Airtel digital TV takes off from Infy platform

BANGALORE,INDIA: Offering a magical entertainment experience to the television viewers in India, Bharti Airtel today announced its innovation and technology partnership with Infosys Technologies Limited to deliver superior customer experience to the customers of Airtel digital TV, its Direct-To-Home (DTH) TV service.

As part of this partnership Infosys will provide its digital convergence platform to Airtel, which includes devices, application servers and interactive applications that will focus on providing an enhanced digital lifestyle to Airtel digital TV customers.

This partnership will bring digital lifestyle applications offering interactivity and personalization into the living room, said Airtel.

Speaking on the occasion, Atul Bindal, president - Telemedia Services, Bharti Airtel said, “Airtel is delighted to partner with Infosys to offer cutting-edge interactive applications on Airtel digital TV.”

He said Airtel aimed to revolutionize the TV-viewing experience and usher in the future of television into the country with this partnership.

Apart from TV channels the DTH service would also offer value additions such as iCity, which provides local city information through interactive applications and iNet that helps the viewers to enjoy hassle-free Internet-like experience on their televisions.

This apart, Airtel digital TV customers will also have select websites packaged suitably for TV-viewing, in an application called tPortal. Also there are live and personalized stock quotes, breaking news, horoscopes, cricket scores and shopping deals in the city without interrupting their TV-viewing experience.

And then, there are special channels for regional language films. This is for the first time that any DTH service in India is offering all these facilities to the customers, he said.

Highlighting the Infosys’ focus of helping its clients compete effectively by creating a distinct product experience for their customers, S.D. Shibulal, chief operating officer, Infosys, said that the Airtel digital TV is an example of this focus.

“The technology platform that powers Airtel digital TV brings the potential that computers offer to our television sets. In addition to entertainment, it is now possible to experience interactive information services and engage in transactions using regular TVs.”

Though this platform is the intellectual property of Infosys, so far it has given licence only to Airtel to use this technology, he added.

He said that the technological innovation makes it possible to have a converged consumer experience across devices like televisions, computers, smart mobile phones and digital music players.

“The availability of these services in the Indian market marks a significant milestone – the transformation of the idiot box into a smart box,” observed Shibulal.