ITV

Tag: broadband

  • Major strides in National Fibre Optic Network programme, Digital India: Jaitley

    Major strides in National Fibre Optic Network programme, Digital India: Jaitley

    NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Saturday, that the National Optical Fibre Network Programme (NOFNP) of 7.5 lakh kms networking 2.5 lakh villages is being further speeded up by allowing willing states to undertake its execution, on reimbursement of cost as determined by Department of Telecommunications.

     

    Andhra Pradesh is the first state to have opted for this manner of implementation. 

     

    Jaitley also said that the ‘Digital India’ programme had been announced to take technology from grassroot to the space and make India a knowledge and innovation based society with broadband connectivity being taken to all villages.

     

    He said in his budget for 2015-16 that India has a well-regarded and world-class IT industry with revenues of about $150 billion, over $100 billion of exports, employing nearly 40 lakh people directly. The country was ‘now seeing a growing interest in start-ups.’

     

    “Experimenting in cutting edge technologies, creating value out of ideas and initiatives and converting them into scalable enterprises and businesses is at the core of our strategy for engaging our youth and for inclusive and sustainable growth of the country. Concerns such as a more liberal system of raising global capital, incubation facilities in our Centres of Excellence, funding for seed capital and growth, and ease of doing business etc. need to be addressed to create lakhs of jobs and hundreds of billion dollars in value,” he said.

     

    With this objective, the government will establish a mechanism to be known as SETU (Self-Employment and Talent Utilisation). SETU will be a Techno-Financial, Incubation and Facilitation Programme to support all aspects of start-up businesses, and other self-employment activities, particularly in technology-driven areas. Jaitley set aside Rs 1,000 crore initially in NITI Aayog for this purpose.

  • Ortel to increase cable TV penetration, broadband with IPO funds

    Ortel to increase cable TV penetration, broadband with IPO funds

    MUMBAI: Odisha based last mile owner (LMO) Ortel Communications, which filed its Red Herring Prospectus (RHP) for a public issue on 21 February, has now announced the price band of Rs 181-Rs 200 per equity share.

     

    As reported first by Indiantelevision.com, the LMO will open the public issue of up to 12 million equity shares of face value of Rs 10 each including a share premium per equity share on 3 March. The issue comprises a fresh issue to the public of up to six million equity shares and an offer for sale up to six million equity shares by New Silk Route (NSR). The bid will close on 5 March.

     

    The minimum bid lot is 75 equity shares and in multiples of 75 equity shares thereafter. The issue constitutes 39.25 per cent of the fully diluted post-issue paid up equity share capital of the company.

     

    In a press conference, held in Mumbai on 24 February, the LMO said that the company and the selling shareholder may, in consultation with the Book Running Lead Manager, allocate up to 60 per cent of the QIB portion to anchor investors at the Anchor Investor Allocation Price, on a discretionary basis, out of which at least one-third will be available for allocation to domestic mutual funds only. Anchor investors can bid on 2 March.

     

    “The issue is being made through the Book Building Process in compliance with the provisions of Regulation 26(2) of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2009, as amended, wherein at least 75 per cent of the issue shall be allotted on a proportionate basis to Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIB). In the event of under-subscription or non-allocation in the Anchor Investor Portion, the balance equity shares shall be added to the net QIB potion. Such number of equity shares representing five per cent of the net QIB portion shall be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to mutual funds only. The remainder of the net QIB portion shall be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to QIBs,” says the company release.

     

    “However, if the aggregate demand from mutual funds is less than 180,000 equity shares, that is five per cent of the net QIB portion, the balance equity shares available for allocation in the mutual fund portion will be added to the net QIB portion and allocated proportionately to QIBs in proportion to their bids. If 75 per cent of the issue cannot be allocated to QIBs, all the application monies will be refunded forthwith. Further, not more than 15 per cent of the issue shall be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to non-institutional bidders and not more than 10 per cent of the issue shall be available for the allocation to retail individual bidders, subject to valid bids being received from them at or above the issue price,” it further reads.

     

    Ortel Communications, through the IPO, is looking at strengthening its presence in the current four states, including Odisha, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh as well as expanding to other neighbouring regions. The LMO currently offers services in 48 towns with over 21,600 km of cable supported by 34 analogue and five digital headends.

