Regulation of television content storage needed from TRAI

New Delhi, Apr 7 (UNI) Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service providers today asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to regulate content storage, as more global players are coming to India to deliver their services.

Speaking at the IPTV India 2006 seminar here, Airtel Mobility CTO Jagbir Singh said, ''We need regulation, a licensing policy and guidelines in place, for storing television content,'' adding, ''technology can be controlled, but regulation will get more focus in the country.'' IPTV stores content from the TV with the help of the internet, as against cable, to deliver scheduled TV programs or video on demand (VOD), and requires either a computer, software media player or an IPTV set-top box to decode the images in realtime.

The current boom in the Indian economy has left content service providers and telecom global leaders scramblibng to deliver services like Video on Demand (VoD), Voice over IP (VOIP) or digital phone, collectively called Triple Play.

''IPTV is facing various challenges regarding the content and security issue. If someone goes to Zee or Star, there is no problem, but when IPTV goes to any content provider, a thousand questions are asked, which even cable operators are not asked,'' Mr Singh said while urging TRAI to look into the issue.

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