Cable firms oppose pref treatment to IPTV

Citing misrepresentation of facts and unjust comparisons, Multi System Operators (MSOs) and cable operators have opposed the government's preferential treatment for Internet Protocol Television (IPTV).

IPTV allows the consumer to watch television using a telephone line and a broadband Internet connection whereas digital cable can be accessed through the conditional access system (CAS) in which consumers watch television over traditional cable wires and pay for the channels they watch. Both IPTV and CAS require set top boxes.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), which is also the regulator for the television industry, recently circulated a position paper on IPTV that states that both telecom companies and cable operators can offer IPTV services.

However, the telecom companies enjoy certain conditions under the telecom licensing agreements such as a higher cap on foreign investments and no accountability on television content. These benefits cannot be extended to cable operators, Trai says.

"The Trai paper clearly reflects a tilt towards the telecom companies," a senior executive in a cable company said.

According to an expert, the Trai paper says that cable networks were not interactive while the IPTV was, and that IPTV was a point-to-point service while cable was a one-to-many service. "These facts are not correct," the expert said.

"The cable networks are interactive and the examples are Hathway and Siticable that are running Internet on cable and have been offering live telecast of various events since 1994," the expert said.

Trai says that IPTV was not in the picture when downlinking guidelines were framed and hence IPTV service providers cannot be held accountable for the content they carry. "This is also incorrect as IPTV in India has been under trial since 2001, while the downlinking guidelines came into effect in 2005," the expert said.

According to sources, several telecom companies want to push IPTV services to households that already have broadband Internet connections and landline phones.

"This gives them an additional revenue stream without extra investments at the cost of the cable business whereas cable companies will have to make heavy investments to support IPTV services," a source said.