DTH has made tremendous headway with almost 11 million subscribers today. A plethora of issues have risen, reflecting a dire need for more regulations and guidelines to govern the upcoming industry. Indian telecom regulator TRAI has noted some of them in its recent consultation paper, which you can read here. We've picked out some comments that we found interesting, and may set a precedence in India for emerging segments like IPTV and Mobile TV, as well as advertising and "Value added services" on these carriage services. Do note that companies like MapUnity, Indiatimes, MakeMyTrip, Bharatmatrimony, Shaadi and others are providing value added services to DTH operators. Also, we've covered an interesting patent filed by Alcatel Lucent in India, of advertising on IPTV. Ad-Free TV & Local Advertising On DTH TRAI has a brilliant proposition of supplying "clean feed" - TV without ads! The regulator has asked stakeholders to come up with methods on how a potential demand by a user to supply TV without advertisement will be dealt with. This leaves the door open for DTH operators to insert city specific advertisements. TRAI also mentions that responsible advertising will need to be brought to DTH operators who transmit local advertisements independent of broadcasters. They could have to adhere to Program code and Advertisement Code if they execute the sale and carriage of advertisements. VAS Providers To Become Broadcasters? The definition of value added services such as Movie-On-Demand, Pay-per-View, Active Learning, Active Matrimony, Active games and News active, among others, being offered by…