     

    When asked about the reason for raising capital, Ortel Communications chairman BJ Panda said, “We have already gone for three rounds of private equity funding. Ours is a CAPEX heavy business. As we go forward, it is essential to have public presence. The time has come, when the company has some currency to scale up.”

     

    The revenue generated through the IPO will be used for:

     

       –  Deeper penetration: Ortel plans to expand its penetration in not only the existing markets, but also new geographies. “The plan is to grow the number of subscribers,” said Panda.

     

      –   Increasing penetration of digital TV: As the nation is moving towards digitisation, Ortel Communications currently has converted 20 per cent of analogue homes to digital homes. The revenue generated will be used at slowly increasing the number of digital homes.

     

       –  Increasing Broadband: Currently 11 per cent of Ortel’s total subscribers are broadband consumers. The aim now is to take this up. The LMO currently provides data services at a speed of up to 42.88 mbps through the use of cable modem with DOCSIS 2.0. “We are in the process of upgrading the modems to DOCSIS 3.0. This is currently being tested, and has the capacity of providing broadband at a speed of over 340 mbps,” informed Ortel Communications president and CEO Bibhu Prasad Rath.

     

      –  Expand: By buyout of local cable operators and networks. The company so far has entered into agreements with over 490 MSOs/LCOs between April 2009 to December 2014, resulting in an acquisition of 221,155 cable television subscribers.

     

      –   Leasing fibre infrastructure to corporates.

     

    As of 31 December, 2014, the company has 372,979 retail subscribers for analogue cable TV services, 95, 295 retail subscribers for our digital cable services and 58,277 broadband subscribers, including 121 corporate customers with provisioned bandwidth of 806 mbps adding up to 526,551 Revenue Generating Units (RGUs).

     

    For the six months period ending 30 September, 2014, the company’s total income was Rs 719.34 million and its PBDIT was Rs 252.39 million. In the same period, carriage and placement revenue contributed 17.11 per cent of the total revenues from operations. The trade receivables were at Rs 216.50 million i.e. 15.05 per cent of total income annualised, which according to the company, was substantially lower than other listed national MSOs.

  • MSOs, LCOs working towards increasing broadband reach: I&B

    MSOs, LCOs working towards increasing broadband reach: I&B

    NEW DELHI: Officials in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry said that several multi-system operators (MSOs) and local cable operators (LCOs) were already helping in increasing the reach of broadband throughout the country.

     

    However, these officials told Indiantelevision.com that they were unaware of any approach to the Ministry by the Department of Telecom (DoT) to seek the help of MSOs and LCOs for this purpose.

     

    They agreed that using LCOs would help as this segment had the last mile connectivity all over the country. In any case, it was felt that MSOs and LCOs – being private businesses – could be approached directly by the DoT.

     

    It was stated by LCO and MSO sources that several LCOs were already involved in the business of broadband penetration in addition to television. Furthermore some MSOs and LCOs already had licences for this purpose. One MSO said that the DoT had in fact already devised different categories of licensing for such purposes.

     

    The Broadband Policy 2004 had also suggested that cable TV network be used as a franchisee network of the service provider for provisioning broadband services, the official added.

     

    Some MSOs and LCOs have held a meeting with DoT in this connection, and sought certain facilities. 

     

    The government plans to provide broadband connectivity across the country and it has to work on many fronts, the official said adding that one is National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN), which will cover villages, and the other will be to ensure Internet connectivity in cities and small towns.

     

    The government plans to utilise Universal Service Obligation Fund to provide incentives to ensure coverage in such areas through viability gap funding, DoT officials said. 

  • Q3-2015: Den Network reports 18 per cent y-o-y growth in cable subscription revenue

    Q3-2015: Den Network reports 18 per cent y-o-y growth in cable subscription revenue

    BENGALURU: Den Networks Ltd’s (Den Networks) cable business subscription revenues net off LCO share grew 18 per cent, up 11 per cent y-o-y to Rs 116 crore in the current quarter from Rs 97 crore in Q3-2014 and its cable business operation margin was maintained at 19 per cent q-o-q.

     

    Den added 1,97,000 set top boxes (STB) in Q3-2015, taking the total STBs deployed to approximately 68 lakh. The company said that its current digital subscriber base in phase 1 and 2 is approximately 50 lakh. Digital subscribers are expected to increase significantly with acceleration in non-DAS market informs the company. 

