IPTV in India: - Will Apps Lead to Profits?

Since it has been four years IPTV made its entrance into the Indian market, but the crash has been negligible so far. Though, some of new features and applications are giving some vendors hope that they'll see more IPTV adoption this year.

The players: - Present there are four operators offering IPTV services in the country: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL), Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) , Bharti Airtel Ltd. (Mumbai: BHARTIARTL), and Reliance Communications Ltd.

The Bharti Tele media launched their IPTV service last year but is contribution it only in the National Capital circle, which includes Delhi, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, and Noida. Reliance Communications has also launched IPTV service, but it is only available in Mumbai. The technology is not the center area of any of the operators.

The Smart Digivision and Aksh Optifibre Ltd. are the two main IPTV service providers in the country. Both of them have tie-ins with the two state-owned operators i.e. BSNL and MTNL. Smart Digivision offers IPTV services under the brand name "My Way," and Aksh Optifibre under the brand name "iControl." While Smart Digivision boasts 18,000 subscribers, Aksh claims to have 25,000 subscribers across the country.

The Smart Digivision can present its "My Way" service in 54 cities in the country for BSNL and in Delhi for MTNL. The company has launched its services in 2009. Aksh Optifibre, on the other hand, is licensed to suggest iControl in 20 cities for BSNL besides offering services in Mumbai and Delhi for MTNL.

Apps and maturity
So why the hopefulness? Those providers offering IPTV say the technology is growing and the applications will help them stand out.

Director of Smart Digivision, G.D. Singh, tells that Light Reading Asia: "Till now we were not giving any compelling reason to the end customer to move from DTH [satellite] to IPTV. But now this is going to change. They are offering applications like personal recording and seven-day recording. They are also planning to come up with applications like Gmail, Face book, and Twitter on TV, which we believe are going to be the differentiators."

Lt. Gen. V.K. Dhir, president of corporate initiatives at Aksh Optifibre, tells that: "We have struggled with IPTV for the last few years, but earlier the technology had also not fully-grown. That is not the case now. They believe that the interactivity of video-on-demand is far superior to what DTH has to offer. Going forward, mobile TV is also likely to pick up. Besides, 3G is also likely to help in generating awareness about the technology."

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