Tata Photon TV: What you Need to Know?

I guess that in rich countries like USA, the emergence of an internet base television service like TATA Photon TV will not make any media headlines at this moment. However, for India, it is big news. This is the first time that Indian consumers will be able to enjoy live television in their laptop or desktop pc thanks to TATA Photon TV. Thus, this is like a break through technology in the Indian market. The idea is very simple. TATA Indicom already provides broadband internet and they are now arranging real time live television channels through broadband internet connection. For this matter, TATA has joined hand with Apalya Technologies.

If you want to subscribe TATA Photon TV then I am giving you the link of their websites which is http://www.tataindicom.com/photontv.aspx . There you will find all the information. The price is that if you want to watch just one channel then you have to pay Rs 4 per month. For watching the combo pack of ten channels, you have to pay Rs. 29 rupees per month. If you want to watch all the 40 channels then you have to pay 75 rupees per month. However, this is not it. In fact, you will have to pay the charge of data transfer separately and it can be very expensive. Live TV streaming will incur date usage of job 1-2 MB per minute. Thus, if you want to watch 1000 minutes of television then you will use data of 1-2 GB. And that is quite expensive for TATA Indicom subscribers.

So, naturally the price is expensive for most people in India at this moment. However, you have to remember that this service is not for everyone. First of all, in a poor country like India, broadband internet is still limited to a minority portion of the population. Secondly, another thing you have to understand is that most houses in India already have satellite TV connections and thanks to cable TV being affordable, most people will not bother about it. However, there are many people who really need television when they are out of home and they can afford it. I think this is the target market. In India there is flourishing middle and upper middle class and they can surely afford it. I have to remind you that Indian people are very passionate about live cricket matches but the problem is that for live cricket matches, you have to pay separately. So, it is going to be like a pay per event most probably. If it happens then I wonder if it will become popular in the Indian market because in India, most people still do not have any idea about pay per event type of thing.

I was browsing in internet among other websites and blogs about TATA fortune TV. I noticed that Rajiv Dingra of Watblog has raised some concerns that the quality of live TV may not be be good. He has stated that he uses TATA photon for internet browsing and he is not sure that whether the existing bandwidth will be enough to ensure quality live streaming of TV channels. So, I would like to see how TATA Indicom can remove this of people like Rajiv.

Live streaming television has a huge potential in Indian market. 3G licenses are going to be awarded soon among mobile phone operators. Then, mobile phone companies will be able to provide perhaps better TV coverage. It is nice to see that TATA Indicom has jumped into the market and has already emerged as the pioneer. I wish that other companies also come and because of good competition the price will fall down very soon.

I have to say that I am a bit disappointed at the lack of media coverage about Tata Photon TV in Indian websites and newspapers. Instead, some of them are excited with Serena Williams Wardrobe Malfunction. Hopefully, we will get more information about this service from Tata in the next few days.

It is a new technology and we should wait before reaching into any conclusion. I am a bit disappointed that the charges are so high but at the same time as I said that it is a new technology. We have to give it some time. We also have to wait for other companies to jump into this market and start a healthy competition.

Related Article

Gadgetophilia

Medianama