  Things are not looking good for IPTV services in India. The reason is quite obvious since the broadband penetration in the country itself is yet to pick-up.
A new research from Screen Digest reveals that IPTV services will find increased uptake after the penetration of broadband services in households having access to pay-TV services increases from the present figure of 4.2 % to 13.4 % by 2013.
While the world maybe moving towards adopting the digital mode for TV services. But in India, Analogue mode enjoys an unmatched dominance. The analogue medium has a market share of 89 % in the pay-TV market. There are more than 60,000 operators offering services over this medium. And the subscriber base is estimated to increase from 80 million in 2008 to 113 million by 2013.

DTH as a medium is picking up well with almost 10 million consumers hooked to the medium for TV services.
“The sudden drop in advertising revenue brought about by the recession has been a wake up call for the Indian media industry which has until date seen tremendous growth," says Aravind Venugopal, Research Analyst for Television at Screen Digest. "A welcome respite will be the easing of foreign ownership regulations. If the regulations are eased as planned, India can expect to see a strong inflow of foreign funding, followed by a round of consolidation – especially in the cable and satellite pay TV sectors,” he adds. "This inflow of funds will also be crucial to the digitisation of the nations’ analogue cable TV networks – necessary not just for the cable operators themselves to be able to compete with satellite, but for the entire TV value chain,” concludes Venugopal |