VietNamNet Bridge – A lot of enterprises have made heavy investment to develop OTT protocol IPTV, which is believed to be an inevitable tendency. However, analysts commented that they embark on a risky, doubtful venture.

Rushing to develop IPTV apps on OTT

Since early 2013, the market has been witnessing a big change in the TV technology – the race of the telecom and TV service providers in launching the TV service with new protocol – OTT-protocol IPTV.

The Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group (VNPT) has begun officially providing MyTV service since early 2013 after a trial period. FPT Telecom has begun providing FPT Play HD since March 1, 2013, while VTC launched ZTV service in early 2013 and began collecting fees in January 2014.

Most recently, VNPT Technology, another subsidiary of VNPT, has launched the multimedia device TVSmart Box which allows providing OTT protocol IPTV.

To provide traditional IPTV services, the service providers transmit signals on the fixed telephone line and ADSL line. Users just need to stick a STB (set top box|) to their TV sets to be able to watch TV and use some kinds of other added value services.

This means that in order to provide traditional IPTV services, the TV service providers need to have telecommunication infrastructure system, like the one being provided by VNPT, Viettel or FPT Telecom, or cooperate with the telcos which have infrastructure systems.

Meanwhile, with the OTT protocol IPTV, the service providers can develop services on all kinds of Internet infrastructure. This means that the services can reach customers with just a set of smart device connecting with the Internet line of any telco.

As such, with the OTT protocol IPTV, TV service providers only have to take care for the solutions the program contents, while they don’t have to make investment in the infrastructure.

Not only helping TV service providers save the investment costs, OTT protocol can also help turn a normal TV into a smart TV with just a reasonable cost, while decoding device also has the features like an Android box.

With TVSmart Box, a product of VNPT Technology, sold at VND2.49 million, for example, users can watch 64 TV channels, including the HD channels, the film store with 10,000 HD films, sing karaoke with 5.1 sound and utilize a lot of other apps.

Users now don’t have to pay subscription fees. They only have to pay money once when buying the box.

High risks awaiting service developers

Le Doan Quan, Director of VTC multimedia group, said the developers of IPTV services on OTT in particular and the OTT developers in general, are taking venturous investments because of the lack of a legal framework.

OTT service providers have been relying on the network infrastructure provided by telecom groups. Meanwhile, the watchdog agency has not set up the regulations on the connection between the content service providers and the infrastructure service providers. Besides, the State also does not have a clear policy on OTT development.

Analysts have warned that IPTV service providers face high risks once they rely on the telcos’ transmission line’s quality. If the Internet bandwidth is lower than 2Mb, the TV service quality would be very bad. This means that if telcos adjust the transmission capacity, IPTV services would no longer exist.

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