     

    Note: 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10 million = 1 crore

     

    Den Networks TIO at Rs 269.82 crore in Q3-2015 fell two per cent from Rs 274.26 in Q3-2014 and fell 7.9 per cent from Rs 291.72 crore in the preceding quarter. However, TIO in 9M-2015 at Rs 859.34 crore was 5.5 per cent more than the Rs 814.83 crore in HY-2014.

     

    Den Networks recently launched its high speed broadband service, which is gaining great traction having achieved an average ARPU of Rs 740 per month in Q2-2015. This quarter, Den says that ARPU has improved to Rs 748 per month.

     

    The company also says that its joint venture (JV) with Snapdeal.com has been received extremely well. Within the first month, Den Network claimed in Q2-2015 that the company has clocked an annualised Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) in excess of Rs 50 crore based on the annualised latest daily run rate and was expected to scale significantly as the channel gets distributed across networks. For Q3-2015, the company says that the market place based model now reaches 1.9 crore homes clocking Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of Rs 100 crore.

     

    Let us look at the other numbers reported by Den Networks:

     

    Total expense (TE) in Q3-2015 at Rs 316.75 crore (117.8 per cent of TIO) was 32.7 per cent more than the Rs 238.63 crore (87 per cent of TIO) in Q3-2014 and was 6.4 per cent more than the Rs 297.81 crore (102.1 per cent of TIO) in Q2-2015. In 9M-2015, TE at Rs 899.48 crore (104.7 per cent of TIO) was 29.8 per cent more than the Rs 692.75 crore (85 per cent of TIO) in 9M-2014.

     

    The company’s content cost in Q3-2015 at Rs 1100.96 crore (40.9 per cent of TIO) was 15.5 per cent more than the Rs 95.33 crore (34.8 per cent of TIO) in Q3-2014 and was 1.1 per cent more than the Rs 108.91 crore (37.3 per cent of TIO) in the immediate trailing quarter. For 9M-2015, content cost at Rs 325.39 crore (37.9 per cent of TIO) was 20.1 per cent more than the Rs 270.88 crore (33.2 per cent of TIO) in 9M-2014.

     

    Den’s placement fee in Q3-2015 at Rs 8.86 crore was 76.1 per cent more than the Rs 5.03 crore in Q3-2014 and 57.4 per cent more than the Rs 5.63 crore in Q2-2015. 9M-2015 placement fee at Rs 19.81 crore was 19.1 per cent more than the Rs 16.64 crore in 9M-2014.

     

    Den’s other expense in Q3-2015 increased 68.6 per cent to Rs 123.32 crore (45.9 per cent of TIO) from Rs 73.15 crore (26.7 per cent of TIO) in the corresponding year ago quarter and was 45.9 per cent more than the Rs 78.61 crore (26.9 per cent of TIO) in the preceding quarter. For 9M-2014, other expense at Rs 272.40 crore (31.7 per cent of TIO) was 27.6 per cent more than the Rs 213.51 crore (26.2 per cent of TIO) in 9M-2014.

     

    Den’s EBIDTA (without considering other income) in Q3-2015 fell to just Rs 0.28 crore as compared to the EBIDTA of Rs 72.26 crore (26.3 per cent of TIO) in Q3-2014 and the Q2-2015 EBIDTA of Rs 40.94 crore (14 per cent of TIO). EBIDTA for 9M-2015 fell by 2.33 times to Rs 98.38 crore (11.4 per cent of IO) from Rs 228.98 crore in 9M-2014.

     

    Other Income for the periods under consideration is as follows: Q3-2015 – Rs 23.94 crore; Q2-2015 – Rs 22.47 crore; Q3-2014 – Rs 22.98 crore; 9M-2015 Rs 64.96 crore; 9M-2014 – Rs 34.42 crore.

     

    The company reported a loss of Rs 62.60 crore in Q3-2015 as against a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 16.08 crore. The loss in the current quarter was more than thrice the loss of Rs 20.45 crore reported for Q2-2015. The company reported loss of Rs 81.93 crore in 9M-2015 as compared to a PAT of Rs 28.35 crore in 9M-2014.

  • SK Gupta moved to broadcasting in TRAI, N Parameswaran to look after network services

    SK Gupta moved to broadcasting in TRAI, N Parameswaran to look after network services

    NEW DELHI: S K Gupta, who was until now looking after broadband issues in the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), has been made the Principal Advisor in charge of Broadcasting issues.

