IPTV's bright Indian future

IPTV services in India were introduced some two years ago, but have so far failed to match the success of DTH or cable. Industry experts feel that this is due to the limited launch of the service and a lack of focused marketing efforts.
Bharti and Reliance Communications have launched services only in Delhi and Mumbai, respectively. And although government owned BSNL and MTNL have together launched services in 54 cities, their marketing efforts have only recently started showing results.
Akshoptifiber (iControl) and Smart Digivision (MyWay) together have garnered more than 70,000 customers so far. Smart Digivision plans to offer IPTV services to between 1.6 million and 1.7 million broadband subscribers of BSNL and MTNL in these selected 54 cities which comprise 80 per cent of the country's broadband subscriber base. Bharti Airtel is also finalising plans to expand services in the top eight cities of the country.

 Despite low levels of penetration right now, the future of IPTV is bright. This is clearly evident from the amount of interest shown by biggies such as Google, Cisco, UTStarcom, and CopperGate etc.
Consumer BehaviourEricsson's ConsumerLab recently conducted a study called Multi Screen Media Consumption 2010. Data was collected in China, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, the UK and USA. The sample in the study is representative of more than 300 million consumers.

The study says, "At least once a week, 93 per cent are still watching scheduled 'linear' broadcast TV, but the role of broadcast TV is changing owing to the introduction of new distribution channels. More than 70 per cent of consumers surveyed are streaming, downloading or watching recorded broadcast TV on a weekly basis, and 50 per cent are using internet based on demand TV or video, every week".
While this study has been conducted in other countries, it does give a glimpse of what consumer behaviour will be like. This clearly shows a preference for time shift capability, in which IPTV has the unique capability that enables continuous recording of channels without the user's intervention.
In India as well, consumers are showing interest in IPTV services. According to a survey by KPMG, 18 per cent people want to retain their landline connection in anticipation of future services such as IPTV. This is a very big number given the fact that IPTV awareness level is very low in the country.
IPTV can not only help check negative growth of the landline business, it can also push up the broadband penetration in the country manifold. Himanshu Sahu, director of sales and engineering, UTStarcom, says, "Availability of TV sets in the country is much higher than that of PC or laptop, and IPTV's ability to offer internet access can be leveraged to get more broadband customers."
He added, "IPTV can also be used to provide a whole host of other services like tele education, tele medicine etc. because it enables interactivity."
Internet over TV, as a concept, is so lucrative that Google has jumped in to provide this technology by introducing Google TV, for which it has collaborated with DISH in the USA, and will offer online TV and a web platform.
Cisco has also recently purchased a Canada-based company ExtendMedia, a provider of software based content management systems (CMS) that manage the entire lifecycle of video content through monetisation for pay media and ad supported business models, which will help Cisco offer solutions to service providers for delivering multi screen offerings.
Lack of BroadbandLimited availability of fixed line broadband in the country is a limiting factor for the launch of mass market IPTV services. But this limitation will be addressed by set top boxes, which use wireless broadband access to deliver IPTV.
Himanshu Sahu of UTStarcom says, "If we can have 2Mbps or more through wireless access, we can provide IPTV service. And both WiMax and LTE standards provide speeds much greater than 2Mbps."
Akshoptifiber has already showcased a wireless set top box in India, and though the cost is currently three times that of the normal set top box, it will come down drastically once service providers start rolling out services.
Internet through IPTVUTStarcom is already testing the integration of Google's Android platform with its set top boxes, which will enable users to enjoy experiences similar to a PC, on the TV. The company has already added services such as online ticket booking through TV.
There are currently 22 million digital TV homes in India which, according to a report by equity research firm IDFC Securities, are set to grow to 86 million by 2015.
These numbers reflect a large user base specially because unlike a laptop or a mobile phone which is more of a personal gadget, a TV set is a shared resource in a home and is used by the entire family. And as Sahu puts it, it is not as complex to use as a PC or a laptop and can therefore be used by elderly as well as technologically naive users.
There are other benefits such as video chats which will provide much better user experience on TV sets thanks to the bigger screen size compared to a conventional PC or laptop.
For a price sensitive market such as India, integrating PC into a TV will mean investment protection for families. TV sets are comparatively cheaper, with conventional cathode ray tube TV prices coming down to below Rs 10,000 for a 29 inch TV.
While IPTV cannot replace a full fledged computer, it can provide capabilities that a cloud based thin client computer can provide which, for most first time users, is more than sufficient.
Applications though IPTVIPTV not only has the capability of providing net access, it can also be used to push value added services and applications. Gaming is already included in the currently available services. This can be improved by introducing more interactive gaming, for which service providers can charge a fee.
Video conferencing is another area which can be of interest not only for consumers but also for enterprises.
Similarly, TVs can also be used to provide applications similar to what we see on