Don't push IPTV as stand-alone service

Indian telecos should take cue from the US telcos and not roll out IPTV service as a standalone service but bundled with other core services like voice and data, says Henry Wiechman business development manager Texas Instruments, Digital Video group.

“Telecom operators should focus on offering personalisation services like Video on Demand and video conferencing to keep the interest level high with the customers rather than offering IPTV as a replacement to their existing TV service” explains Henry Wiechman.

Wiechman and Praveen Ganapathy, director- business development, consumer & automotive corporate business development, Texas Instruments India in an interaction with Idhries Ahmad of CIOL talk about the market trends across the globe in IPTV market with special focus on developments in India.

CIOL: Can you help me understand what Texas Instruments doing in the IPTV space?



Henry Wiechman: TI has been in the IPTV space for the last three years. We are among the first to support multiple supplications and multiple platforms with our solutions. TI format supports all multiple formats, which allow gaining traction in the market. We have done deployments win Europe, Asia, US and central and north America. In India many operators are trailing their IPTV service using TI platform. We have platforms, which are interoperable and give high quality of service



CIOL: How different is IPTV from the broadcast mediums like cable andor DTH .  What are the services that IPTV offers that enhance his TV viewing experience?

Henry: IPTV is a service, which is delivered using IP (Internet Protocol) technology. TV channels are encoded in IP format and delivered to TV through a Set Top Box.

The IPTV services includes myriad of services, which are made available to the customers that enhance their TV viewing experience. With a TI powered IP set top box, a user can many functions other than the traditional video play back. For example video on phone along with video playback allows user to use TV as a videophone apart from viewing TV.

With a camera service attached to your TV, you can do lot of video conferring with the same infrastructure and the same computing. Video surveillance along with video playback is interesting value added service of IPTV that is gaining traction in the market. The service alerts you when watching a programme about the outsider. The service when bundled with identity recognition software identifies the person outside the house is an intruder or a known person.

The other associated video surveillance service with IPTV is that while watching television some one knocks the door, a window pops up to message that some one is at the door and you need to open the door for him or if you don’t want to open the door, and bore him to death at the door. It is a very good security service to protect against the intruders.

In US it is called the video bell service and is getting very popular.

Apart from that you have the lots if enhanced gaming experience and you can play games on your televise with your friends who are sitting very remotely.

While watching a movie you can select a particular actor and select the outfit that he or she is wearing and it will guide to website where you can purchase the particular outfit. You can have enhanced experience while watching a particular sport. You can select multiple angles other than that are given by the traditional broadcaster.

CIOL:In traditional broadcast format a viewer is very much dependent on his broadcasters for the content he watches, but IPTV allows the flexibility to watch user generated content. How does TI platform facilitate user-generated content through IPTV?

Henry: User generated content can be copied or enhanced through IPTV. TI has multi format engines and we can play flash videos and bring up you tube or my space type of content in the set top boxes for IPTV to be used. Facilitating user-generated content is an area that is essential for IPTV. The real advantage of IPTV is that you can create an interactive experience and much more customised experience than the traditional broadcasters.

Another service IPTV service providers are very excited is the personal recorder service that you can set a profile that would find content that you love to watch. The database will store your profile and search variety of databases to locate all the personal content that you prefer.

Though the market is abuzz with hype, yet very little is happening on the ground apart from very few trail rollouts, Why is uptake in the market been a tad disappointing?

Praveen: In India the challenges are different if compared to the rest of the countries in the Asia pacific. We have close to 2.2 million broadband connections in India. Maran had promised 10 million by the year-end but that looks very remote. Compared to the other regions this is very very small. Though we are adding new connections to the kitty, the progress had been painfully slow.

Operators are also struggling with a business model. There is a fear how many of them have requisite bandwidth to support the services that IPTV supports. They need at least 2 Mbps or capability for quality video and the value added services that will make IPTV a success in the long run.

The operators are also figuring out that it will take them years to recall return on investments. Unless these guys make out how to make money, it will be a big issue.

If one compares to US, customers in US will pay higher for services than the Indian customers. If we talk about video on demand, the charges during trials are Rs 50-60, while you get a pirated DVD in market for 35 rupees. So why download the video and also pay Rest 60 to the operator for a DVD that one gets in market for Rs. 40 only.

The again, content aggregation will be big issue for the telecom operators. You can’t have operators go to the content providers like the STAR or ZEE to ask them for the content. In India we need players who will do content aggregation. He will do the hard part for the telecom operators.



That makes it bumpy road for telecos, so what strategy operators should formulate make IPTV a reality in India

Praveen: People are very wary of what new is going to come. Unless you free the broadband they are not going to try that out. Make broadband free, let people try out the service for couple of months and if they find that IPTV is much more than a replacement of their traditional TV service than they will pay for IPTV experience.  You have to give more than the DTH and the cable and plan out new ways to keep customers engaged

CIOL: But US had made giant strides in IPTV acceptance compared to India.  What strategy are US telecos following that is making IPTV reach a sizable part of population? Can Indian operators take cue from



They are being more methodical in approach. In US, DTH and cable have a large installed base. The IPTV service is an optional service along with the broadband voice service. Even for the TV they are offering the customise service for the end user. They are doing lot of PVR for users.

 They are allowing them to streamline videos between the customers. In US the focus is more on the value added services. Telecom operators should focus on offering personalisation services like Video on Demand and video conferencing to keep the interest level high with the customers rather than offering IPTV as a replacement to their existing TV service.