TV networks see a 3G promise in digitisation

With third-generation (3G) mobile telecom set to roll out by this year-end, general entertainment channels (GECs) are planning to make the most by investing in digitisation of their content.

STAR India, which runs some popular channels such as STAR Plus and STAR News, is one. So are Zee and Sun.

Advertisers are looking at multiple delivery platforms for content to break through the clutter in existing platforms and video on mobile is an attractive proposition.

“The new media is bringing about a revolution by merging the functionalities of customer-end terminal devices like TVs, PCs and mobile phones. Advent of 3G can fuel the convergence phenomenon by making the mobile phone a very handy tool for accessing video and audio formats,” said Jehil Thakkar, executive director, KPMG India.

GECs will be offering their popular soaps and new content specifically for consumption as mobile videos. TV networks are aggressively looking at monetising this opportunity.

“The opportunity is big and we are clearly building for the future. According to Gartner, there will be 155 million subscribers to mobile TV globally by 2012. With India being only second to China on mobile subscriptions and already with 500 million subscribers today, this is definitely a huge opportunity,” said Anupam Vasudev, EVP - marketing, STAR India.

“From an operator’s standpoint, value-added services (VAS) would contribute 12-15 per cent of their revenues today, so content will definitely be most critical. With so much money being spent on 3G licensing, both operators and content providers will play a big part to be able to realise larger VAS revenues,” said Vasudev.

The government recently auctioned 3G licences, whereby mobile operators will be cumulatively paying $14.6 billion for the spectrum.

It is uncertain as to how much content providers would earn. They are working on various plans. “We will initially pilot a few plans along with the operators on what works in India and then will be able to comment on revenues. There is no market which has yet established a viable consumer proposition for mobile video consumption, so we don’t yet have a clear path to follow. We expect that in India the revolution would happen parallely, rather than serially,” said Vasudev.