Reliance Industries Limited’s (RIL’s) much anticipated (and also much-delayed) launch of data-rich 4G (or fourth generation) services will, apart from challenging telcos and cable and DTH (or direct-to-home) television companies, also seek to change the dynamics of the education, entertainment, financial services and healthcare businesses in the country, according to executives at the company and its rivals, and details from its annual report for 2013-14.
Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd will launch its services in the next six to eight months, two RIL executives familiar with the company’s plans said, asking not to be identified.
The two executives cited above singled out entertainment as a “big part” of Reliance Jio’s strategy. The company plans to offer its subscribers access to 200 channels of which 160 will be HD. It will automatically store TV shows on these channels for seven days on the cloud, and subscribers can access and watch them—without having to record them. The executives said that Reliance Jio will also offer a video-on-demand service, tapping a library of 450 movies and episodes of popular TV series.
That could derail the plans of DTH and cable companies which are counting on the high cost of live-streaming channels through 4G networks working to their own advantage.
“If you look at it globally, this format has not made inroads into the DTH industry. The transmission bandwidth required and the cost associated have been a deterrent in the development of IPTV, or Internet protocol television,” Dish TV’s chief executive R.C. Venkateish said.
“Consumers are technology-agnostic, they need best-quality entertainment at competitive prices. Whosoever can provide that is going to win,” said Vikram Mehra, chief commercial officer at Tata Sky, another DTH company.
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