The government has now given its nod to make necessary changes to the current downlinking guidelines for television channels. This has now eased off the commercial rollout of IPTV services in the country.

Presently, MTNL, the state-owned entity having presence in Mumbai and Delhi are already providing their IPTV services with a bunch of Free-To-Air channels. BSNL, the other state-owned entity having its presence in the rest of India have already announced their services, and will be implemented soon. The current downlinking norms, laid down by the government do not allow the TV broadcasters to share their channels with IPTV providers, reserving them only for Cable and DTH services. This effectively kept the private operators such as Bharti Airtel and Reliance in investing in these services. However, with the amendments that have been announced, it seems that the scenario is soon going to change. These amendments come after the country’s regulator TRAI submitted the recommendations for IPTV to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry a few months back.

IPTV involves broadcasting television signals over high-speed internet lines. Similar to DTH broadcast, value-added services such as interactive advertising, time-shift TV can also be delivered via IPTV. This move by the government will now make way for some tough competition in the market, as the customer now has 3 choices to make - Cable, IPTV and DTH. Both Airtel and Reliance are already ready with their services in the market. Even though IPTV has a huge potential, it has failed to grab attention in the country. Back in May 2008, we brought an overview of IPTV industry.

Increase in FDI:

In other news, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended that a higher Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of 74 per cent is needed for the IPTV sector. Currently, the cable sector has an FDI cap of 49 percent. The regulator hopes that this will facilitate higher foreign investment in the IPTV sector.

Talking about the amendments, Kailash Chaudhari, the MD of Aksh Optifibre, which provides back-end support for IPTV services for MTNL and BSNL said:

IPTV policy framework will open doors for huge investments in this sector. For consumers, it will mean more quality content and other value-added services at the lowest possible monthly subscriptions.

But will IPTV really pick up? Even today, broadband remains a distant myth for quite a many houses in the country. DTH on the other hand has penetrated owing to its ability to have a small wireless set up. Hutments in the villages, who barely manage to run a TV in the house have DTH installed for their TVs. It would be a while till the people become aware of the advantages offered by the IPTV service and start adopting to it.

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