WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT IPTV

Till now my posts were saying what IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) is, but now I just wanted to know what people say about IPTV in India. What are their views about it. As I strongly believe every research begins at home , so I asked my brother who visits regularly from here to there outside India that " IPTV is now in India so what do you feel its future is? " Firstly He was amused that India is having something that Developed countries like USA are following successfully but he doubted for India as our infrastructure lacks when compared with developed nations.

This was something my brother felt and people in India too feel something like this – ready to accept new technology in India but with some doubts. Doesn't matter I think every new invention goes through phase of criticism and doubts first and in a way its good. A major issue I felt IPTV in India is facing is awareness about it. 98% people are not even aware about IPTV in India ( says just4kix - an Internet user). A very true statement and I really would like to see IPTV industry promotion in India. Infrastructure is my brother doubted on and many other Indians feel the same. But by introducing IPTV in India, India is actually trying to come up from these myths that we have and successful implementation of IPTV proves that Indian infrastructure is not that weak. Some people feel third party involvement in IPTV industry is an issue but if its functioning well and the roles of all parties are well defined and published then that is not a problem. Who knows tomorrow we might have more options of third parties and direct parties too.

People in India are very optimistic, ready to accept challenges, willing to experiment and always welcome new technologies, so is the case with IPTV. Indian are taking initiatives of using IPTV at their home and existing users are loving its features of Time Shift, Video on Demand (VOD), interactive applications, classifieds and so on. Not only the features even picture quality of IPTV is appreciated by its users. Time shift is the TRP of IPTV, IPTV saves all the programmes on your TV 24x7 automatically. VOD too is user favorite, of course with DVD-like features that too latest list of movies are heart winning (iControl is showing Bolt, Kambakhat Ishq on its IPTV -Tweeted on Twitter). No manual efforts for Time shift are needed, working Indians need this only. Working people can now watch what they want whenever they want and that is the reason IPTV is becoming their favorite.

New Media Promotions are Producers Gain

India’s biggest export to world is bollywood. I totally agree that bollywood is one of the biggest money gainer for India. People today outside India know about bollywood as much as they know about Hollywood. Advertising is also another reason of popularity and not only this its giving additional business to bollywood along with movies. When it comes to advertising, the advertising medium have expanded a lot. Earlier advertising was through hand-painted billboards and posters. Now computer printed billboard and posters are used. Not only the change in technique of advertising, even other things like trailers of movies, movie stills, behind the scenes and music launch etc. are the ways of promoting or advertising movies.

Remember Krishh starring Hritik Roshan, it had product placement of Samsung, a way to advertise a product in your movie. Here producer is gaining from Samsung, for endorsing its brand in the movie. On other hand samsung is getting promotion as benefit. In order to attract new customer and to retain existing ones, Television channels and service provider like DTH are telecasting latest movies. Recently 'What's Your Rashee' got released on DTH. Even 'Kaminey' was released on DTH, which was a great success. More movies are following this path now and are taking advantages through such TV channels and service providers by making good business deals, while these TV channels and service providers bear the cost of telecasting these movies and sometimes doesn't even get enough revenues . Some even spent 53% (approx.) of content cost in order to show these movies.

What I feel is on one hand bollywood producers are making profits while on another risk is beared by television channels and service providers. Slumdog Millionaire, a big hit was telecasted on PIX. Now what we generally feel is, PIX is the one getting profit while actual gainer is the producer. Producers are the one getting what they want through their advance deals while service provider’s take the risk and if movie fails on Television then they bear it. iControl IPTV, one of the IPTV service provider in India, telecasted Hanna Montana, movie did good and as far as iControlIPTV is concerned i have no clue about it. Now they are telecasting BOLT (Tweeted on twitter.com :" Watch & win. The Biggest Blockbuster BOLT is now on @iControlIPTV " ) and Lets see what results will BOLT show.

Now the question arises is why TV channels and service providers are still following this pattern? They are getting more customers at a very high cost by following this approach and I guess in future too such investments will be there.

