Goldstone to launch IPTV in India by May

Goldstone Technologies Limited, a Hyderabad-based software solutions and IPTV (Internet protocol television) provider, is in the process of commercially launching its IPTV services in India by May this year.

"The company's soft launch with 100-odd IPTVs in Hyderabad and Secunderabad on March 26 has already tasted initial success. We plan to cross the milestone of the pilot with 1,000 households in the twin cities by May, garnering close to 70,000 subscriptions by March 2009, before replicating it in 94 cities across the country by the end of the next financial year," Rajesh Kalidindi, president and chief operating officer of Goldstone Tech, told mediapersons here recently.

Goldstone Technologies, which has tied up with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to offer its services, has thus far invested close to $8 million (approximately Rs 32 crore) for its IPTV initiative both in India and abroad. It has also approached the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) and is awaiting a letter of intent from the latter.

Stating that there was a sizeable amount of the Indian diaspora, Rajesh said the company had identified 11 countries including Israel, Germany, Malaysia, Australia, the New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, France, UK and Denmark where it plans to launch its services by this fiscal end.

"There are at least 29 million Indians living abroad currently, and most of them have hardly any access to Indian television and movies. Barring US and to a small extent UK, Indian channels and movies are not available in any other parts of the world. To cash in on this demand, we plan to expand our services to 25 countries by next fiscal," he said, adding that the company expected to build ad subscriber base of around 350,000 worldwide in the first year of operations.

Using a patented compressed technology with a 600-kilobit per second (kbsp) bandwidth, Goldstone plans to offer its IPTV service at $35 per month and $2 per movie abroad. It has tentatively fixed the services tariff and set-top-box rent at Rs 50, and Rs 35 per movie for the domestic market.

The company has signed up television channels Star Network, Raj TV and ETV, among others for offering 50 channels, besides tying up with seven distribution houses for movies.

"At present, 22 channels are on air, while 2,500 Indian movies and 3,500 Hollywood flicks are in the offing. We plan to have 80 premium channels and over 7,500 Indian movies, besides tens of thousands of television sops and lifestyle content on air by this fiscal end," Rajesh said.

IT has been Goldstone's traditional core business and the company has been deriving almost 100 per cent of its revenues from this segment, which it expects to remain the same at around Rs 100 crore during the just ended financial year.

However, the company expects its revenues to touch Rs 500 crore in the current fiscal, with IPTV contributing 50 per cent to its overall revenues, and biometrics division, IT and media accounting for the rest, he added.