The size of the global IPTV market is likely to touch new heights in the coming years. According to a market research it is likely to touch $26.3 bn by 2011, from $779.2 mn in 2006.
Standalone ISPs have already geared up to launch IPTV services. Considering the fact that the anticipated IPTV market boom could also boost the players, involving value-added offerings, digital music, on-demand gaming, data services, and home security, IPTV has the potential to support the ongoing business of ISPs in India.
IPTV subscriptions swelled in countries such as France, Spain, and Italy, and many operators are looking at mass deployment. However, India is yet to catch up with the emerging boom by offering triple and quadruple play services. This comes at a time when the Asia Pacific region is also showing signs of improvement.
World’s leading economies such as China and Indi are pitted as the two high-growth markets in the Asia Pacific for IPTV by 2009. China, combined with the already mature IPTV market in Hong Kong, is expected to contribute around 60% of the total Asia Pacific IPTV revenues in 2013. In Australia, the IPTV business is expected to enter growth in three years, as service providers are early in their adoption of IPTV services and are aggressive in their pricing strategies.
According to TRAI’s draft recommendation, telecom service providers (UASL, CMTS) having license to provide IPTV service under their licenses without requiring any further registration.
DoT can permit any other telecom licensee to provide IPTV services as licensor. Similarly, cable TV operators registered under the Cable Television Network (Regulation) Act, 1995 can provide IPTV services without requiring any further license.
Our next step will be to meet concerned authorities in the government since the present recommendations will harm the industry. IPTV could have been a boon for India’s ISPs. Considering the poor subscriber-base and financial conditions, a large section of these broadband companies are also not in a position to jack up their net worth in order to grab IPTV license.
The Indian communication industry is set to see the convergence of the broadcasting and telecom industry as cable operators and broadcasters are trying to ensure that the footsteps are strong enough to compete with the mighty mobile operators. Though TRAI has allowed telecom operators to offer IPTV services, it tried to ensure that they are meeting the broadcasting guidelines as well.
GUIDELINES
Telecom licensees, while providing TV channels through IPTV, shall transmit only such channels in exactly the same form (unaltered) for which broadcasters have received up linking/down-linking permission from the Government of India (Ministry of Information and Broadcasting). In such cases, the responsibility to ensure that content is in accordance with the extant laws, rules, regulations, etc shall be that of the broadcaster, and the telecom licensee will not be held responsible. In case of content other than TV channels from broadcasters, the telecom licensee will be responsible for observing program code and advertisement code as per the Cable Television Network (Regulation) Act, 1995 and rules there under.