IPTV to gain relevance with broadband penetration

IPTV has failed to take off in India due to low broadband penetration and failure of government to help establish a quality of service standard. The government also did not pay much attention to this sector after issuing guidelines, according to Time Broadband CEO Sujata Dev. Addressing the concluding session of the India Digital Networks Summit, Dev said IPTV would gain in relevance as broadband penetration grows. IPTV has a great future in video-on-demand (VoD) and gaming. Dev complained that after paying off the broadcaster and the others, content aggregators for IPTV have very little left of revenue to pocket.

With both DTH and Cable being very strong, IPTV needs to develop its own identity, she added. Asked why she had switched her attention to developing content for mobiles, she said wireless connectivity would always have an edge over wireline connections. But the cost of 3G spectrum was very high, she said. She said her company had now become more of a content delivery network as there was no distribution via IPTV. Answering a question, she said the government had hoped that IPTV would help push broadband penetration, but this had not happened. There was need for awareness to grow in this region, but the government was "not even looking at this sector." Seagate Technology country manager for India and Saarc Rajesh Khurana said storage was an important issue for both IPTV as well as mobiles. The last mile connection would need tailorised options, and personal video recorders (PVRs) had to be low cost and would need a management strategy, he added.

Courtesy - Indiantelevision