We alL know about cable TV and the DTH or direct to home television delivering crisp quality pictures to our homes. But did you know that IPTV or internet protocol TV is also coming up as an alternative?

Delivered through a broadband connection, IPTV promises to change the way entertainment is delivered. It offers interactivity, a virtual market place, instant video-on-demand, group gaming, interactive advertising, movies with all features of rewind, fast forward and pause. This is possible on live TV too. And the system works even in heavy rain.

“IPTV is the technology of the future and is gradually taking off in India. IPTV and other value added services will drive penetration of broadband in India. Further, the interactivity will help minimise the need of computer literacy and help bridge the digital divide,” said Vijay Yadav, managing director (South Asia) of UTStarcom which offers IPTV services through Airtel, MTNL and BSNL. In September 2008, UTStarcom tied up with Aksh Optifibre to provide IPTV services in 20 cities to BSNL’s subscribers on its ADSL 2+ network.

Launched in 2006, IPTV faced a struggle to gain a foothold with a subscriber base of only over 13,000 in India, compared with 10.9 million users of digital pay TV, mainly DTH, according to a Frost & Sullivan report. It was also affected by the slow penetration of broadband internet, needed for delivering good quality IPTV content, which stood at a mere 6.28 million subscribers, as per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

But things are slowly changing. “The internet customer base in the country is estimated at 6.2 million and is growing at the rate of 0.2 million customers per year, which is healthy enough for us to launch a IPTV,” said Kapil Dev Kumar, chief operating officer of MyWay, the latest IPTV service provider in the country offering its services through BSNL and MTNL network in 20 cities.

The demand has gained momentum since last year when the government announced IPTV guidelines. Although penetration is slow, IPTV providers says any new service requires time to reach a critcal point, after which the growth takes off, citing the cases of mobile telephones and broadband connections. “Three years ago, there were just a million IPTV subscribers globally. Today there are 5-6 million and after three years, their numbers are predicted to touch 22-23 million. The industry has a huge capability,” said Kumar.

Airtel’s basic package starts at Rs 999 a month, including 135 channels on TV (35 with time-shift facility), 256 kb unlimited internet broadband and a landline connection. If you want higher speed internet, you pay more. Asked why customers should shift to IPTV, Yadav said comparing IPTV with other forms of broadcast delivery such as DTH would not be correct. It would be like comparing mobile phones with fixedline connections. “IPTV as a service will augment what is already available on DTH and other traditional forms. IPTV will complement them and not compete with them,” he said adding that IPTV additional features such as time-shift TV, instant video and interactive movies are features which complement live TV.

Further, IPTV also goes beyond entertainment, he said, including business applications such as IP surveillance, video conferencing and digital signage or outdoor advertisement. “IPTV does not only allow watching TV programmes or accessing entertainment services over broadband, it will also be a delivery platform for localised value-added services and applications to the three screens — TV, PC and mobile,” he said. Says Panrong, a Delhi-based MBA student who recently shifted from cable, “IPTV has better reception and quality than cable. Moreover the time-shift feature is amazing. I can skip the ads if I want.”

Yadav stressed that the main strength of IPTV is its interactivity. “The two-way link enables such services including features such as video yellow pages, travel, home entertainment, video matrimonials, video resumes and more. It also features India’s first virtual market place on television where buying and selling of various products takes place through the television remote with online payment made by the click of a remote without having to give credit card details,” he said. The money is collected by a representative of the company in cash or cheque.

But pricing remains a challenge. “Since it offers revolutionary interactive services, the initial start-up cost for setting up IPTV is slightly higher that other technologies. The biggest bottleneck for service providers is to overcome this price barrier,” he said, However, he added that since there were many interactive services that could be enabled on IPTV, a cross-subsidy from other services would help offset the low prices of Rs 150- Rs 250 a month charged by other broadcast services. Kumar says their effort is to bring the charges down to the level of DTH.