     

    He thus takes the place of N Parameswaran, who will now be looking after network services and licensing as Principal Advisor.

     

    Telecom Ministry sources confirmed that the term of Parameswaran in TRAI is to expire later this year. He has been in the telecom sector since January 1980. He played a key role in the liberalisation of the telecom sector in India. He was the first executive director of the Information & Communication Technologies Authority, Mauritius, wherein he set up the Authority and facilitated the liberalisation of the ICT sector. He has held various positions in Department of Telecom and MTNL.  He joined TRAI in 2007 and was looking after broadcasting since 2009.

     

    The term of TRAI chairman Rahul Khullar is also expiring in May this year. A 1975 batch IAS officer of Delhi cadre, Khullar succeeded J. S. Sarma in May 2012 for a three-year term. 

  • Q3-2015: Hathway reports 2 per cent y-o-y revenue growth

    Q3-2015: Hathway reports 2 per cent y-o-y revenue growth

    BENGALURU: Indian multi system operator (MSO) Hathway Cable and Datacom Limited (Hathway) reported 1.9 per cent y-o-y growth in Q3-2015 with Total Income from Operations (TIO) of Rs 239.14 crore as compared to the Rs 234.78 crore but was 9.2 per cent lower than the Rs 263.51 crore in Q2-2015.

     

    The company reported a higher loss of Rs 58.05 crore in Q3-2015 than the loss of Rs 36.86 crore in the corresponding year ago quarter and the loss of Rs 39.26 crore reported in Q2-2015.

     

    Note: 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10 million = 1 crore

     

    Hathway’s EBIDTA calculated based on the figures submitted by the company (without other income) fell to Rs 24.58 crore (10.3 per cent of TIO) in the current quarter as compared to the Rs 36.74 crore (15.7 per cent of TIO) in Q3-2014 and also fell when compared to the Rs 40.03 crore (15.2 per cent of TIO) in the previous quarter.

     

    Hathway’s income from operations consists mainly of subscription income from cable TV and broadband business, carriage and placement business, advertisement income, activation income from STB and other operating income.

     

    In Q3-2015, the company’s cable business was 10.8 per cent lower at Rs 99 crore versus the Rs 111 crore in the previous quarter, placement income was down 8 per cent to Rs 75.8 crore from Rs 82.4 crore in Q2-2015, activation business at Rs 7.2 crore was less than a third of the Rs 22.2 crore in the immediate trailing, while broadband income, the only exception, was up 13 per cent at Rs 51.3 crore in the current quarter from Rs 45.4 crore in Q2-2015. The company says that placement revenues were affected due to content related issues in the current quarter that have since been resolved with the broadcasters.

     

    Let us look at the other figures reported by Hathway:

     

    Total Expenditure (TE) in Q3-2015 at Rs 274.39 crore (114.7 per cent of TIO) was 17.6 per cent more than the Rs 254.03 crore (108.2 per cent of TIO) in Q3-2014 and was almost same as the Rs 274.27 crore (104.1 per cent of TIO) in Q2-2015.

     

    A major fraction of TE is the pay channel cost for Hathway. The company’s pay channel cost in Q3-2015 at Rs 94.04 crore (39.3 per cent of TIO) was 12.3 per cent more than the Rs 83.72 crore (35.7 per cent of TIO) in Q3-2014 and was 2.9 per cent lower than the Rs 96.81 crore (36.7 per cent of TIO) in the immediate trailing quarter.

     

    The company reported 6.9 per cent higher depreciation and amortization expense (depreciation) in Q3-2015 at Rs 59.82 crore (25 per cent of TIO) versus the Rs 55.98 crore (23.9 per cent of TIO) and 17.8 per cent more than the Rs 50.78 crore (19.3 per cent of TIO) in Q2-2015.

     

    Hathway’s finance cost in Q3-2015 at Rs 26.86 crore (11.2 per cent of TIO) was 19.5 per cent more than the Rs 22.48 crore (9.6 per cent of TIO) and 11.6 per cent lower than the Rs 30.39 crore (11.5 per cent of TIO) in Q2-2015.

     

    Employee Benefit Expense (EBE) in Q3-2015 was Rs Rs 13.96 crore, in Q3-2014 EBE was Rs 13.79 crore and in Q2-2015 it was Rs 16.03 crore.

