PANAJI: Coinciding with the first phase of digitisation, the fifth annual India Digital Operators Summit, a joint initiative of Indiantelevision.com Group and Media Partners Asia, is all set to begin on 21 September to debate and discuss digital TV opportunity in India.

The two-day event will be held in The Lalit Golf & Spa Resort in Goa with the theme of ‘The Digital Dawn‘. IDOS 2012 aims to highlight the pertinent issues faced by the industry and give useful insights into how other key Asian markets have succeeded in their digital transitions.

Participants include leaders from the regulatory, cable distribution, DTH, broadcast, TV distribution and technology segments along with content providers and investors of the broadcasting and pay-TV industries.

"The Indian broadcasting industry is on the cusp of change with digitisation round the corner. Digitisation is expected to unlock value for all the constituents in the ecosystem be it multi-system operators, local cable operators, and broadcasters, which in turn will have an impact on DTH platforms and consumers," says Indiantelevision.com Founder, CEO and Editor-in-Chief Anil Wanvari.

"India Digital Operators Summit (IDOS) is coming at an opportune time when the entire industry is readying for the first phase of digitisation," he adds.

The event will begin with Wanvari sharing the vision behind organising this event, followed by a presentation by Vivek Couto on India‘s digital TV ecosystem and lessons from other global emerging markets.

In the ‘Taking Stock, Forging Future‘ session, the key theme will be the role of the regulator in the emerging digital TV industry which will have Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) principal advisor N Parameswaran sharing his perspective. This will be followed by a Q&A session with Parameswaran chaired by Wanvari and Couto.

In the ‘First & Future Steps on the Digital Highway‘ session, leaders across key stakeholders will share visions and insights into the key challenges that will shape the first year of digitalisation, as well as evaluate the future opportunities for key industry segments, from full addressability and the growth of digital pay TV.

The session will be moderated by BBC World News Presenter & Correspondent Yogita Limaye. The panelists include Den Network CEO S N Sharma, IBM India/South Asia Head, Media & Entertainment Raman Kalra, Ortel Communications Co-Founder & MD Jagi Mangat Panda, Multi Screen Media CEO Man Jit Singh, and Videocon d2h CEO Anil Khera.

‘A Digital Ecosystem‘ will seek answer for the question Where does the industry need to move in terms of differentiated content, technology and financing to make digitalization truly the next big consumer transformation play for Indian media? The moderator for the session will be Anil Wanvari & Vivek Couto. The panelists include Digicable Network India MD & CEO Jagjit Singh Kohli, IDFC Securities MD and Head of Research Nikhil Vora, JainHits MD Ankur Jain, NDS Asia Pacific Senior Director - Business Development Ajmair Heer, SES Senior VP, Commercial, Asia-Pacific and Middle East Deepak Mathur, Videocon d2h CEO Anil Khera.
The session ‘Re-Calibrating Value‘ will analyse the long-term strategies operators need to adopt that will deliver value to the consumer and true ROI for operators. To be moderated by NDTV Head-Affiliate Sales & Network Distribution Rahul Sood with Den Network CEO S N Sharma, Hinduja Ventures President Tony D‘Silva, India Cast Media Distribution Group CEO Anuj Gandhi, Media Network & Distribution India MD & CEO Yogesh Radhakrishnan, Media Pro Enterprise COO Gurjeev Singh Kapoor, and Videocon d2h Deputy CEO Rohit Jain.

The session will be followed by a case-study on a cable operator‘s life with Anil Dattatray Parab, Advisor, Cable Operators and Distributors Association as the speaker. The case-study will be followed by a roundtable chaired by Anil Wanvari and Vivek Couto comprising panelists from all the sessions and also other industry.

On the second day, the first session ‘Taking Advantage of the Digital Ecosystem‘ will seek to answer questions as to How does a cable/satellite operator benefit across the various segments of the digital ecosystem, from set-top boxes, CAS and middleware to billing, SMS, advertising solutions, addressable software and next-generation home gateways?

The session will be moderated by Castle Media Director Vynsley Fernandes and will have Chrome Data Analytics & Media Founder & CEO Pankaj Krishna, Dolby Laboratories, India Country Manager Pankaj Kedia, JainHits MD Ankur Jain, and NDS India Country Head & GM-India Jayant Changrani.

With the government upping the FDI limit in digital cable and DTH companies, the session ‘Markets for Media: Value, Volatility and the Capital Equation‘ will analyse whether the government decision will open up the floodgates to foreign investment in these capital intensive sectors. Panelists include Exponentia Capital principal Neeraj Bhatia, Hathway Cable & Datacom G Subramaniam, NDTV Head-Affiliate Sales & Network Distribution Rahul Sood, and Saban Capital Group Director, Private Equity Sumeet Jaisinghani.

The last session of the event ‘Getting Aggressive to Get Customers‘ will decipher how can cable operators build on the aggressive sales and marketing strategy implemented successfully by MSOs and DTH operators to gain customers.

The session will be followed by a roundtable chaired by Anil Wanvari and Vivek Couto and will comprise panelists from all the sessions.

IDOS 2012 is powered by Star India, while the summit partners include Discovery Channel, Dolby, JainHits, NDS, SES, and Videocon d2h. The associate partners are BBC World News, Den Network and Media Pro. IBM is the knowledge partner.