels. The inhibiting factor from the viewer's perspective is the cost of the STB.







4. DTH



DTH is an acronym for ‘Direct to Home’ service. DTH is a digital satellite service which uses direct-broadcast satellites to provide television viewing services directly to subscribers anywhere in the country. DTH is also defined as the reception of satellite programmes with a personal dish in an individual home. DTH is an encrypted transmission, which is received by the consumer at his end through the small dish antenna, that travels to the consumer directly through a satellite. A set-top box, unlike the regular cable connection, decodes the encrypted transmission.





5. Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) (future of TV)



IPTV is defined as multimedia services such as Live TV, Video On Demand (VOD) and Interactive TV (iTV) delivered using the Internet protocol suite over a packet-switched network such as a LAN or the Internet managed to provide the required level of quality of service and experience, security, interactivity and reliability.



It's not feasible as it needs a good internet connection which is hardly available in India and not affordable to more than half of the population.

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