IndianMascot
Core Member
Ten years ago, the idea of watching television on a cell phone was something that fascinated tech-lovers to no end. Some early smart devices did have the features, but then the concept of smartphones really hadn’t caught on. Skip to the time smartphones became the big thing, and we saw video consumption on mobile devices reach new heights. Live television had started catching on in some countries, but definitely not in India.
But now, it’s finally time for the telly to come to the Indian smartphone screens, which, by the way, are also increasing in size rapidly. Whether it is quite late or in time, is a different story, but the television on mobile revolution has taken off in India by a lot of factors.
More the tellier
As with any other feature on a smartphone, one of the main reasons for this feature to kick off may be attributed to the exponential increase in the smartphone user base in the country. According to the Smartphone Incidence Study 2013, put together by Nielsen Informate Mobile Insights, there are 51 million smart phone users in urban India at present. This is an 89 per cent increase from 2012, when there were just 27 million users.
Tata Sky, which has recently launched its product ‘Everywhere TV’, states that 60 per cent of its users use internet on their smart devices to watch videos on the go or at home or work. Moreover, data and WiFi services are also improving, and devices too are getting more powerful to support all kinds of multimedia content.
Big players
The biggest factor for TV to finally go mobile may probably be the entry of the major DTH players to enter this segment. Dish TV, one of India’s largest DTH service provider made a move with its mobile application, 'DishOnline'. ‘DishOnline’ is a full-fledged OTT (over the top) streaming application meant to stream live TV on mobile devices such as smartphones, and tablets.
The app, which contains a number of genres and channels, is priced quite reasonably at as low as Rs 49, and is powered by Ditto-TV, an online streaming portal.
A similar product from its competitor, Tata Sky, is ‘Everywhere TV’. It’s gone a step beyond from just live streaming to recording, video on demand, and catching up on TV show episodes for up to a week. Tata Sky charges Rs 60 a month for this product.
Although these two products have kicked off the TV-on-mobile phenomenon on a large scale in India, they still have a long way to go in terms of technology. For instance, limitations include non-compatibility of HDMI streaming via mobile device on to the main television – something that Google Chromecast can take advantage of if and when it comes to India (although it is more of video-on-demand than live streaming). Also, Tata Sky’s mobile app is ready only for iOS as of now, and its Android version will come later.
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