{"id":70799,"date":"2016-06-08T17:43:29","date_gmt":"2016-06-08T09:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/bangladeshs-first-dth-operator-shares-plans-for-market-2\/"},"modified":"2016-06-08T17:43:29","modified_gmt":"2016-06-08T09:43:29","slug":"bangladeshs-first-dth-operator-shares-plans-for-market-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/bangladeshs-first-dth-operator-shares-plans-for-market-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Bangladesh\u2019s First DTH Operator Shares Plans for Market"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

[Via Satellite 06-08-2016] Two months ago Bangladesh got its first Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite television service through Beximco Communications<\/strong>, a joint venture between Beximco Holdings <\/strong>and GS Group<\/strong>. Beximco Communications\u2019 RealVU DTH service is active in three divisions of Bangladesh today and has plans to expand throughout the rest of the country.<\/p>\n

Dmitry Lapitskiy, CEO of Beximco Communications, told Via Satellite <\/em>that the company plans to take RealVU nationwide by the end of the year, and sees now as the opportune time to launch satellite television.<\/p>\n

\u201cBangladesh is a growing market where potential is endless, and as we have entered the era of digitalization \u2014 keeping government\u2019s vision 2020 in mind \u2014 this is the right time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cable TV is not fully digitized in Bangladesh today. Lapitskiy said he would not refer to cable as competition to RealVU, but does see the satellite service as having an advantage. As the first mover for DTH in the country, he cited the combination of strengths from Beximco Communication\u2019s parent companies as a key enabler.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeximco Holdings limited is one of the largest conglomerates in Bangladesh and has been running successfully for years. Having a strong local backbone gives us enough exposure to experiment being a start up in Bangladesh. On the other hand, GS Group is an international investment and industry holding company operating in TV broadcasting projects implementation and management across the globe. GS Group acts as a provider and technological integrator for RealVU. By possessing significant expertise in the field of implementing and managing national digital TV projects, GS Group helps us have the best service,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

RealVU started in April with 105 channels, of which Lapitskiy said 26 are Bangladeshi, constituting almost 99 percent of the local channels. The rest are neighboring and international channels. Beximco Communications is broadcasting RealVU on ABS<\/strong>\u2019 satellite ABS 2 at 75 degrees east. Lapitskiy described having high power C- and Ku-band beams as optimal for South East Asia\u2019s connectivity requirements.<\/p>\n

For ABS, Bangladesh is a market with significant potential. Raymond Chow, ABS managing director for Asia and deputy COO, told Via Satellite <\/em>that the operator would look to capture business there with ABS 2, along with the upcoming ABS 2A, which is currently scheduled to launch June 14 aboard a SpaceX<\/strong> Falcon 9 rocket.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"ABS
Raymond Chow, deputy COO and MD of Asia, ABS. Photo: ABS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cBangladesh has a population of over 150 million and a TV household of about 35 million. Cable TV penetration is around 20 percent of the market and is mainly concentrated in major cities. The majority is still in analog. Therefore, there is a huge growth potential for digital TV distribution. DTH platforms will speed up the digitization of the TV market and will reach rural areas where cable was not able to penetrate easily, and enable viewers to enjoy more TV channels with digital quality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Chow added that digitization of cable headends across the country will increase the supply of bandwidth and allow channel numbers to increase. He estimated the number of channels analog cable headend operators can provide to be about 90. ABS anticipates digitization will spark consumer demand for more content and more choices, prompting the market to adapt and compete. Chow also noted a trend in other emerging pay-TV markets of hybrid solutions such as DTH combined with cable, or DTH combined with Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) gaining popularity as ways to attract more subscribers and extend coverage.<\/p>\n

Of RealVU\u2019s 105 channels, five are currently offered in High Definition (HD). Lapitskiy said Beximco Communications plans to bring HD sound and picture quality to all of Bangladesh by the end of next year, following this year\u2019s completion of nationwide service.<\/p>\n

[Tweet \u201cIn Bangladesh, cable TV penetration is about 20% mostly analog; big potential for #satellite DTH.\u201d]<\/p>\n

\u201cDemand is very high because the Bangladesh market is still in the phase where HD channels are very new technology,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ultra-HD is also a possibility further down the timeline, though Lapitskiy said he does not foresee this coming to Bangladesh in the near term. \u201cWe do see ultra-HD in the future but not in the next two to three years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Chow said the majority of channels in Bangladesh today are in Standard Definition (SD), but that HD looks poised to grow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe uptake of HD will gradually increase over time,\u201d he said. \u201cToday\u2019s compression technology has advanced and there are HD channels delivered in 2.2 to 3 Mbps. Adopting the latest technology with new functionalities and capabilities will bring value to the customer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Via Satellite 06-08-2016] Two months ago Bangladesh got its first Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite television service through Beximco Communications, a joint venture between Beximco Holdings and GS Group. Beximco Communications\u2019 RealVU DTH service is active in three divisions of Bangladesh today and has plans to expand throughout the rest of the country. Dmitry Lapitskiy, CEO of Beximco Communications, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":70801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70799"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}