Cabinet nod to IPTV policy

The Government today cleared the policy framework for the commercial roll out of Internet Protocol TV or IPTV and also announced neccessary changes to the current downlinking guidelines for television channels.
 
Current downlinking norms only allow broadcasters to share their channels for the cable and direct-to-home platforms. Now, these will be ammended to include sharing of channels with the IPTV platforms too, Priyaranjan Dasmunsi, minister of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) said today after the Cabinet meeting.
 
The broadcast regulator Trai had submitted its recommendations for IPTV to the I&B ministry some months back and it was pending the approval from the government.
 
State-owned BSNL and MTNL are already providing IPTV services across several cities while private players like Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications are waiting to launch their IPTV services.
 
IPTV uses high speed internet to deliver not only the television channels but also other value added services like time-shift TV, interactive advertising, movies without any advertisements, games among other such services. Under IPTV, consumers will be able to access all the past and present television shows at the touch of a button. In IPTV, consumers can also pause live channels and play it back as several times.
 
This means, cosumers will now to make a choice between IPTV, DTH and cable television services.
 
Trai has recommended a higher foreign investment cap of 74 per cent for the IPTV sector in comparision to the FDI cap of 49 per cent in the cable sector. This move will open the doors for foreign investment in the sector, experts say.
 
"It is a welcome move. IPTV policy framework will open doors for huge investments in this sector. For consumers, it will mean more quality content and other value added services at the lowest possible monthly subscriptions," Kailash Chaudhari, managing director of Aksh Optifibre, the company that provides the back end support for IPTV services of MTNL and BSNL.
 
State-run MTNL and BSNL and private players Bharti Airtel and RCom have IPTV service in their pipeline. MTNL and BSNL have already rolled out the services across several cities. IPTV is a cable TV delivery platform that uses high speed internet connection to reach the customer. Earlier, broadcasters were allowed to share feed only with cable and DTH platforms.