Oct. 28, 2009 (The Hindu Business Line) --
Janani Krishnaswamy
Your 30-second television commercial is all set to get a digital makeover as the entertainment market gets restructured in the light of technological advancements. TV advertising is migrating into dynamic, interactive and personalised forms. The age of plain vanilla television is over. If cable TV and DTH made your idiot box do things better, the latest entrant in the television broadcasting scenario - the IPTV has much more to offer combining the richest possibilities of television with Internet. In plain terms, it offers television broadcasts through broadband, instead of the normal cable. Much of the world is already adopting all-digital broadcasting and North America and Europe are considered to be the most developed TV markets in the world. According to UK-based research firms, the global IPTV market is expected to reach approximately 50.5 million subscribers in 2010.
IPTV is in its nascent stages in India and currently, there are just a handful of service providers. While Airtel launched its service in NCR (NYSE:NCR) and Delhi in January this year, it might launch services in other cities in a phased manner. MyWay tied up with BSNL and MTNL a little later and is in the process of rolling out services across the country. Reliance was also out with its IPTV services, early this year. In Bangalore, ACT Television launched its IPTV services in June across the city. As the industry is still in a fledgling stage, IPTV providers are disinclined to reveal market statistics. ACT Television, for instance, says “it would be difficult to quantify its percentage share as against operators like DTH and digital cable, who have been in existence for much longer.”
However, the number of IPTV subscribers has been increasing worldwide almost in sync with the penetration of broadband network capabilities. According to IDC, India is expected to clock some 9.66 lakh subscribers by 2011, expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 156.8 per cent. The research firm expects 15.9 per cent of all the residential broadband subscribers in the country to switch to IPTV by end-2011.
While advertising on IPTV is yet to take off in India, the technology is there to be exploited — simply because it is designed to factor in viewer’s likes and interests and the advertiser can target the audience that it needs.
Advertising on IPTV has great potential to be dramatically different from the ‘traditional’ TV experience, as the technology enables content to be targeted on the basis of various factors. “If there’s one lesson we have learnt from Internet advertising, it’s that relevance is key,” says Vikas Singh, Chief Marketing Officer, Telemedia Services, Bharti Airtel. “If an ad interests you, you are more likely to click on it. While relevant ads have been somewhat successful online, it’s TV that’s been the real challenge. As IPTV is able to pinpoint the audience that would be interested in a particular product, the advertiser can simply run those ads for that market only.”
The technology offers advertisers the benefit of knowing just who is watching and when, so providing a more accurate reporting method and a detailed audience measurement.
