Goverment drops mobile TV plans

[iS THAT ME]

Goverment drops mobile TV plans​

NEW DELHI: Weighed in by the economics of the deal, the information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry has dropped plans to offer Mobile TV services and restrict its spectrum allocation to digitization of Doordarshan's terrestrial network.

The ministry's plan to create a regulatory framework for introduction of mobile TV services has been hanging fire for several years due to lack of 96 MHz of spectrum in the UHF band. So far, the sole player in the mobile TV market was Doordarshan.

Sources said the ministry had estimated earnings of around Rs 300 crore when the mobile TV policy proposal was conceptualized. However, the scarcity of spectrum and the subsequent revenue earned through the 3G auction amounting to Rs 1 lakh crore had forced a re-think within the government.

Doordarshan had projected a requirement of spectrum from 582-646 MHz in Band V for its digitization plan. In addition, the ministry had also projected 96 MHz required for mobile TV. However, the department of telecom was keen on limiting I&B's requirement only up to 646 MHz instead of 698 MHz. The competing priorities by the defence ministry for its own use have also limited I&B's chances of getting more spectrum.

With the advent of 4G, the industry interest in mobile TV also appears to have waned significantly. "Our priority is providing a large bouquet of channels through DD to viewers who have a choice of digital cable and DTH. So, there has been a conscious decision to drop plans to offer mobile TV services in national interest and instead focus on DD's digitization,'' a senior source said.

Earlier, the government had said that the 4G auction could fetch the government nearly Rs 130 billion for one block of 20 megahertz (MHz). The government expects 4-6 blocks of 4G spectrum to be available with it for sale, potentially fetching it Rs 520-780 billion.


-TOI