Asia Bizz: India’s Information and Broadcasting Ministry has recently dropped the plans to offer Mobile TV services. The I&B ministry has also decided to restrict its spectrum allocation to digitalization of Doordarshan’s terrestrial network.
Earlier, the ministry had plans to create a regulatory framework for the distribution and introduction of mobile TV services. The plans were due for several years due to lack of 96MHz of spectrum in the UHF band.
Till now, the only player in the mobile TV market was Doordarshan. When the plan of the Mobile TV of Doordarshan was initialized, it predicted an earning of around Rs 300 crore. But the scarcity of the spectrum and the subsequent revenue earned through the 3G auction that amounted to Rs 1 lakh crore forced the government to re-think over the plan.
For the new plan, Doordarshan had projected a requirement of spectrum from 582-646 MHz in Band for the plan of digitalization; but the department of telecom was limiting the I&B’s requirement only up to 646 MHz instead of 698 MHz. Moreover, with the introduction of 4G, the interest in mobile TV has also decreased.
One of the senior officials, on the condition of anonymity, said that their priority is to provide a large bouquet of channels through DD to the viewers who have the choice of digital cable and DTH.
