The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is set to intervene on the issue of prices that broadcasters are offering to the IPTV service providers. At present, broadcasters are charging a very high tariff from IPTV service providers. This has emerged as a major roadblock in the services taking off.

“IPTV services are at nascent stage and we will have to do something about it,” said Trai chairman Nripendra Misra.

IPTV services are offered by telecom service providers and uses Internet Protocol to offer television through telecom transmission lines. Though IPTV is positioned as a competitor of DTH and cable TV, other two popular mechanism of offering TV channels, it is much more interactive in nature. Services like video on demand, delayed viewing of channels and interactive online games are possible through IPTV only.

Franchisee of the government-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) have approached the regulator for intervention in the pricing of TV channels that broadcasters charge from IPTV providers. There is no regulation for IPTV services. With broadcasters demanding very high fee from IPTV service providers, it is seen as unviable for them to offer these services.

For instance, a bouquet of 30-40 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.

The DTH services when launched saw disputes between broadcasters and the service providers delaying the services. Finally, Trai intervened forcing the broadcasters with DTH service providers to negotiate and come up with a tariff structure. Finally, DTH services could take off.

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