     

    While Hathway’s cable universe subscription numbers and cable paying subscribers remained stagnant at 1.17 crore  and 64 lakh respectively in Q3-2015 as compared to Q2-2015, Hathway has seeded 70000 set top boxes in Q3-2015, taking its digital subscription base to 85 lakh. Further, the company’s broadband home passed and broadband subscribers increased by 5000 and 10000 to 2 lakh and 4.3 lakh respectively, in Q3-2015 as compared to the previous quarter. Hathway also informs that it has about 600,000 STB’s in stock and plans to seed them at a rapid rate.

     

    Earlier, Hathway had informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on 13 November, 2014, inter alia, has considered and approved the subdivision of face value of Equity Shares into Equity Shares of smaller amount than is fixed in the Memorandum of Association; i.e. to subdivide 1(One) equity share of Rs 10/- each to 5 (Five) equity shares of Rs 2/- each, subject to approval of shareholders.

  • Mobile subscribers continue to contribute to broadband growth in the country

    Mobile subscribers continue to contribute to broadband growth in the country

    NEW DELHI: Thanks to a growth of 5.16 per cent among mobile device users (phones and dongles) during December 2014, there was a growth of 4.28 per cent with the number of broadband subscribers increasing from 82.22 million at the end of November 2014 to 85.74 million at the end of December 2014.

     

    The subscribers of mobile subscribers grew from 66.56 million to 69.99 million, according to a report by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ITRAI) based on inputs by service providers.

     

    There was a minimal growth of 0.56 per cent from 15.23 million to 15.32 million amongst wired subscribers, while the number of fixed wireless subscribers remained static at 430,000.

     

    The top five service providers constituted 87.24 per cent market share of total broadband subscribers at the end of December 2014. These service providers were Bharti Airtel (19.19 million), BSNL (18.90 million), Vodafone (16.65 million), Idea Cellular (12.95 million) and Reliance Communications Group (7.11 million).

     

    (Wireless subscribers with less than 1MB data usage in a month have not been considered as internet/broadband subscribers by Reliance Communication Group and Idea Cellular)

     

    As on 31 December 2014, the top five Wired Broadband Service providers were BSNL (9.98 million), Bharti Airtel (1.41 million), MTNL (1.13 million), Atria Convergence Technologies (0.61 million) and YOU Broadband (0.42 million).

     

    The top five Wireless Broadband Service providers were Bharti Airtel (17.78 million), Vodafone (16.64 million), Idea Cellular (12.95 million), BSNL (8.92 million) and Reliance Communications Group (7.00 million). 

  • Broadband users rise to 82.22 million in November

    Broadband users rise to 82.22 million in November

    NEW DELHI: Showing an appreciable increase owing to mobile subscribers, the number of broadband subscribers increased from 79.21 million at the end of October 2014 to 82.22 million at the end of November 2014 showing a monthly growth rate of 3.79 per cent.

    The top five service providers constituted 86.97 per cent market share of total broadband subscribers at the end of November 2014. These service providers were BSNL (18.70 million), Bharti Airtel (18.17 million), Vodafone (15.61 million), Idea Cellular (12.26 million) and Reliance Communications Group (6.77 million).

    Wireless subscribers with less than 1MB data usage in a month have not been considered as internet/broadband subscribers by Reliance Communication Group and Idea Cellular.

    As on 30 November 2014, the top five Wired Broadband Service providers were BSNL (9.98 million), Bharti Airtel (1.40 million), MTNL (1.13 million), Beam Telecom (0.44 million) and YOU Broadband (0.42 million).

    The top five Wireless Broadband Service providers were Bharti Airtel (16.77 million), Vodafone (15.60 million), Idea Cellular (12.25 million), BSNL (8.72 million) and Reliance Communications Group (6.67 million).

    Segment-wise, the largest growth of 4.57 per cent in Mobile devices users (Phones and dongles) from 63.65 million subscribers to 66.56 million, followed by a growth of 3.52 per cent from 420,000 to 430,000 broadband subscribers, and 530,000 in wired subscribers from 15.15 million to 15.23 million between October end and November end.                                                                                                        

     

  • Essel Group eyes wi-fi, cable and broadband projects in Bengal

    Essel Group eyes wi-fi, cable and broadband projects in Bengal

    KOLKATA: Diversified media to education business conglomerate Essel Group is now looking at wi-fi, cable and broadband projects in West Bengal, said a letter of intent (LOI) submitted by the group to the state government.

