Tata Comm enters media, entertainment space

MUMBAI, INDIA: Tata Communications, a major player in the communication service sector, today announced the launch of its Global Media & Entertainment Solutions (GMES) division in Mumbai.

According to Tata Communications’ president and COO Vinod Kumar, the new world of communications has three parts – emerging markets, converged IP and cloud based solutions, networks and data center-based managed services.

“Our portfolio offers a mix of telecom as well as IT services that make us unique in the media and entertainment segment. And we see huge opportunities in this space and hence, we decided to set up the GMES division,” Kumar said.

Under GMES, Tata Communications launched Video Connect and Mosaic platform. Video Connect is a dedicated video network to help broadcasters, studios and production houses deliver video content flexibly and cost-effectively to media hotspots worldwide.

Meanwhile, Mosaic is a media management platform, which Tata Communication had acquired from BT Group recently. The platform offers cloud-based network to help customers improve cross enterprise collaboration for content creation, management and multi-format delivery.

Mosaic is aimed to provide content delivery over the fiber optic cables rather than using the satellites uplinks between the broadcasters to content providers such as the direct-to-home (DTH) service providers under IP-based security network.

Both Video Connect and Mosaic leverage the Global Media Delivery Infrastructure (GMDI) which includes Content Delivery Network (CDN), MPLS, Ethernet, Global IP Network, Managed Security Service, Managed Hosting and Storage Services.

For Mosaic, the media companies will need to invest upfront for infrastructure and the service is offered on subscription basis depending on features, usage and number of users.

According to Kumar, the pricing would be around USD 1-2 million transaction size per annum.

On investment side, Kumar explained that there would be USD 50 million investments largely in the area of software developments for new software versions and enhancing the hardware capabilities in the media and entertainment space.

Kumar also said that globally, the media and entertainment solution market is around USD 10 billion, which was expected to double in next two years. He added the company would eye revenues around USD 200-300 million over the next two years.