The main benefit for BSNL/MTNL by offering IPTV service is that, they will start earning revenues from fix lines which they deployed long back and whose utility remained to be exploited since their deployment. The launch requires no additional infrastructure investments. This business model is more effective. Think of private players, who are thinking of launching IPTV services, they need to invest hefty amount for rollout of infra which doesn’t exists for them. As said earlier, this would create monopoly of state owned operators which might be harmful for any industry to survive longer. Without competition or very less competition, you are going nowhere. But in case of IPTV, it will flourish with monopoly, as it is competing directly with DTH service, which is a highly competitive market.
What will be future pricing model for IPTV services? Once rollout & initial launch is over, service provider needs to launch new tariff plans to keep existing customer base intact or to add new customers. But due to lack of any competition virtually, IPTV services pricing will be directly follow the competition in DTH domain. The future pricing will be comparable to DTH services, as always it is.
What will be the scope of IPTV services in India? Will it be limited to homes only? Not actually, but yes major chuck of subscribers will be from home segment. Taking IPTV to Corporate environment is possible by launching videoconferencing & training services to enterprises. We can also have internal communications in enterprises based on IPTV platform. In short, the scope isn’t limited to particular segment of market. But initially service providers will focus on grabbing home subscribers which forms major base of subscribers.
One more advantage of IPTV services could be sight in reducing carbon footprint, if we are talking about corporate services. Through Videoconferencing & training, we could bring good benefits to enterprises.
One interesting fact of IPTV services is that, it will push the concept of Broadband Home Network, where different devices like PC, Smart phones & Television will communicate on home network. Not only they will communicate but they will also enable file sharing among them. So future homes will be equipped with Broadband home networks or at least future looks rosy for it.
Here are some market research details which forecast the growth in IPTV market:
- Strategy Analytics estimates over 80 million subscribers by 2011 (but with only 40-41 million paying).
- Multimedia Research Group projects 72.6 million subscribers by 2011.
- Research and Markets forecasts 103 million subscribers in 2011.
While the forecasts vary widely, the overall agreement is that high growth is expected in this market area for the next several years. Heavy growth is anticipated around the world, and will remain especially high in Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Americas. While the Americas is expected to continue to lag the other regions in total deployment, it is expected to become a highly competitive market in terms of revenues, especially as deployments increase and the service offerings are expanded.
Over the next few years, the leading service providers will continue to focus on expanding their coverage areas, increasing deployments and adding new customers and content to their offerings (especially more high-definition content). Once subscriber levels are at a higher level, the focus will include more differentiating features and services (bringing in the interactive and convergent nature of IPTV technology), with increased emphasis on the concept of the fully integrated digital home network and the expanding role of the social network.
In the residential market, IPTV will provide a level of interactive service never before possible with traditional cable TV. Capabilities to allow the user to directly contact advertisers or businesses offering products, to view locally inserted advertisements, order goods and get product information, all while watching TV. This can open up many opportunities for both small and large businesses to reach a much larger audience or to reach a smaller, more targeted audience. Acceptance of IPTV will also lead to a greater expansion of the digital home market, to the use of social networking, and to the use of videoconferencing. And while many applications will be initially utilized in the home, they will eventually propagate into the corporate world as more and more remote workers push for the use of these capabilities throughout the workplace. This, in fact, may be one of the prime reasons that enterprise businesses need to monitor development in the IPTV space — so that they are prepared to implement them (or a form of them) in their corporate network.
Concluded.
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