Filling the space that Worldspace has left… at least to some extend: Filling the space that Worldspace has left… at least to some extend

[This blog was written at a time when internet access was costly and didn’t reached everywhere – (the "didn’t reached everywhere" part is still true as you move away from the urban areas and depending on where you are). After a while since the blog was initially published in December 2015, the cost of accessing the net had come down (at least here in India) so drastically, that it made listening to internet radio (online radio stations or FM/DAB radio broadcasts streamed through the net) affordable to be listened to all day long – thus rendering this write-up out of place in time.
However, as a retro-techno suggestive blog, and since it is also one that introduces the concept of satellite radios to the younger audience who have never seen or heard of one, I am not removing this blog – May 2020]

There was a time when one in India could listen in India to categorized English music and music of Indian regional languages from the different channels of a radio wired to an antenna about the size of a CD case that sat on the window sill, picking digital quality music from a satellite above. It was known as Worldspace satellite radio (see Appendix B for details)…

… that ran on monthly subscription of about Rs. 150. But by the end of 2009, the radio broadcaster had wound up – it had gone bankrupt. Many loved the satellite radio: As I read in a write-up,

“While satellite radio might not a hit amongst the general population in India (Who listens to Radio at home when you have TV? – or – Who pays a subscription fee to listen to radio when you can download pirated songs for free?), it was a boon for music lovers. Almost every genre of music imaginable, spread across more than 50 channels, with excellent sound quality, it was everything a music lover had been waiting for.

Then one day, I read in the newspaper that Worldspace had broadcast it's last song in India on December 31, 2009, the company already having filed for bankruptcy in the US a year ago. I immediately turned on my receiver and as expected, there was no Orbit Rock and Voyager (my favorite channels); just silence.”

A couple of years later, I came across a question posted in the net that read, “Hi, I am looking to buy a satellite radio receiver for DTH just only to listen music. I saw there are some models; don't require dish and LNB and bla bla. Can you suggest me a shop/place/retailer, where I can buy an affordable radio receiver; for satellite channels of DTH music channels from Doordarshan?” Well, what it was referring to was Doordarshan’s free DTH service known as ‘DD Free Dish’ (formerly ‘DD Direct Plus’) via Insat 4B satellite, which include All India Radio’s 21 broadcasts as satellite radio channels (such as AIR Malayalam, AIR Hindi, AIR Kannada, etc., FM Gold Channel, FM Rainbow, etc.), to be received using any free-to-air (FTA) DTH receiver. A DTH receiver without dish and LNB is just misinformation, but the words “just only to listen music” is an eye opener, that such a system could indeed fill the void that Worldspace had left, if that system could also provide Western (English) music.

Satellite radio channels such as Astro Radio, Malaysia are broadcasting popular English music categorized into channels like Classic Rock, Jazz, Golden Oldies, India Beat, etc., through the Ku-band (see Appendix D for bands) of Measat3 satellite’s Malaysia beam, but not in its South Asia beam, and therefore not available for direct reception in India. Similar is the case with Jeou Tai Technologies (JT Music, for short), Taiwan, which has satellite radio channels like Pop Music, R & B, Rock Music, etc., (aired from NSS11 satellite in Ku-band).

Before going into the topic, certain terms of usage are to be made clear: When radio channels are broadcast from satellites, they are commonly known as Digital TV radios (DTVr for short) for distinguishing these from the L-band and S-band (see Appendix D for bands) Satellite radios like Worldspace and SiriusXM (which are referred to as Satelite Digital Radios – SDR’s for short). The term ‘DTH Radio’ shall be used for the concept satellite radio to be elaborated here, similar to today’s subscription direct-to-home (DTH) TV service providers (like Tata Sky, Airtel Digital TV, etc. who picks up the different satellite broadcast channels, bundles them together and provides as a subscription service to the customers in Ku-band from a hired slot of some satellite transponder), while the term DTVr shall be used for the actual satellite radio broadcaster (like Astro radio, JT Music, etc., usually in the Ku-Band, the frequency band used for DTH satellite telecasts), so that the two terms can be clearly distinguished, without confusion.

