IndianMascot
Core Member
As Aereo makes waves in the US and awaits its Supreme Court's judgement, media companies in India are trying their hand at capturing the demand for TV on handheld devices. From broadcasters, aggregators to direct-to-home (DTH) players, all have been raising their mobile TV pitch.
Aereo, the service that lets users in the US access free-to-air channels through the Internet with the help of its small antennae, is revolutionary in terms of hardware but the channels are not the encrypted ones. The US audience has been steadily moving on to the Internet for its TV content. But in India, the lack of telecom bandwidth is an inhibitor for mobile TV. Jehil Thakkar, head of media and entertainment, KPMG, says viewers number a few thousands. Mobile TV is yet to gain scale since the days Zenga had launched its pre-loaded TV-viewing app in 2009.
But that has not stopped media players from entering. The Zee group had launched Ditto TV and Tata Sky, a DTH JV of Tata Sons and STAR, the television unit of News Corp, has launched Everywhere TV. Broadcasters like Star Sports and Sony have put up websites such as starsports.com and Sony Liv. While Zenga is pre-loaded on phones, Ditto is an over-the-top (OTT) service that requires subscription and the user to pay her telecom operator data charges. Then there are telecom operators who offer TV content as VAS. Thakkar says that those who offer a bouquet of channels, replicating the TV environment, are most likely to succeed: "Broadband TV content should not be limited to a broadcaster because users want the same choices on their handheld devices too".
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