The PSU telco Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) wants to push its IPTV plans aggressively, and a lot of it in regional languages. The company is planning to invite tenders from regional language content providers for its IPTV services. The tender notification is expected next quarter. CIOL quotes BSNL Chairman and MD A K Sinha in a report: “We require huge regional content for offering the service in different states and we are planning to invite tenders for that. We are looking for content providers who can also provide content in regional languages,” Sinha said.
BSNL recently launched its IPTV services in Pune. It has tied up with MKCL (Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Ltd.) and Divinet for content. The company would soon be launching services in other cities. It has already carried out trials in Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad.
According to Sinha, there were 3.9 million customers globally in 2006, and is likely to grow at 103 million by 2011. He expects India to get a significant share of it.