Market opportunity analysis for new generation TV in India

Abstract

With the rapid evolution of technologies in the Information and Communication sectors, the world is witnessing the emergence of new products and services, and the morphing of some existing products and services. One of the services at the cusp of transformation is the viewing and delivery of Television content. TV viewing has changed with the introduction of pay TV services in the past decade. The next generation of change is being heralded by technologies such as Internet Protocol (IPTV) and mobility (Mobile TV).Amongst the new generation TV content viewing technologies we find that IPTV is farthest along in terms of evolution. Globally IPTV has emerged as a serious, competing pay TV platform, although it has by no means attained large volumes of subscriber base. Nevertheless IPTV provides us a trail that we can understand to portend how new generation TV viewing will emerge, and what kind of issues and opportunities will be encountered in the road towards growth and profitability. This is being led by the telecom players who are seeking new ways to sustain and grow the profitability of their heritage telephony and wireless services. Their interest in IPTV stems as a response to the heightened competition that they face from operators who are thrusting into their core territory of telecom service. The goal of this project is to assess the market opportunity for new generation TV content viewing in India. We are using IPTV as a proxy to comprehend the evolution of new generation TV viewing. Since this is a nascent market we need to understand the factors that will promote or inhibit the growth of this new market space. There are many examples of companies in Western Europe, USA, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan etc that are attempting various business models to grow the IPTV business. We examine their approach and learn how they are addressing different challenges. As with every industry there are multiple types of players involved in the IPTV value chain like the telecom service providers, the content providers, the cable and Direct-to-Home operators, the marketers etc. We assess the dynamics in terms of competitive forces. Infrastructure is a prerequisite for successful delivery of IPTV services, and therefore we explore the bandwidth requirements that prevail currently and assess its impact. We would also discover consumer preferences through a survey, and this will help determine the volume and revenue potential in India. Finally we explore the regulatory aspects that need to be navigated. We conclude by summarizing our findings and providing an informed commentary on the near term and long term opportunities for telecom service providers in this area.