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Bharti Airtel recently announced changes to its leadership team, as the telecom company plans to separate its Direct-to-Home (DTH) and entertainment units as part of a new restructuring strategy. Airtel will also establish customer experience as a standalone function.

Airtel has appointed Shashwat Sharma as the next Managing Director & CEO, while Gopal Vittal will transition to the role of Executive Vice Chairman. These changes will take effect on January 1, 2026.

In his role as CEO designate, Sharma will oversee the entire end-to-end consumer business. Vittal will focus on mentoring and preparing Sharma for his transition to MD & CEO of Bharti Airtel Ltd.

According to media reports, Airtel’s restructuring will separate DTH from the converged entertainment category, creating two distinct areas: Connected Homes—which will include Broadband and Converged Entertainment—and DTH.

The Connected Homes division will aim to drive rapid growth and competitiveness, while the DTH unit will focus on achieving world-class efficiency and competitiveness.

Additionally, Airtel will establish Customer Experience as an independent function. Shivan Bhargava will be appointed as the Director of Customer Experience and will lead this unit.

Siddharth Sharma, currently the CEO of DTH, will be appointed Director of Marketing and CEO of Connected Homes. Pushpinder Gujral, currently CEO of the Upper North region, will take on the role of CEO and Director of DTH.

Amit Tripathi, currently the Director of Marketing and Customer Experience, will become Director of Market Operations, overseeing all regional circles and distribution strategy.

Airtel to separate D2H and entertainment units, restructuring plans to benefit business

India's public broadcaster Prasar Bharati is reportedly planning to bring live telecasts of the TV channels on smartphones without the internet.

According to a report by The New Indian Express, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has confirmed that the broadcasters have been conducting trials in several cities, in collaboration with IIT Kanpur and Saankhya Labs using high-power and low-power transmitters.

Saankhya Labs is a subsidiary of Tejas Networks. It is a wireless communication solutions provider based in Karnataka.

<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/how-it-works/prasar-bharati-invites-programme-proposals-for-upcoming-ott-by-october-20-43102.htm">Prasar Bharati invites programme proposals for upcoming OTT by October 20</a>

Citing officials, the English daily said that so far the experiments for direct-to-mobile (D2M) technology have been successful. However, to take it further, transmitters on cellular towers and chips in phones are required.

Elaborating on the experiment, an official told TNE that the live broadcasting of TV channels on mobile phones is done using broadcast signals like radio. In this process, the devices will require specific hardware to receive and decode broadcast signals.

The technology will not hinder the quality of the video. It will enable high-quality streaming of both video and audio as it will not be dependent on internet speed.

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In 2019, the MIB signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for research collaboration in areas such as D2M broadcasting, rural broadband, convergence with 5G, etc, 


Separately, Prasar Bharati is also planning to move into the OTT space. Last month Stgoryboard18 reported that the OTT platform will be operating on a revenue-sharing basis, with content providers receiving 65% of the net revenue from subscription or transaction-backed content, while Prasar Bharati will retain 35%. The same revenue-sharing model will apply to the satellite channels onboarded to the platform.

Prasar Bharati plans to bring TV channels to smartphones without internet, trials show promise: Report

Industry stakeholders will be meeting Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) on July 19. The court had directed MIB to conduct brainstorming sessions with stakeholders to develop an implementable mechanism around Self Declaration Certificate (SDC) and submit their recommendations in three weeks. The Supreme Court has listed the matter for further hearing on July 30. 

A source privy to the development said, “Industry stakeholders will be meeting MIB on July 19 to discuss regarding the issue around SDC. Multiple suggestions and recommendations are expected during the meeting. We expect that MIB will consider the same while filing the affidavit in the court.” 

“We are very clear about our suggestions from which the one of the major issue revolves around the SDC portal which needs to revamped and made more efficient.”  

Following the SC's directive, the Ministry last month had introduced features on the Broadcast Seva Portal (BSP) for TV and radio advertisements and on the Press Council of India’s (PCI) portal for print and digital/internet ads. PCI has over 76,000 SDCs on its portal and BSP has over 9,000 SDCs.

The Supreme Court had directed the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) to submit an affidavit within three weeks, detailing recommendations on the 'self-declaration certificate' (SDC) mechanism for advertisements. The directive came from a bench comprising Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Sandeep Mehta on July 9, 2024.

The court was hearing intervention applications filed by various industry associations, including the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA), the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI), Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and the Association of Radio Operators.


Breaking: Stakeholders to meet MIB on July 19 to brainstorm on SDC

India's satellite TV industry witnessed a slight increase in the number of permitted channels in the last quarter of 2023. According to The Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators report for October–December, 2023 by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the number of channels permitted for uplinking, downlinking, or both, grew from 915 to 920. This follows a previous quarter's rise from 903.


Pay TV channels also saw a marginal increase, rising from 361 to 363. These channels are a mix of Standard Definition (SD) and High Definition (HD), with 259 being SD and 104 being HD. The remaining channels are categorized as Free-to-Air (FTA).



The report also highlights growth in the cable TV sector. The total number of Multi System Operators (MSOs) with permanent registration for providing cable TV services through Digital Addressable Systems (DAS) reached 998. In the previous quarter the number stood at 995. 


However, the report indicates stability in some areas. The number of FM Radio stations (excluding All India Radio) remained at 388, and the number of pay DTH operators held steady at 4.


A bright spot comes from community radio. The number of operational Community Radio stations increased from 465 to 479, demonstrating a growing interest in this platform for local engagement.


The only decline observed was in the subscriber base of pay DTH operators. The total number of active subscribers dipped from 64.18 million to 63.52 million in the last quarter.

TELEVISION