Recently we blogged about how TV players like DTH and IPTV are looking at integrating internet services like Facebook and Youtube with their TV subscriptions. We were of the opinion that it wouldn’t work as facebook and social networking in general was a personal activity while TV was for family viewing.
Now it seems the reverse is also happening. Internet players are adding TV to their services. Well Tata Tele which provides the Photon Plus USB card for mobile internet has now launched a new service in Photon TV. Photon TV is a service that allows its high speed Internet subscribers to watch live television channels on their laptops or PCs. This service is for new as well as existing subscribers who can avail of it by downloading an application.
Photon TV offers a maximum of 40 channels for viewing for a monthly subscription fee.
Pricing for Photon TV
Per channel – Rs 4 per month
For 10 Channels – Rs.29 per month
All 40 Channels – Rs.75 per month
Besides for these monthly subscription options subscribers who have the Photon Super Surf plan for Rs 1,500 a month can watch TV for up to 15 GB a month without any additional fee. The data transfer for 1 minute of TV viewing is 1.2 MB so at 15Gb one could technically view 160 hours of TV.
Tata Tele has tied up with Apalya Technologies as a technology partner as well as a content aggregator. Apalya as you may know is into Mobile TV services and was recently funded.
Our Take on Photon TV
I personally use Photon+ for internet browsing and I must say though this initiative is a big plus its not as good as it seems. The Tata photon+ speeds are not great enough to provide realtime bufferless streaming of TV content. Id be very surprised if it does. The reason for my doubt is that even while travelling the photon+ isn’t consistent when it comes to bandwidth and I stay in mumbai which I believe would have better network coverage.
Eventhough, the cost per channel is fixed at Rs.4/- per month, it is far away from the common man those can’t afford thousands of rupees towards internet facility charges.
Agree with you satya. But still its an interesting initiative if the data card would actually work under all conditions.
The “Target Audience” are high speed internet users and not user without internet. A Rs 4 subscription fee for a person with high speed internet is the least Tata could ask for.
Tata Photon+ Sucks……. i am also a user of photon+ since march’09 and i have to agree with the author…..they have bandwidth issues, speed issues and how about billing issues….
And don’t be fooled by this 15 GB gimmick…..IMHO, it consists of upload and download which halves the viewing content…
Beware of Tata Photon+…i am a totally disgruntled user frm Mumbai
Tata Photon TV initiative is not really worth especially from Consumer point of view. Believe me it sucks our money for no worth. I suggest don’t use it unless it is emergency