Coming back to the topic of discussion, the best and ideal thing to have was to be able to get channels such as Astro Radio or JT Music here, but unfortunately, that is not the case. In future, more English FM channels will come up (similar to Radio Indigo 91.9 FM and Chennai Live 104.8 FM) in India, but it’s not going to spread much beyond the Metro cities. And unlike Worldspace, it’s not going to deliver multiple channels for categorized English music either – it’s possible, with DRM+ technology, but that’s a different topic of discussion altogether.

At this point, one is likely to ask: Why then can’t they just listen to online radios? Yes, but then they would require an unlimited net connection costing around Rs.650/- per month, which is not preferred by those who do not use the net more than for logging in a couple of times daily to check mail or Facebook, for which a limited connection of around Rs.150/- per month would suffice – this is true especially in case of youngsters, who get to spend only from their limited pocket money. Having listened to a few online radios, I have experienced audio streaming from 24 to 60 MB/hr (for audio streaming only). Assuming a monthly subscription of Rs.150/1GB (provided it is available at that place -- as of now, off-urban areas in India where enough speed is available to run a net radio is scarce: mostly mobile net is slow, and cable net isn't available either), this results in a Worldspace styled ‘subscription fee’ like expense of Rs.150/- per month, but proving only about 34 minutes/day (for the 60MB/hr stream) to about 1hr 25 min per day (for the 24MB/hr stream) of listening hours per day, if that net connection isn’t used for anything else.

What I’m coming to is this: (1) The Worldspace satellite radio provided us with categorized English music at a subscription fee of Rs. 150/- per month, but not available anymore. (2) FM channels providing English music are few and only in the Metro cities; and it’s not going to deliver different channels for categorized English music either. (3) Internet radios are great, but costly – especially for youngsters. (4) DTVr’s, such as channels such as Astro Radio or JT Music are providing English music radio channels for free, that can be picked up by an FTA DTH setup, but not available in India.

Therefore, if there was some media company in India that could bundle these free music radio channels from around the world and provide as a subscription service – the DTH Radio service (to be received using a similar dish on the roof top, and a DTH set-top box, but radio only – see Appendix A for the subscriber’s equipment setup) – it would be filling the space that Worldspace has left ... at least to some extend, and would have been great. The concept is similar to DSR service of Germany in the 90’s (see Appendix C for details).

The one venturing into such a service will have to (1) Get a couple (or more) of channels in some satellite’s Ku-band transponder– one channel for TV can be used to carry numerous radio channels instead. (2) Arrange for getting consumer’s receiver equipment with the DTH Radio’s programming and brand name. (3) Get radio channels from various sources – including (i) DTVr’s, (ii) terrestrial FM radio broadcasts and (iii) online (web) radio services (like Radio Tunes, Radio Paradise, etc.). (4) Bundle the channels and uplink to the satellite for broadcast. (5) Fix subscription charges and collection mechanism.

Some of the subscription DTH TV providers are providing their own radio channels in regional language, like iMusicSpace by Airtel, and ActiveMusic by Tata Sky, while Sun Direct provides eight channels of the four south Indian regional language, as ‘Latest’ and ‘Hits’ channels for each.

