IPTV for the end users is another way of watching television. In India, like many other countries it is the latest in the world of broadcast. Like many other consumer oriented technologies, IPTV in India can be a great success. This is firmly believed by many vendors and operators who are willing to get in to the market as early as they can. In fact, a lot many of them have already launched their service or are on the verge of commercialisation.

But it will not be an easy way for IPTV to grow in India. India has close to 130 million homes with a television and majority of them are fed by cable, around 55%. Rest is with conditional access, Direct to home and the terrestrial feeds. So it is not that IPTV can become a source or alternative of reaching to untapped market. The remaining households that do not have a television set cannot be the target market. They are in the deep regions of India that are not on the Internet map and might not even figure for decades to come; they are really very remote and do not have the affordability to own a television. They even lack basic facilities like the electricity. So they are used to the traditional ways of entertainment.

Effectively, the target market for IPTV could be the near 4 million broadband customers. Broadband subscribers primarily reside in urban India comprising of metropolitans and large cities. Their television sets are fed by cable, conditional access and DTH. Of these DTH has been recently introduced and there are seven providers including the national broadcaster Doordarshan which is offering the free DTH services (there is no monthly fee charged, but the service is basic). So the large cities where majority of the broadband customers are, use conditional access and DTH replacing the existing cable TV. Both conditional access system (introduced in four metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai only) and the DTH have been operational for the past 2-3 years and the consumers have invested in the CPE. It is very rare that they will be inclined to switch to IPTV, effectively for nothing.

On top of it is the speed of broadband. ISPs in India offer broadband services starting from 256 KPBS that could go up to 2 MPBS. Most of the times, the speed is under 2 MPBS at around 1.3 – 1.5 MPBS over which every IPTV platform will not function optimally. Generally IPTV solutions are designed to operate with a minimum of 2 MPBS of speed. There are also issues about the uptime of Internet services. There are still locations in India where broadband services see regular failures.

The key to the success of any IPTV content in India is with the content. Interactivity of the package will not be a thing that will attract subscribers in large numbers. Generally, IPTV providers position their offers as something having a value addition by way of content, interactivity, applications and so on. But in India, these things seem to be very difficult and when consumers have already had the taste through CAS and DTH applications. Consumers are using EPG and other interactivity features that these platforms are offering. Games, recipe books, weather info and stocks info is also not going to attract the Indian consumer. Entertainment in India means movies, soaps and music, all of which is available over the present TV systems. The IPTV providers cannot fool the consumers in this area, where the India consumer is very educated and informed. If IPTV has to be a success thing in a short span of time, it has to really offer something of value add and that value addition has to be a real, visible, distinguishable and meaningful from consumers’ perspectives. Only then IPTV can have some foothold in India.

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