Airtel Launches DTH TV Service Powered By Broadcom Technology

Broadcom Corporation has announced that Bharti Airtel has selected Broadcom’s integrated satellite set-top box (STB) system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions to power its direct-to-home (DTH) TV services i.e. Airtel digital TV.

To satisfy the growing market potential and demand in India for satellite TV, Bharti Airtel selected the Broadcom BCM7454 standard definition (SD) satellite STB solution with integrated H.264, MPEG-4 and VC-1 video decoding, and the Broadcom BCM4505 integrated satellite tuner and demodulator front-end solution.

This selection of Broadcom’s DVB-S2 technology allows Bharti Airtel to offer additional services, channels, and on-demand and interactive content within the same transponder allocation, providing subscribers with more television choices and a better overall user experience.

Both the BCM7454 satellite STB SoC and BCM4505 satellite receiver are currently being deployed in set-top boxes to Bharti Airtel customers nationwide, marking the company’s foray into satellite TV services.

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"We are very pleased to be working with Broadcom to deliver digital satellite services to India’s TV market," said N Arjun, executive director, Bharti Telemedia. "With the proliferation and increasing demand for digital media content in India, we are focused on offering advanced technology solutions that provide a better user experience to the Indian digital television market."

Bharti Airtel’s selection of DVB-S2 and MPEG-4 technologies positions Broadcom to benefit from the growing DTH demand in India for next generation high definition (HD) set-top box and digital video recorder (DVR) deployments.

"We are excited to support highly integrated satellite STB solutions that provide advanced services and reduce the overall STB cost for Indian operators," said Dan Marotta, SVP and general manager of Broadcom’s Broadband Communications Group. "We look forward to our continued collaboration with Bharti Airtel to help launch next generation satellite services for pay-TV customers in India."