15 June 2008

IPTV is here, challenging DTH, cable -- and prime-time (Goodbye TRP!)

When I had begun predicting the end of prime-time TV about three years ago on this blog, I was not clear how it will happen, though I understood technology and my own industry (er, media) enough to get the direction. Podcasts, USB-drive-enabled DVD players, downloads on DTH -- and downloads even on Worldspace Radio -- have been among the factors that have steadily helpled this trend, not to speak of firms like Tivo and Slingmedia.
Now this week, I may formally add IPTV to this list. A huge ad in Hindustan Times (a front-page jacket, in fact) announces the arrival of icontrol, which at Rs. 199 a month is a sort of cable TV-meets-telephony-meets-Internet-meets-broadcasting story. This, in partnership with Aksh Optifibre, is a fibre-driven broadband story. BSNL has a similar thing going across India.
Can't find details immediately on the Net, but here is some slightly outdated detail on the shape of things.
Television rating point (TRP) , that holy grail of broadcasters looking for ad money, is going to be weaker than ever before in less than two years from now.
If I was Ekta Kapoor, I would be sleepless -- or I may be accepting the reality that sooner or later, people will watch something because they want to, not because they have to.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

great article keep it up.