The technology of the future is set to completely revolutionise the way we watch television, says Jai Kishan Singh, Senior Manager, IPTV, UTStarcom

Television viewing in India has witnessed phenomenal technological changes in the past few years. Each evolving technology is bringing about better and efficient services from the existing ones. Gone are the days of watching TV using a traditional TV antenna. Today, digital cable network, DTH and now IPTV services have much to offer to the television lovers. IPTV in particular heralds the transformation of the TV from an idiot box to a "knowledge box!"

TV viewership pattern in India. According to FICCI- Price Waterhouse Coopers study, Indian Entertainment and Media Industry 2008, for the 5 year period of 2008-12 is projected to grow by 22 percent over the next five years. Currently in India, the penetration of digital television is at a very nascent stage. This indicates that TV viewership in India is still far from saturation. With the advent of newer and niche channels, specialist content is becoming more important to meet the tastes of a growing audience of discerning viewers.

IPTV to impact the trend. According to Frost & Sullivan, the Asia-Pacific region is likely to have over 27 million IPTV subscribers by 2013, with India and China being the high-growth markets. Now, with government giving the green signal last year to the broadcasters to share their channels with IPTV providers, the deployment of IPTV is all set to further revolutionise and augment television viewing experience in India.

Some of the revolutionary features that IPTV brings to the table:

• IPTV will give freedom to viewers from time-based schedules defined by the channels, by introducing the concept of time-shifted TV, where viewers can rewind and forward live broadcast TV. Now viewers need not have to give commands to save the programmes, as the programmes are already saved on the servers of the service providers
• IPTV will provide capabilities to access interactive content on a two-way link, enabling services, such as video-on-demand, group gaming, interactive advertising, and much more. With IPTV, you can order practically anything - from a pizza, to apparel, to tech gadgets, just by using the TV remote. It can enable polling on TV programmes by sending SMS messages or votes on the press of a button of your TV remote
• What's more, one can enjoy video calling facilities on the same IPTV connection!
• Rather than a platform for just watching TV programmes or accessing entertainment services over broadband, IPTV is going to be a delivery platform for value-added services as well

Viewer is truly the king. With IPTV, viewer will have much more choice than ever before. For example, Hong Kong based PCCW, which is Asia's and also perhaps the world's leading IPTV provider, provided benefits to its customer that included enhanced High-definition TV (HDTV) viewing experience, unique interactivity, in-game interactive sports information. It also provides the widest selection of content. Since IPTV provides bi-directional access to a program, the viewer can even participate in a group discussion with a particular TV channel, or submit real-time votes by the click of his TV remote using IPTV.

IPTV enables user-specific content delivery. A user can access content of any nature through this platform. For instance, IPTV offers VoD, which enables viewers to chose any video from a vast library and view it instantly. Similarly, viewers can listen to their favourite music, using the music-on-demand service.

IPTV versus DTH, Digital/Cable TV. It will not be appropriate to compare IPTV with other modes of broadcast. IPTV as a service will further augment what is already available on DTH and other traditional forms. Thus, IPTV will complement them and not compete with them. However there are several unique advantages of IPTV that keep it miles ahead of other traditional TV delivery mechanisms.

IPTV also goes beyond entertainment. Business, enterprise and vertical market focused applications include, but are not limited to, IP Surveillance, Video Conferencing, and Digital Signage.

As compared to both DTH and cable TV that allows only watching TV programs or accessing entertainment services over broadband, IPTV will be a delivery platform for value added services and applications.

Bridging the digital divide. IPTV would play a vital role in bridging the digital divide between computer literate and non-computer literate. Everyone knows how to use a television but everybody doesn't know how to use a PC. The fact is India no longer needs to hunt for a USD 100 TV with 100 million TV homes in India; IPTV will go a long way in bridging these gaps and make TV-the complete information and entertainment medium. IPTV will also serve as a stimulator for the growth of broadband in the country as it will generate the demand for increased broadband capacity and networks. For the first time in India, IPTV is enabling true long-distance Video Communications to the masses. This way, it can help India bridge the digital divide by alleviating the need of computer literacy. Besides providing superior entertainment, IPTV will be particularly useful in meeting socio-economic causes through tele-education, telemedicine, and e-governance.

Content protection. IPTV converts the TV, also referred as the ‘idiot box' to ‘knowledge box'. And for this, it becomes very important to prohibit revenue loss due to pilferage. IPTV systems, because of the two-way communication enables the Digital Rights Management and provides a leg-up in security of the content that flows in such networks as opposed to the conditional access offered in the typical cable TV or Satellite TV.

Additionally in IPTV, television signals travel as streams of IP packets enabling only the channel that is actually being watched to be sent from the fibre network down the broadband link. This has the benefit of reducing piracy and providing a far more interactive service, because individual video streams are sent to each subscriber.

Growth drivers. Once IPTV reaches a critical mass in India, and people start experiencing the never-before offerings, it will pick up the required speed - this growth cycle follows with every revolutionary new technology. The key market driver for IPTV in India will be the strong faith in the technology by the telcos, coupled by a strategic long-term view on the returns on investment.

It will also require them to introduce innovative interactive services that really fulfil a need or an aspiration. One of the best practices to follow would be to create the ideal ecosystem to enable the technology to thrive and flourish - forging the right alliances with VAS-providers, content providers and various other stakeholders - be it educational institutions or healthcare service providers or government departments. Educating people about its benefits should remain a priority.

The government can play a critical role by supporting a PPP model to set up the initial infrastructure for undertaking social causes that help the masses.

IPTV has already made strong inroads into India in the past one year. As the consumer understands the relevance of this revolutionary technology, the adoption of IPTV is surely poised to grow manifold in the forthcoming months.