The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : BSNL to launch Internet Protocol Television soon

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Friday, Jan 02, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

BSNL to launch Internet Protocol Television soon

M. Dinesh Varma

Service will be provided to DataOne subscribers at competitive tariffs

“Soft launch of the service a runaway success”
BSNL has struck deals with 30-odd channels

CHENNAI: Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) is set to transform the tele-viewing experience of broadband users with BSNL Chennai Telephones gearing up to launch the service shortly.

A senior BSNL official told The Hindu that the service would be provided to DataOne subscribers at competitive tariffs. The soft launch of the service was a runaway success, he said.

To be initially launched in Chennai, the service could later be taken to the subscribers under BSNL Tamil Nadu Circle.

BSNL has at present struck deals with 30 odd channels and is looking to expand the bouquet by negotiating with paid channels, sources said. The partner channels provide the Set Top Box and BSNL the modem.

IPTV is a technology that delivers video or TV broadcasts over the broadband network instead of receiving television or video over the cable lines (Cable Operator) or through a satellite (DTH).

Being Internet Protocol-based, IPTV will allow users a freedom and versatility not associated with regular tele-viewing. The new technology, with its key assets being interactive and personalised viewing, promises many more things compared to the TV set.

Alternative to cable, DTH

Basic television, which offers a more or less linear viewing experience, is but one component of IPTV. Unlike Internet TV, the new technology tilts more towards being a TV experience than a PC experience and could garner space as an alternative to cable and DTH. The technology’s ability to provide two-way communication (a user requests a programme from the TV guide and the programme is delivered to him).

Quad Play — voice, video, data, and mobility — is another unique differentiator of the new technology. Users of IPTV can also stream TV programmes to their mobile phone or to an office computer rather than being restricted to viewing them on TV sets alone.

According to BSNL officials, some of the services likely to be rolled out are live television, time-shifted TV, virtual Video on Demand (where channels are created, scheduled and telecast by the operator in a staggered fashion), subscription-based Video on Demand, Pay per view and recording of favourite shows with Personal Video Recorder.

Officials expect the near Video on Demand and PVR features to be popular. In virtual VoD, the staggered channels are played in deferred mode.

A customer purchases a “ticket” and can access all the channels running the same movie in multicast. The channels are so phased that by pressing “FF” or “RW” the customer can switch the channels and skip number of minutes back or forth giving him a near VOD experience.

Interactive device

Using a PVR, an interactive electronic device, the user can record television shows in a digital format. The television shows can be stored client-side (on a hard disk in the set-top box) or server-side (stored by a video server at the head-end that has been designed for this purpose).

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