Govt forms inter-ministerial group for IPTV policy

Televisionpoint.com Correspondent
The Government has set up an inter-ministerial group (IMG) to formulate policy and regulatory framework for Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), which will have a number of ambiguous issues to deal with in order to classify the digital platform into a telecom service or a cable service.

The telecom operators including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, BSNL and MTNL, have taken up IPTV as an expansion of their telecom services. MTNL has already started IPTV services in Delhi and Mumbai, while other players are in the process of setting up their infrastructure and will launch their by the end of this fiscal.

The first issue that the IMG will deal is concerned with the foreign direct investment (FDI) limits. According to current regulations, FDI for cable services is 49%, for news channels it is 26% and for telecom it is 74%.

In a scenario where IPTV enables telecom players to become cable operators, the telecom operators will have an undue advantage as they would get 74% FDI, whereas a cable company providing IPTV would have a limit of 49%. There would be a similar disadvantage faced by news broadcasters as well and if IPTV is placed as a telecom service then the existing down-linking policy of the government would get diluted.

If IPTV is taken out of the ambit of the cable networks regulation act and the DTH guidelines then down-linking norms would also not apply. They would have no mechanism to monitor content and IPTV providers could carry channels, which have no permission from the information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry. The IPTV provider would also not be liable to provide must carry clauses, which all content distributors have to adhere to.

Also, under the IT Act/telecom service license, IPTV providers would be allowed to offer Internet TV which comprises TV channels (3,000+) available on the Internet from various servers located in different countries. Many of these are free to air or have explicit content not allowed in India.

If IPTV were brought under the unified service licence then cable operators (or MSO's), who want to upgrade to IPTV or Digital TV they would not be able to unless they also received unified service license. Tariffs are also another issue that would have to be settled by the IMG as CAS and DTH providers have certain tariff regulations they must adhere to. Most of the IPTV firms use different technologies. This would mean that standardisation and quality of service guideline would not apply to them.