MUMBAI: Heads of India'a pay TV, distribution and broadcast sector are headed for Goa between 25 and 27 September 2014 for the industry's annual confab - The India Digital Operators Summit (IDOS) - 2014. In its third edition, IDOS 2014's theme is 'Digitisation: The Next Big Push."

Organised by IndianTelevision.com and Media Partners Asia (MPA), it unites stakeholders across the value chain to drive meaningful dialogue and facilitate practical solutions to drive the content and distribution markets forward.

In Sync, managing director Ratish Tagde will be a part of the discussion panel which will talk about the survival of the niche music channels. The three day summit will kickstart with HBO hosting the most awaited party of the season on 25 September at The Leela in south Goa.

The highlight for the three day conference is TRAI chairman Rahul Khullar who will address the gathering on 'Policy, practices and the way forward – The Next Five Years for Indian Television.'

Day two of the summit will commence with a keynote on the 'State of the TV Nation' by Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO and editor in chief Anil Wanvari and MPA executive director Vivek Couto.

A panel comprising leading investment analysts and investors will next discuss the key drivers of industry economics and value creation and if digitisation extension dates will cause concerns for investors and ROI.

'Unity and The Way Forward for the Next Five Years' will be another topic for discussion at the upcoming summit. During the session, industry leaders will be seen discussing on how there is a need to converge upon and the urgency of proper execution in the coming months. The other sessions will see brainstorming on 'Specialized content and channels in the digital ecosystem', 'Broadband and the digital economy – A focus on ground deployments', 'In focus: The growth of alternative video platforms' and 'Technology shifts in Indian Pay-TV' among others.

Amongst the headline names who are slated to attend and speak include: Star India CEO Uday Shankar, Zee TV CEO Punit Goenka, TRAI principal advisor N Parmeswaran, FoodFood promoter Sanjiv Kapoor, Dish TV CEO RC Venkateish, Videocon d2H CEO Anil Khera, Hathway Cable & Datacom MD and CEO Jagdish Kumar, Siti Cable CEO VD Wadhwa, DEN Networks CEO SN Sharma, Mybox CEO Amit Kharbanda, Scripps Networks Asia Pacific head Derek Chang, Ortel CEO BP Rath, among others.

Says Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO, and editor in chief Anil Wanvari: "For decades, it has been seen as a land of promise. But India's $7.5 billion television industry has somehow or the other belied that potential. Forced by the government to digitise, India's TV distribution ecosystem has been struggling to get its act together. While set top boxes (STBs) have been rolled out, transparent customer billing, pricing deals between content owners and distributors, and conditional access have yet to occur seamlessly. This has left industry precisely at the same spot it was at before digitisation was mandated."

Adds Media Partners Asia executive director Vivek Couto: "Revenue leakages continue, and industry discord has only heightened, amongst broadcasters, cable and DTH satellite operators. Clearly, key changes are required with the Government recently calling for an extension to the digitisation deadline to December 2015 for phase III and December 2016 for phase IV. It is in this perspective we expect IDOS to play a key role in getting likeminded professionals from industry to come together to analyse the just completed phase I and phase II of digitisation and brainstorm for a better phase III and phase IV."

IDOS is to be held at the Hotel Leela in South Goa between 25-27 September 2014.

IDOS 2014

Organised By: Indiantelevision.com, Media Partners Asia

Title Partner: Star India

Event Executed By: ITV 2.0 Productions

Summit Partners: BBC World News, Cisco, Discovery Channel, HBO Defined HBO Hits, SES, Surewaves, Videocon D2H

Associate Partner: Akamai, Asiasat, CSG International, DEN, Hathway, Scripps Network

PR Partner: Communicate India

Support Partner: Broadband India Forum

Media Partner: Avishkar, Cable Quest, Radioandmusic.com, Satellite @ Internet India, Tellychakkar.com

Webcast Partner: 24 Frames Digital