Category: Satellite Operators

Mumbai: Vishaal Mathur, who hails from Jaipur, has been an NRI for over two decades. Last, he was settled in Singapore, where he worked with some of the leading companies, which are into satellite operations – SES, MESAT, Kacific Broadband Satellites. Not to forget well known channels like ESPN, TEN Sports, ZEE Telefilms, Bharat 24, etc.

And then struck the covid-19 pandemic. While the globe was going through a trying time,  Mathur decided to move, bag and baggage, to his hometown.

Imbued with unbridled enthusiasm, Mathur was not the one to sit quietly. Setting up a charitable trust in the name of his iconic grandfather, Mathuradas Mathur, he immersed himself into lending assistance. During the most challenging times, the newly formed trust provided food, medical supplies, even oxygen concentrates to local gurudwaras, government hospitals, doctors and paramedics.

Mathur always had a passion to proactively promote the royal sport, polo, in the memory of his grandfather. A well known political figure, Late Mathuradas Mathur is a revered persona. The last three annual exhibition polo cup matches have witnessed the participation of celebrities like the present chief minister Ashok Gehlot, India TV chairman and editor in chief Rajat Sharma, HH Maharaja Gaj Singh of Marwar, HH Maharaja Padmanabh Singh of Jaipur, chef Sanjeev Kapoor, actor and producer Sohail Khan and Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.

And now Mathur has launched his own consultancy venture. He has already started advising PT Telkomsat Satellite of Indonesia. Furthermore, he has also been appointed as Member Sales Representative at Asia Pacific Satellite Communications Council (APSCC).

It would also be appropriate to add that Mathur has tremendous interest in books and authors and has organised book sessions for well known personas like Vir Sanghvi, Kabir Bedi, Divya Dutta, Tusshar Kapoor, etc. in Jaipur.

Mumbai: The Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) has released  the second phase of its research into differences between advertising in premium OTT and mass  streaming video environments (UGC / video sharing services). While phase 1, completed in 2022,  looked at consumer usage and attitudes towards advertising in both environments, phase 2 gauged  consumer attention and recall to ads in both a premium and mass environment. Research was conducted between January to April 2023, and conducted by Milieu Insight. 

In line with the findings from the first phase, phase 2 established that both product recall (10 per cent uplift)  and brand recall (12 per cent uplift) were significantly higher for the same ads when shown in a premium OTT environment over a mass environment.  

In terms of actions taken, from searching for more information about the product to visiting the  brand’s website, reading reviews etc, there was not a notable difference between behaviour of those  seeing ads in a premium or mass environment. And given the higher recall, this still demonstrates  that there are likely to be higher conversion rates from ads shown in premium environments. 

Phase 1 of the research established that consumers clearly felt that premium OTT was higher quality  (58 per cent OTT vs 36 per cent mass) and commanded higher attention than mass streaming video environments  (49 per cent OTT vs 35 per cent mass). 

Commenting on the findings, AVIA CEO Louis Boswell said, “the results are definitive and support  what we have long felt obvious – ads that are shown in premium OTT services are more effective than  those you see in social media or video sharing services. We believe there is a huge opportunity for  brands to increase the efficiency of their advertising and rethink the allocation of spend across  premium and mass video environments. OTT is growing in leaps and bounds, and provides a unique  and not sufficiently exploited opportunity for advertisers of all sorts to increase the efficiency of their  campaigns.” 

Phases I & II of this research is supported by AVIA members Index Exchange, Magnite, PubMatic, The  Trade Desk, and Xandr. 

Mumbai: Broadcasters and teleport operators have told the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) that any move to reduce the bandwidth available to C-band communication satellites from 500 MHz to 200 MHz will hurt their business.

The MIB had last week sought information from broadcasters and teleport operators on whether their current and future assignments can be accommodated within 4000-4200 MHz.

The industry opined that reducing the C-band spectrum will have ramifications for the business of the sector as they will need to make investments in additional teleports because the current network will not be sufficient for accommodating existing and additional TV channels in 4000-4200 MHz. The Department of Telecom (DoT) plans to open the 3700-4200 MHz spectrum band for telecom operators to use for providing 5G/6G services.

In their submission to the MIB, the broadcasters and teleport operators have said reducing the bandwidth on C-Band to 200 MHz spectrum (4000-4200 MHz) will lead to a 60 per cent reduction in the capacity for the sector, which translates to 40 transponders. Furthermore, the stakeholders stated that the industry will have to migrate to higher frequencies.