Broadcasting

March 8, 2007
IPTV – Unbounded Interactive Viewing Experience for the Indian Consumer

Sujata Dev

NEW DELHI -- Home entertainment is witnessing a paradigm shift towards interactivity and active participation by the viewer in selection in terms of flexibility of time, choice and price. Digitalisation is the buzzword with the Indian entertainment industry undergoing a sweeping change, adopting this technology with gusto. Pampered for choice, the Indian consumer is shifting his choice on the mode of content delivery at his home, leading to analogue technology moving towards decline in its life cycle.

The recent introduction of DTH and CAS in India, further aroused consumer curiosity, seeking superior service and delivery platforms. IPTV would therefore play a major role in altering the manner in which the viewer will consume home entertainment. The idiot box would undergo a metamorphosis to an intelligent device capable of performing functions hitherto not experienced from any existing platforms

IPTV leverages on the triple-play technology, where in the service providers deliver digital content to consumers. Using existing Copper wires of telecom operators, triple play will carry voice, video and data. With the help of a gateway installed at consumer homes, the bouquet of services that could be made available are Broadcast channels and ‘on demand services’. Capitalising on the government’s resolve to extensively grow broadband and having declared ‘2007 as the year of Broadband’, IPTV is the highest form of convergent delivery poised for explosive growth in the coming months.

IPTV as an interactive delivery medium enjoys overwhelming superiority over its content delivery peers both CAS & DTH empowering viewer control in real time. It is the only medium that permits the consumer to enjoy full-blown on demand services between the viewer and his viewing medium. With the penetration of PC at less than double digits, India is predominantly a TV market. This technology plays an important role by transmutation of TV into PC capable of performing primary and limited PC functions.

The consumer has the option to view IPTV on both TV and PC, a feature that can’t be offered by cable or DTH. In addition IPTV provides amazing features apart from distribution of broadcast channels, like Content on Demand, which includes movies, music videos, serials, shows and documentaries. The gaming feature of IPTV permits multi-player possibility within the operator’s network. Two players in different locations within the same telecom network can play games using IPTV. It also permits sending sms, polling & voting for various shows eliminating the need for mobile phones. Features like Videophone and e-trading can also be incorporated into the medium. The ‘Time Shift’ feature permits the viewer to see program and serials of his choice at his own convenient time. Thus a TV transforms to a virtual PC and the PC becomes a virtual TV ensuring the ‘power to choose’ in the hands of a viewer

For the Indian consumer to enjoy such features from IPTV, the introduction of the latest cutting edge technology into the country becomes an absolute necessity. For IPTV to provide the right quality of service, it is imperative for the telecom operators to provide ADSL2+ network with MPLS backbone. Meshing technology like the hi-end middleware and head-end systems consisting of encoders and decoders.

Video-on-demand, along with content protection, will further enhance viewing pleasure. The challenge would lie in delivering rich media content through 2Mbps by adopting the latest compression technology of H.264 or VC1. Globally, most countries are moving to H.264 from MPEG 2 as it delivers superior digitalization and uses less bandwidth. A technologically superior gateway at the consumer home will enhance interactivity between the viewer and his viewing set. The choice of the technology has to ensure to take due care of open-ended architecture and scalability of the whole set-up. It is unfortunate at this juncture some Indian players are launching redundant and obsolete technology without analyzing long term implications. The success of IPTV will largely depend on adopting the right technology along with the spectrum of compelling content, services and features that’s mature to ensure unbounded viewing pleasure for the Indian consumer

Though technology is an enabler, the consumer has little interface with it, be it CAS, DTH or IPTV. The consumer wishes to see quality service and excellent delivery with an inimitable After Sales Support. Therefore for IPTV to succeed pricing on par with the other delivery medium becomes critical along with additional service. The expectation of the consumer from IPTV is to avail much more than what’s available from the current delivery mechanisms. Value Innovation and pricing will therefore become the key to consumer delight

Piracy is rampant in India and is reckoned to be double the official estimates of the Indian entertainment industry. To overcome this lacuna and protect the interest of the content providers, hi-end content protection (CP) needs to be integrated into the system. IPTV in established markets has adopted CP or Digital Rights Management System (DRM) which is capable of session based water marking with clone detection mechanisms and having the standardization of AES 192 bits. The major studios of Hollywood insist on such parameters to share their premium content. India will be no exception to these fundamentals adopted by the global industry as benchmarks. CP/ DRM used for IPTV having been armed with clone detection, water marking and dynamic keys is well equipped to protect content in digital formats upto the gateway. Incorporation of Macrovision in combination ensures total protection of even analogue content beyond the Set Top Box upto the screen, thus creating an end-to-end highly protected environment.

The existing technology and platforms are well defined by the Cinematographic Act 1957. However IPTV being a new technology is yet to find concrete and frozen legislations for definition under the Copyright Act. The Government therefore needs to enact news laws to define IPTV under the copyright act. A new promogulation on copyright for existing technology and formats needs to be established. It is to be noted that IPTV for telecom operations is a VAS, an extension of their existing infrastructure to boost their ARPU’s.

The growth of the IPTV industry also largely depends on the government’s role in enacting and interpreting suitable regulations. The industry is waiting with bated breath for the government regulations; whether IPTV would come under CAS or telecom regulations as it provides VAS to telecom subscribers.

Surely, the Indian consumer’s right to choose such a versatile technology cannot be denied. At the same time there has to be right regulations and guidelines so as to ensure that the IPTV operators adopt the right and mature technology and not convert India into a dumping ground for obsolete technologies.. The government’s focus should be to provide a thrust to IPTV to ensure that the Indian consumer’s enjoy the right to enjoy maximum from IPTV in India.

(The author is MD and CEO, Time Broadband Services)