     

    Also, the company has promised to invest around Rs 20,000 crore towards developing two smart cities and various vital infrastructural projects in the state, during fourth edition of the two-day Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS).

     

    The LOI further mentions that the group aims to develop the two satellite townships Salt Lake and New Town into smart cities by investing around Rs10,000 crore.

     

    “The group was also interested in participating in infrastructural, urban renewal and socially relevant projects worth Rs 10,000 crore through competitive bidding under Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) model and/or EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) model,” the LOI said.

     

    It is further learnt that the group is eyeing projects like toll roads with an investment of Rs 3,000 crore, sanitation and water treatment worth infusion of Rs 2,000 crore, and a project to convert municipal solid waste to energy by pumping in Rs 2,000 crore. Besides, it is looking at projects like, metro, monorails or Light Rail Transit mass transport involving investment of Rs 3,000 crore.

     

    Essel Utilities Distribution Company Limited (EUDCL), Essel Group’s integrated utilities company, is also looking at projects in power and water distribution services, wi-fi, cable and broadband, drainage and storm water management, city gas distribution and intelligent traffic management systems.

     

  • Broadcom India eyes huge growth potential in cable broadband & OTT services

    Broadcom India eyes huge growth potential in cable broadband & OTT services

    KOLKATA: With digital television (DTV) and digitisation, household penetration is increasing in the country. “There exists tremendous opportunities for cable broadband and over-the-top (OTT) services”, opines Broadcom India managing director Rajiv Kapur.
     
     “The over-the-top television market may still be in its infancy in India, but it holds much promise for the future. The demand for OTT is going up. There are progressive operators who have been talking about value-added services. Internet entertainment on TV is on the rise,” says Kapur.
     
    Looking ahead, “one can see existing television sets transformed into smart TVs, enabling internet applications everywhere in the home,” adds Kapur. “We are expanding the options for entertainment in the home.  We are revolutionizing television by providing a full-range of platform solutions for content-sharing and video streaming throughout the home,” he further informs.
     
    Broadcom’s video and broadband solutions enables service providers offer a high-quality, TV-watching experience to its subscribers along with high-speed internet browsing.
     
    He went on to explain Broadcom’s role in OTT and broadband services through Set Top Boxes (STBs). Kapur says that the company constantly educates and trains various operators on the OTT services.
     
    India is currently witnessing the digitisation of analog cable TV signals as mandated by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B). With digitisation, analog cable subscribers have been also migrating largely to digital cable, which has gained about 10 million subscribers in 2013, while net DTH subscribers increased by approximately three million.
     
    Post digitisation, while the viewing experience and expectations of the subscribers are soaring, it has also increased the demand for high-speed broadband.
     
    As per the Cisco Visual Networking Index 2014, in India, mobile data traffic will grow by a colossal 24-fold from 2013 to 2018, a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 88 per cent and Internet-Video-to-TV traffic will increase 8-fold between 2013 and 2018 (50.9 per cent CAGR).
     
    “Consumers are now more acutely aware about the content on their portable devices and the TV”, he further adds.
     
    As the users evolve with digital content streamed to them, the demand for OTT services increases.
     
    It should also be noted that in a report borne out by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) survey, it forecasts 176 million OTT viewers by 2015 generating revenues of $552 million.

     

    Moreover, Morgan Stanley, a multinational financial services company, projects in its report that mobile data subscribers in India are likely to grow on an average by 25 per cent every year to reach 519 million by fiscal 2018, driven by falling handset prices and rise in smart phone usage and penetration.

     

    ‘With Wi-Fi internet access, end-users are looking for enhanced ways to communicate with large format screens too,” S Rajagopalan, a media analyst opines.

     

    “With this, users can also use Smart TV, though the interface is not user-friendly. The manufacturer, therefore, has to innovate with the interface, such as Flex Smartphone or Bluetooth / Wi-Fi-enabled keyboard to be integrated, which will grab the attention of the end-user. Maybe over a period of time, Smart TV will be preferred by the end-user to laptops, which will lead to more speed and bandwidth in the broadband segment,” concludes Rajagopalan.