Indian telcos are finding it hard to grow the IPTV market, facing hurdles like high costs, low broadband usage and slow speeds.
State-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd and Bharat Sanchar Nigam are the only companies which now offer limited IPTV
services. The private sector companies are expected to roll out services shortly.
"The interactivity in IPTV opens up a new platform for advertisers, which translates into higher revenues per user for the telecom
firms," says Aksh Optifibre's managing director, Kailash Choudhari.
IPTV franchisees IOL Netcom and Aksh Optifibre are battling high costs as television broadcasters charge telecom companies much
more than cable operators for programme feeds.
Broadcasters are looking for minimum subscriber guarantees, officials say. Any shortfall in subscribers has to be made good by the
service provider, adding to costs, says Aksh's Choudhari.
Another big hurdle to popularising IPTV is the low broadband penetration. TRAI figures show India's broadband subscriber base at
3.24 million at the end of January, with less than 1 million new users added between April 2007 and January 2008.
MTNL and BSNL are providing 2 mega bytes per second speed - which is theoretically good enough for video streaming. But,
consumers may need a higher bandwidth of 4-8 Mbps for high definition video required to watch video-on-demand and gaming.
Based on a Reuter news item
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