Gartner reiterates something that I’ve said time and again - that IPTV will struggle in India. The reasons that Gartner gives for this are:
—Cable TV users pay almost half of what digital subscribers pay, so they’ll have a lower propensity to shift.
—Low broadband penetration will inhibit IPTV uptake; mass broadband usage is required.
—2007 is a critical year for pay TV, with CAS being mandated in a phased manner, and more players are moving into DTH, which is growing. They have a head-start, and will block existing players.
—IPTV will be priced at the same prie as digital cable or DTH, so no price differentiation

I disagree with the second point: existing broadband connections are not critical for IPTV; that’s like saying that DTH will struggle because people don’t have the dish already in their homes. There is wireline telephone infrastructure already in place, and the carrier provides the wire for IPTV along with it. The real issue, as I’ve said before, is about marketing and policy. CAS deadlines are slipping away, and one doesn’t know yet how IPTV will be governed; so there’s barely any deployment, and almost no marketing. For consumers, there are only two choices - DTH or CAS. No one knows about IPTV.

According to Gartner, the franchise based model being adopted (involving private players like IOL Broadband and Time Broadband) will help speed up deployment. Gartner recommends that carriers offer DTH to secure customers, and later convert them to IPTV or offer a hybrid DTH-IP broadband Set Top Box for both services.