Doordarshan to Realty TV - How TV has changed

Earlier TV was a mode of entertainment with limitations. Doordarshan gave India a start of TV with entertainment. Ramayana and Mahabharata were two very popular mythological programmes, everyone was crazy about them. But limitation was Timing/schedule, Ramayana used to get telecasted on Sundays, that too once missed no chance of watching that episode again. Then people got an increase in the choices of channels, atleast now you were not forced to view only Doordarshsan. We had DD1 and DD metro, two channels of Doordarshan. Humlog, Buniyaad and Nukkad were classics of Doordarshan.
After this even more TV channels got increased in number, Star TV, Zee TV and MTV came into existence. They found the solution of missed shows by re- telecasting them. Evening shows used to get re-telecasted in noon. A good approach but still with the constraint of timings. Its not necessary that you missed a show at 8 PM today and you are at home to watch its repeat telecast at 2 PM noon next day. But still a new thing came into existence with the demand of colored TV and cable network. Malgudi days, Dekh Bhai Dekh, Zabaan Sambhal ke, I Dream of Jeannie and Disney Hour made this era of TV rememberable.
This era also got a new thing for the viewers - The News Channel. People got exited with the arrival of an individual, 24x7 news telecast on a channel. Kids were upset with this as now their father comes from office at 6 PM and watches News channel as and when he wants. But then people got to see news updates all the time.
Another new thing that came into the TV world was characterization of channels. We now got entertainment channels like Zee TV, Start, Sony, News Channels like Aaj tak, NDTV, India TV, Kids Channels like Cartoon network, Nickelodeon. It not only gave the rise in number of channels but also rise in competition between the TV channel providers. This competition benefited the viewers, they got more and more options and services. Colored TV got new names now, Flat screen, LCD, Plasma, LED. This approach of improving the quality of TV for the viewers made the service providers active and even they started improving quality of picture from their end. This change in service provider's quality of service gave rise to HDTV, DTH is something that came few years back and people are very much aware of it. Ekta Kapoor's serials like Kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi, Kahani ghar ghar ki, etc. and Reality shows - current favorite of viewers are the programmes seen on these new technology TVs.
This new technology gave birth to a new term added to TV - Interactivity. Interactivity, not only gave TV viewers more services like games, Video on Demand (VOD) etc, but it also gave the solution of missed programmes. DTH today is coming with the features with the help of which you can save your programmes for later viewing. Where DTH provides saving of TV programmes for a limited memory storage, the latest upcoming technology IPTV comes with even more higher technology where limited memory storage problem is resolved. IPTV stores all shows on TV on its server 24x7. Now we have more than 200 channels, so writing this era's popular shows is a tuff task and time taking too. All that we can see is its the era of reality shows and interactive TV.

Why IPTV ?

Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), is something that attracted me. IPTV, sometimes referred to as broadband television, is becoming a more popular means of receiving one's television programming. It is estimated that IPTV will conquer a huge number of users in the coming few years

Why IPTV is the question arose in my mind when I first heard about IPTV. We have an N number of options to go for, then why should one go for an IPTV? May be because its a new technology, its something different or may be because its a term related to internet – the future. My mind was juggling with these answers which were not satisfactory, so I searched for my question's answer – WHY IPTV?

So here is what I found. Not only the technology but the idea behind creation of IPTV is to provide the comfort, the ease and the INTERACTIVITY. Its the time when we all believe in interaction with our machines, gadgets, devices etc. And IPTV adds television in this list, yes now even our TVs are interacting with us. Not only this, IPTV comes with solution of the problems faced by existing Television technologies. IPTV provides the benefit of a more efficient means of delivery, allowing for higher quality and more interactive features. When compared with other existing TVs, IPTV gives you a clear vision of what benefits it is providing you.

Lets talk about the satellite television (DTH services) the one requiring a dish antenna for the channels to be telecasted . One of the most common complaint about satellite television service is that there may be a loss of signal in poor weather conditions. When the weather is particularly bad, you can lose all reception, missing your favorite shows. Also, the weather does not even need to be particularly "bad". Sometimes, only partially cloudy skies or windy conditions have been known to interfere with the satellite signals.

While satellite TV is not necessarily a poor service, IPTV does provide more reliable and higher quality service every time. The weather plays no role in the quality or consistency of IPTV service. Still if you missed your favorite show because of the power cut during bad weather, a very common problem faced, your IPTV service provider auto saves your TV shows 24x7 so that you can later on watch the show you missed.

Another common problem with satellite television is that the satellite dish needs to have a clear view of the southwest sky. If there is a particularly high, or very close tree line or building blocking the view, service cannot be provided. This can also be a problem if you live in an apartment or condominium, which is facing the opposite direction, as there may not be a proper place to mount the satellite dish. As far as IPTV is concerned it works through your telephone line as its name broadband TV signifies. So no worries for the installation and placement of equipments.

That was the problems faced by a satellite user, another range of TV users are the traditional cable television users. It is a simple and old method of television viewing where your local cable operator provides you the service. Its not an interactive TV, all you can do with it is just watch the limited number of channels your cable operator is providing. IPTV is definitely benefiting from a competitive edge, provided by new capabilities that integrate Internet content, features, and usability into the TV set.

IPTV has many advantages over conventional cable, including high-speed internet access, Video on demand, hundreds of channel choices, games, educational contents, classifieds and benefits that traditional cable does not provide.

IPTV is growing in popularity due to these advantages over alternative television service. And I guess this is the answer to my question – WHY IPTV? And I am quite satisfied now. If anyone having more about IPTV and its benefits, I will be glad to know.