The Hindu Business Line : Net TV subscriber base may touch 1 m by 2011

Major issues
Further development of broadband access networks in the country a main issue
Broadband access speeds are nowhere close to those in the more mature markets
IPTV is still in its infancy in terms of commercial deployments and experience

New Delhi May 18 India is expected to be the fifth largest Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) market in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan) with nearly a million subscribers by 2011.

However, low quality bandwidth and poor penetration of broadband could result in slow uptake of the service in India, according to a new forecast from IDC.

At present, India is nowhere on the IPTV map with just over 9,000 subscribers. IDC expects over 49,000 IPTV subscribers in India by the end of 2007 with the number expected to grow to reach 966,000 subscribers by 2011. China is expected to have more than 14 million IPTV users by that time.

Service usage

IPTV allows subscribers to get TV through their phone lines. It allows users to pause, fast forward and rewind live and recorded content stored on a remotely located server by the service provider.

The technology is being touted as the next big thing in broadband and is becoming popular in other countries.

IDC expects 15.9 per cent of all the residential broadband subscribers in India to use IPTV by the end of 2011, up from less than 1 per cent of all broadband subscribers in 2006.

In comparison, Korea will have over 1.3 million IPTV users by the year-end, which is expected to touch the 4-million mark by 2011. Hong Kong is expected to have over 8 lakh IPTV users by the end of 2007 and is expected to cross the million-mark in the next four years.

Domestic operators

In India, only MTNL has commercially launched the service while others including BSNL, Bharti and Reliance are all set to roll out IPTV.

MTNL currently offers 100 TV channels at about Rs 150 a month and the set-top box costing around Rs 4,000. IDC pointed out that a main issue to be tackled revolves around the further development of broadband access networks in the country.

"While network deployments continue at a strong rate, the speeds available to end users vary and the number of areas that can adequately handle a standard IPTV service deployment are limited at best. Although it is undeniable that broadband penetration is rapidly rising in India, broadband access speeds are still nowhere close to speeds offered in the more mature markets, such as Korea and Hong Kong," IDC said.

IDC further said that IPTV is still in its infancy in India in terms of commercial deployments and experience, however, an extremely fragmented cable segment with thousands of small cable operators might present an opportunity for IPTV operators based on growing middle class and high TV watching habit. "However, beyond regulatory issues, the growth of IPTV will primarily depend on broadband penetration rates as well as on pricing, quality, and content of IPTV offerings," said IDC.