Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited [BSNL] has reportedly geared up to launch Internet Protocol Television [IPTV] services. As per the latest report, these IPTV services are expected to commence in the Kerala circle from 27th August 2020. The company will conduct trials for about 2 months in the Kerala circle before providing it for commercial purposes. The telecom operator has decided to provide an IPTV service trial only in three areas such as Alleppey, Ernakulam, and Thrissur.
According to the latest report, the trial period will be conducted between 27th August and 31st October 2020. The users who register to the new IPTV service of BSNL before 10th September will be able to access complementary services to all free-to-air [FTA] channels for about 1 month. One of the sources said that the General Manager for Sales and Marketing of BSNL Kerala, P G Nirmal shared a letter to all the business operator heads regarding the initiation of the trials for IPTV service of BSNL.
A note from the letter has been shared by BSNL executive group, Sanchar Nigam Executives’ Association through the micro-blogging website, Twitter. This association comprises more than 12000 officers as members. The letter confirms that the IPTV service trial runs will be carried out in Alleppey, Ernakulam, and Thrissur from 27th August to 31st October 2020.
Intending to attract the customers as an initial offer, BSNL has decided to provide all the FTA channels for free of cost for about 1 month. This free service will be available for all the users who register for BSNL’s IPTV service before 10th September. This offer is also available only to the subscribers in the above three trial regions.
According to the report, BSNL’s IPTV service provider Cinesoft had previously proposed a 50-50 revenue sharing model in May. In this revenue, the telecom giant BSNL would gain Rs. 65 per connection. Cinesoft also earlier planned to offer IPTV feed for Rs. 25 per user. With this service, the local cable operators will be able to earn Rs. 40 per connection.
As far as one can see, it’s an ‘unattractive package’ for local cable TV operators [LCOs] in Kerala. The LCOs claimed that they got much better offers from other multiple-system operators [MSOs]. As the company has failed to provide an attractive package to the LCOs, they couldn’t offer them an ‘acceptable deal’. This eventually resulted in the ultimate delay in the launch of BSNL’s IPTV service.
The Association of Sanchar Nigam Executives has proposed a new revenue-sharing system. As per the proposal, BSNL and Cinesoft will share a fixed revenue of Rs. 25 each. Through this system, LCOs are permitted to sell the IPTV service model at Rs. 130 per user. However, they provided them to earn Rs. 80 per connection. Still, no clarity has been given by the company whether BSNL has preferred for this proposed revenue-sharing model or it launched a different model to lock a friendly deal.
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