Indian broadcasters obliged to share feeds with IPTV and HITS operators

July 14, 2008 - The Indian government has made it mandatory for all local broadcasters to share their feeds with Headend in the Sky (HITS), IPTV and mobile TV operators, according to reports in local media.

A clarification issued by India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) makes it obligatory for all broadcasters to immediately share their channels with Wire & Wireless Ltd (WWIL), the HITS licence holding company of Essel Group. This is described as significant as several broadcasters, including the STAR channels distributed by STAR-DEN and the Sony bouquet distributed by MSM Discovery, were not previously sharing their channels with Essel Group's HITS venture, which is expected to be launched across 12 cities in the last week of July.

IPTV operators (namely Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and MTNL) can also now demand any channel they want from broadcasters say the reports, even if they are in trial phase, as well as mobile TV operators such as Doordarshan, until an overall policy for the new platforms is approved.