Franchisee of the government-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) have approached telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI) for intervention in the pricing of TV channels that broadcasters charge from IPTV providers.

Presently, there is no regulation for IPTV services. Broadcasters are charging very high fee from the IPTV service providers, which makes it unviable for them to offer IPTV services. For instance, a bouquet of TV channels would cost Rs 700 per month to IPTV franchisee of BSNL. The same bouquet will cost a subscriber of cable TV or DTH services about Rs 300 per month. This is one of the reasons why IPTV services offered by BSNL are not picking up.

TRAI chairman Nripendra Misra confirmed that some IPTV service providers have approached him for some kind of regulation on IPTV. When DTH services were launched, disputes between broadcasters and DTH service providers delayed the services. Finally, TRAI had to intervene and force the broadcasters and DTH service providers to negotiate come up with a tariff structure. Finally, DTH services could take off.

IPTV is still in nascent stages in India. Even though MTNL is offering IPTV services, its subscribers are less than 10,000 in Delhi and Mumbai. BSNL has ambitious plans in IPTV services. It is proceeding through franchisee model. IOL, Divi Net and Exicom are its franchisee, while Aksh has also applied for its Franchisee.

With BSNL and MTNL accounting for over 90% of India'''s landline subscribers, they have an advantage in IPTV.