US-based Telegent Systems is a leading fabless CMOS semiconductor company providing high performance, single-chip solutions enabling free-to-air and subscription mobile TV in mobile handsets, laptops and netbooks, and other portable devices.

As Telegent continues to expand in overseas markets, Convergence Plus spoke to CEO, Mr. Weijie Yun about their plans and strategies for the Indian market.

CP: What are the prospects for mobile TV in the Indian market? What is the global scenario regarding mobile TV markets?

WY: We believe that the mobile TV opportunity in India is quite significant. While the total number of broadcast TV channels in India are few, the content on these channels – such as cricket and news – is quite compelling and of significant interest to the Indian consumer. At the same time, cell phones in India are playing an increasingly important role, connecting hundreds of millions of people in urban and rural areas and ensuring that they can exchange information, do business and keep in touch with their families. Mobile TV extends the value of the handset by enabling hundreds of millions of Indians to receive news, sports and entertainment on this same device.

Around the world, we have seen significant consumer interest and demand for mobile TV delivered as a free feature on the handset, providing the same live, over-the-air content that consumers view at home. This is the model that we believe will have the strongest appeal in the Indian market as well. Globally, adoption of handsets with free-to-air mobile TV has been quite strong. Since we introduced our mobile TV chips in mid-2007, well over 20 million analog TV handsets have been purchased by consumers, largely in developing markets. In-Stat predicts that there will be more than 250 million viewers of analog TV handsets by 2012, with a good portion of this growth driven from Asia.

One of the drivers for growth of free-to-air mobile TV is that it leverages the existing terrestrial TV broadcast infrastructure. It delivers the content that consumers know and enjoy without requiring any additional infrastructure investment or rollout, and is available everywhere that consumers can watch conventional TV.

CP: What are your plans for expanding your presence in the region?

WY: We are currently building our investment and presence in the Indian market. As a first step, we are developing relationships with leading operators and distributors to bring free-to-air mobile TV technology to the Indian consumer in both urban and rural areas. We are simultaneously providing feedback to handset manufacturers in China, Taiwan and Korea regarding the opportunity in the region so that TV handset designs can be developed with the preferences of the Indian consumer in mind.

CP: What are your main strategies to drive growth in mobile TV adoption?

WY: We have seen very rapid adoption of our free-to-air mobile TV technology over the last year and half, but believe that this is just the beginning. To continue to drive growth, we need to continue to proliferate the types of mobile phone designs that incorporate our free-to-air TV feature – including low-cost entry-level phone platforms. We need to build partnerships with operators and distributors who are able to reach and educate consumers about the availability of the feature. We are seeing leading operators around the world include free-to-air TV handsets in their phone portfolios in order to retain and attract subscribers and demonstrate technology leadership. As this happens, we believe that free-to-air mobile TV adoption will only accelerate.

CP: Are there any similarities in the Indian and the Thai markets? Will your experiences in South-east Asia help you in India?

WY: We see similar consumer interest in viewing TV on a handset. Samart, which is one of the leading brands in the Thai market, has recognized that the TV feature is of high interest to the consumer and has put the feature front and center in their TV handset promotional campaigns. Samart estimates that in 2009 40% of their unit shipments will come from TV handsets with our free-to-air mobile TV technology. We believe that there is a similar promotional opportunity in India and that first movers will benefit from making the feature available to consumers.

CP: What type of content would be your initial focus for the Indian market?

WY: Because Telegent’s mobile TV technology enables the reception of over-the-air broadcast programming, the content that consumers receive is the same content that they view on their conventional TV sets at home. It is live, free TV – what they are accustomed to watching, when they are accustomed to watching it.

This is how free-to-air mobile TV differs significantly from pay TV services. Pay TV services, because of copyright restrictions, must either license or develop their own content, which means that they are ultimately asking consumers to pay a service fee for content that they have never previously viewed. This difference in business model is one of the reasons why adoption of subscription mobile TV services has paled in comparison to free-to-air mobile TV adoption around the world.

CP: What are the factors that would go into your decision to tie up with a particular handset maker?

WY: Telegent currently has more than 50 handset OEM and ODM customers that include our technology in their handset designs. The customers that we are encouraging to bring their handsets to India are those that are able to provide support and service to Indian operators, distributors and retailers, and who have an attractive handset design with a feature set and price point that appeals to the Indian market.