India’s public broadcaster Doordarshan’s ‘Freedish’ DTH service is to switch to MPEG-4 transmission, and thus increase to 112 the number of channels it can offer to viewers.

The ‘Freedish’ option is extremely important to consumers in rural India where cable systems are limited. ‘Freedish’ is also to encrypt. Viewers need a Conditional Access key in order to comply with India’s addressable set-top box rules.

Doordarshan sources told Television Asia that as all the 64 slots under its current MPEG-2 capacity model had been filled, there was no possibility of other channels joining its system.

It will start transmitting in MPEG-4 in April, and make the transition over two stages until a complete conversion had been achieved.

Other posts by :

1. IRIS2 free for government usage?
2. Bank: AST SpaceMobile will orbit 356 satellites by 2030
3. SpaceX launches 600th rocket
4. Starlink: 10m customers and counting
5. SES predicts end of ‘big’ Geo satellites
6. Amazon Leo gets approval for 4,504 extra satellites
7. SpaceX gets a portion of India
8. TerreStar wants to build LEO network
9. Musk: “No Starlink phone”

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, DTH/Satellite, Regulation, Standards