Time Broadband Services launches IPTV service

New Delhi, Dec 20 (UNI) Time Broadband Services Ltd (TBSL) today rolled out its Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service, which will enable the customers to access interactive games, chat, SMS, e-commerce as well as televison channels on their television and computer sets at the time of their choice.

The service launched under the brand name 'My Time' will be made available to the customers via telecom opearators providing broadband services.

''We will remain at the back-end and act as a conduit between two industries -- entertainment and telecom. The company will make use of the infrastruture of the telecom companies which is well in place. We are open to tie-ups with all the telecom operators, '' TBSL Managing Director and Chief executive Officer (Interactive services) Sujata Dev told reporters here.

TBSL, a Mumbai-based company focused on improvising technology support for content development network, will aggregate the content from multiple creative sources, reformat it and provide the delivery network platform to telecom operators.

''We have deployed the compression technology of H.264 AVC, revised version of MPEG 4 format, in our offerings to drive the viewing experience to new levels,'' TBSL Director (Operations) Amit Dev said.

Initially over 100 channels along with movie on demand, time-shift TV (watching television programmes at a time of your choice) and NPVR (recording and playing TV programmes and watching them at convenience) facilities are available with the services.

However, the free to air channels will not be available on the television under the service as under the upcoming CAS regulations such channels can be delivered only via analogue mode. The channels will be available on computers.

The pricing of the service will be done jointly by the company and its telco partners.

''But in this cut throat competition era, we cannot afford to price the service higher than those offered by the current cable and DTH operators. We are waiting for the regulations governing IPTV service for taking suitable actions,'' Mr Dev added.

By the second quarter of 2007, the company seeks to showcase 500 channels.

The company will initially focus on the metros and will deploy 100 booths each in the national capital and Mumbai for promotion.

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