The different methods for receiving the different sources listed above are: (1) for DTVr’s (like Astro radio), (1a) if receivable by a satellite receiver and dish antenna at the location of the uplink station, pick it up, and directly feed the audio to the uplink bundler, (1b) if not receivable here, but available online, follow method ‘3’ below. (1c) if not receivable here, and neither available online, put up the satellite receiver, at the geographic location where it is receivable from, and pass the audio stream to the uplink station via high speed internet lines encrypted. (2) For FM stations, (2a) If receivable at the location of the uplink station, use High quality FM receiver and directly feed the audio to uplink bundler, (2b) If audio streams available via internet (like the FM radios you get through the TuneIn app), follow method ‘3’ below. (2c) if not receivable here, and neither available online, put up the High quality FM receiver, at the geographic location where it is receivable from, and pass the audio stream to the uplink station via high speed internet lines encrypted. (3) For web radio (and other audio stream available online), directly fed from the net to the uplink bundler. (4) Own channels: There is also scope for the DTH Radio provider to have its own channels. This is how the broadcasters we know do as far as English music is concerned: SiriusXM has deals with SoundExchange, ASCAP, BMI and SESAC (all from US) while Worldspace had a deal with COMPASS of Singapore. These agencies deal with all that getting the music for airing, and rights for doing so from different record labels and artists. I don’t think things are this complicated presuming that the ‘Rose Bowl’ channel of Asianet cable service in Kerala must be doing this in a much simpler.

The aspects that make such an implementation viable are these: (1) As there are lots of DTH Television subscription service providers, and satellite receiving equipment providers catering to their needs, it is not difficult to get one of them to arrange for a DTH Radio receiving equipment specifically. Also it will not be difficult to get leased a couple of Ku-band channels in some satellite for this DTH Radio transmission. (2) With many sources of DTVr broadcast sources (each with half a dozen channels), many radio channels are available. With many Indians migrating to different parts of India (and also the Gulf and Maldives), for employment, it will be very desirable for them to be able to receive at least a couple of radio channels in their own native language. For example, a Keralite who migrated to Hyderabad, will be delighted to be able to listen to, say Club FM 93.4 (Trivandrum) and Radio Mango 91.9 FM (Ernakulam), in addition to AIR Rainbow Malayalam (from INSAT 4B). Such an inclusion, if provided for most Indian languages will make most immigrants ‘feel at home’ – that should be very attractive. (3) In addition to this, if English music channels like (i) Terrestrial Indian FM channels (Chennai 104.8 FM, Radio Indigo 91.9 FM, etc.), (ii) Terrestrial FM channels from abroad (Dubai 92.0 FM, Southern California KLOS 95.5 FM, etc.), (iii) DTVr’s (Astro Radio, JT Music, etc.), and (iv) web radios (Radio Tunes, Radio Paradise, etc.) are also included, wide variety of contents can be provided.

Of course, the question of who all are willing to pay subscription for the DTH Radio, and how much, is to be looked into carefully when deciding on the subscription fee – it should be attractive to the customers. And then you have that chicken and egg problem until the subscription revenue vs cost of running reaches a balance. Not being able to put this in cars (discussed in Appendix A) is a serious drawback, considering the today’s habit of radio listening (maybe except in the morning, they’ll listen to radios when reading newspapers or making breakfast). Unlike FM radios and online radio playing smart phones (or even Worldspace), DTH radios are not portable.
But radios do have a more relaxing role to play in the lives of people as compared to TV Channels, since radios keep playing in the background, becoming a part of the home ambiance, unlike the TV channels which demands the audience’s focus of attention. At this point it’s worth quoting the editorial from the Sept. 2003 issue of SatMagazine, titled “Don’t Ignore Radio”, which read, “There’s one element of satellite-delivered entertainment that’s often overlooked. Radio. Even tough the industry is watching closely how XM and Sirius progress – the ignored element is ordinary DTH radio delivered in digital from satellite. Most satellite platforms already deliver hundreds of radio stations and a recent UK study has proved what those broadcasters already know: people like listening to radio through TV set.” The editorial continues, “The UK’s official audience measurement company… says 62% of multichannel households listen to radio from their TV set every week.“ and finally concludes with, “My advice to satellite platforms: Don’t ignore the radio. Viewers love it.”

Conclusion: Since there is nothing formal here, there’s no idealistic conclusion either. I simply wish the concept DTH Radio, as a source of categorized English music, comes into existence.

regards,

Rahul Leslie

December 2015