India’s Ministry of Information & Broadcasting accepts IPTV recommendations

February 5, 2008 – India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has accepted recommendations by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to allow pay TV operators to provide broadcast IPTV services.

Under current regulations, operators can only broadcast on cable and direct to home (DTH) satellite platforms, and the news means that both telecoms and cable operators can deliver IPTV services. Telecom operators with unified access service licences and mobile telephony service licences to provide triple-play services, as well as ISPs with a net worth of over Rs 1bn (US$ 25.3mn) with permission from the licensor to provide IPTV can provide the service without further registration.

“We received a communication from the I&B Ministry today which states that it has accepted our recommendations for IPTV,” said R N Choubey, principal advisor for broadcasting and cable services for TRAI.  “We had recommended that the existing laws be amended so that broadcasters can give their signals to IPTV players too.”

The Bureau of Indian Standards is to look into specifications for IPTV set-top boxes to help cable operators while designing their IPTV networks.

The foreign direct investment (FDI) cap for IPTV providers is to remain the same as the existing structure however at 74%, meaning that telcos and ISPs could have an advantage as the FDI limit for cable operators is 49%.  TRAI has been calling for the FDI cap for cable operators to be raised to 74%, but the government has yet to act on this.