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Bharti Airtel Launches Its Direct-to-Home (DTH) TV Service in India Powered by Broadcom(R) Technology

Posted on: Tuesday, 16 December 2008, 03:30 CST

Broadcom's Advanced DVB-S2 and MPEG-4 Satellite Set-Top Box (STB) Technologies Offer Airtel digital TV Subscribers a Better Overall User Experience

IRVINE, Calif. and BANGALORE, India, Dec. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced that Bharti Airtel, India's leading integrated telecom services provider, has selected Broadcom's highly integrated satellite set-top box (STB) system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions to power its direct-to-home (DTH) TV services - Airtel digital TV - marking Broadcom's first commercial satellite product launch in India. With an exploding interest in DTH TV services, India's burgeoning pay-TV market potential is expected to include 90 million subscribers by 2012, according to In-Stat market research.

"Direct-to-home technology is emerging as the leading digital TV transmission platform in India," said Mike Paxton, a Principal Analyst at In-Stat, a leading market research firm. "Consumer demand for better picture quality and advanced video services have become catalysts that are driving demand for DTH pay-TV services throughout India."

To satisfy the growing market potential and demand in India for satellite TV, Bharti Airtel selected the Broadcom(R) 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, which provides 30 percent greater capacity when compared to the DVB-S standard, 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.

"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."

India is an emerging market for DTH services with a large television viewing population. Specifically, the number of DTH subscribers in India is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 38.9 percent from 2007 to 2012. This includes 4.3 million DTH subscribers in 2007 that will grow to approximately 22.2 million subscribers by 2012, according to In-Stat market research, and the Indian DTH market is expected to capture 24.6 percent of the total pay-TV subscriber base by 2012. 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. With significant research and development centers in Bangalore and Hyderabad, Broadcom supports various global business initiatives.

"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, Senior Vice President & 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."

Availability and Pricing

The Broadcom BCM7454 standard definition satellite STB SoC and the Broadcom BCM4505 satellite front-end receiver are both in production. Pricing is available upon request to manufacturers of set-top boxes.

About Broadcom's Broadband Communications Group

Broadcom offers manufacturers a range of broadband communications and consumer electronics system-on-a-chip solutions that enable voice, video, data and multimedia services over residential wired and wireless networks. These highly integrated silicon solutions continue to enable the most advanced system solutions on the market, which include digital cable, satellite and IP set-top boxes and media servers, broadband modems and residential gateways, high definition and digital televisions, Blu-ray Disc(R) players and recorders and personal video recorders.

About Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation is a major technology innovator and global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom products enable the delivery of voice, video, data and multimedia to and throughout the home, the office and the mobile environment. We provide the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip and software solutions to manufacturers of computing and networking equipment, digital entertainment and broadband access products, and mobile devices. These solutions support our core mission: Connecting everything(R).

Broadcom is one of the world's largest fabless semiconductor companies, with 2007 revenue of $3.78 billion, and holds over 3,000 U.S. and 1,300 foreign patents, more than 7,500 additional pending patent applications, and one of the broadest intellectual property portfolios addressing both wired and wireless transmission of voice, video, data and multimedia.

Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and has offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. Broadcom may be contacted at +1.949.926.5000 or at www.broadcom.com.

Cautions regarding Forward Looking Statements:

All statements included or incorporated by reference in this release, other than statements or characterizations of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry and business, management's beliefs, and certain assumptions made by us, all of which are subject to change. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "predicts," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will," "should," "would," "could," "potential," "continue," "ongoing," similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. Examples of such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the potential market for pay-TV subscribers and DTH TV services in India and our ability to launch next generation satellite services in India in collaboration with Bharti Airtel. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause our actual results to differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statement.

Important factors that may cause such a difference for Broadcom in connection with BCM7454 satellite set-top box SoC and BCM4505 satellite receiver products include, but are not limited to:

• general economic and political conditions and specific conditions in the markets we address, including the continuing volatility in the technology sector and semiconductor industry, trends in the broadband communications markets in various geographic regions, including seasonality in sales of consumer products into which our products are incorporated, and possible disruption in commercial activities related to terrorist activity or armed conflict;
• the timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer orders and our ability, as well as the ability of our customers, to manage inventory;
• the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt Broadcom's technologies and products in our target markets;
• competitive pressures and other factors such as the qualification, availability and pricing of competing products and technologies and the resulting effects on sales and pricing of our products;
• changes in our product or customer mix;
• the volume of our product sales and pricing concessions on volume sales;
• the risks and uncertainties associated with our international operations, particularly in light of terrorist activity, armed conflict or political unrest

Additional factors that may cause Broadcom's actual results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to those listed at http://www.broadcom.com/press/additional_risk_factors/Q42008.php.

Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, recent Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss the foregoing risks as well as other important risk factors that could contribute to such differences or otherwise affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. The forward-looking statements in this release speak only as of this date. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statement, except as required by law.

Broadcom, the pulse logo, Connecting everything, and the Connecting everything logo are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. Blu-ray Disc is a trademark of the Blu-ray Disc Association. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

Broadcom Trade Press Contact Dana Brzozkiewicz Senior Public Relations Specialist 949-926-6367 danabrz@broadcom.com Broadcom Investor Relations Contact T. Peter Andrew Vice President, Corporate Communications 949-926-5663 andrewtp@broadcom.com

SOURCE Broadcom Corporation; BRCM Corporate

Source: PR Newswire

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