IPTV: The Future Of Small Screen Is Here

IPTV market is still at a nascent stage in India. Telecom operators are deploying pilot projects in certain regions to test the infrastructure capabilities and functionalities on the technology front as this will be a major factor that will drive the acceptance of the users. The IPTV market in India is estimated to grow strongly – but how long that is going to take is anyone’s guess. High demand for interactive and customized digital TV services will provide strong growth avenues to the IPTV market in the near future. The increase in broadband penetration in India will help reduce costs of IPTV services considerably.

With internet TV, video calls, computing all packed to give the user a different experience, IPTV hold a promising future to television viewer ship in India. The country has always been a fertile ground for the mass media industry whether it is movies or television shows, Indian viewers fondly welcomed all types of entertainments. It is also open to the latest technologies. The increasing number of mobile users in India is a clear indication how the latest technology can easily reach out to even the remotest parts of the country. One of the reasons why DTH has become very popular in India is that it reaches where the cable network cannot reach, and the role of the government to increase broadband penetration will also feed the growth of the IPTV market.

Interactivity will play a major role to popularize the IPTV concepts to existing broadband users, as the cost of operations would be much cheaper than the existing DTH services. Well, not to overlook the DTH operators who are taking the lead in India by providing users video-on-demand and a free recorded-TV service using broadband which will fuel the interest of the users and introduce them to the next generation TV viewing.

Technical features like movie on demand, video calling, internet telephony, in room entertainment for hospitality and content distribution over the internet is the current trend of today, and will be a major competitor to existing DTH users. With technologies like cloud computing and FTTH coming into play, the IPTV may just replace the home desktop PC, music player, and gaming console.

Overall, the major factors that distinguish IPTV service provider would be infrastructure (broadband technologies and speed), content availability on IP and cost of hardware. The hardware cost and the capabilities of the hardware to perform without major errors would place the provider on the top. NextBit has an advantage with regards to the hardware and capabilities of the technology which we have been working on for the last five years and are steps ahead in terms of R & D and product evolution. We are continuously adding features and functionality as we deem fit for the market.

The article is authored by Sudarshan Borker, Head- Marketing, NextBiT Computing