With Hulu essentially a timid extension of the cable industry, Netflix is about as disruptive as you’re currently going to get in the Internet video space. That’s certainly not thanks to Hollywood, which has employed obnoxious licensing restrictions like 30 day new release delays to limit Netflix’s power and supposedly protect DVD sales revenue. CNET notes that Hollywood execs continue to be “spooked” by Netflix, and are worried about a number of things, including Netflix’s impact on in-flight movie purchases and DVD sales, which the studios insist have slowed in the age of digital media despite their new release delay windows (duh). Hollywood’s plan appears to be to simply dump less valuable content to Netflix and home consumers “get bored”:

Incessant whining and trying to disrupt a new delivery route for your content you weren’t innovative enough to create ourself certainly sounds like Hollywood thinking. However, Hollywood isn’t Netflix’s only problem — with Netflix getting more vocal about the anti-competitive impact of metered billing, North America’s largest ISPs are also going to increasingly be taking aim at the company.
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Tags: Appeal, delays, Digital Media, DVD, Internet, Media, Telecommunications India, Windows

This is what the headlines in Business Standard say. Let me highlight the relevant portions of the report for your eyes only:

Rising competition (13 licences for each circle), falling tariffs (lowest in the world, falling further because of per-second billing), rapidly declining average revenue per user (ARPU) because the newer subscribers are the low spenders in semi-urban and rural areas, and high taxes (about 30 per cent in all) ……….have put paid to the aspirations of not only the new entrants but also incumbents……..deleted.

Forget about fancy valuations. I have always contested the claim about the “lowest tariff in the world” because it is not in consonance with the actual “gini coefficient”; which means that we pay more than we can actually spend. It is a bitter truth but then the newspapers need a lifeline of their advertising spends, so rest assured, this truth will NEVER be out.

……Nearly 15 million more users came on board in September….. It has also brought into focus the phenomenon of dual SIMs — existing subscribers are acquiring additional connections, resulting in a seeming increase in subscribers but in fact merely leading to a bill being split between two or more service providers….Deleted.

For the first time, to my knowledge, a newspaper daily has mentioned this in black and white. Let me also repeat. The operators keep the discarded number for a period of atleast 3 months before it is “terminated”. So even though, a customer has left in the middle of month, the disconnection would not be reported for another 3 months (which, I believe is an industry practise). The same customer may acquire multiple connections or dual SIMS; so it is the growth of the SIM cards and perhaps not the customers which is reported. In any case, the simple headcount may not be feasible.

Industry executives blamed much of the ills on the government and the regulator. With falling tariffs, they need to cut costs, but their hands are tied because 35-40 per cent of their costs are taxes and other regulatory expenses. They have to pay 5 per cent of their revenue even from rural areas towards the universal service obligation fund which is meant to promote rural telephony. They said there was no need for the regulator to push for pay-per-second billing by all…… Deleted.

Now this is something that industry officials would always bleat about. Let them come out openly against the said “policies”…shadow fighting the Government wouldn’t help. For one simple reason. If these morons had any iota of service towards customers, I would have sympathized with them. But, they treat their customers like dirt; more so like crap cash cows who feeds in their kitties with little change so that likes of Mittal and his ilk can reap in obscene profits. In any case, let them prove their worth with their commitment to service, their willingness to be transparent, their approachability and customer care in the true sense of the term. People need their money’s worth but alas! My countrymen are basically lazy bastards who wish to have everything on platter without fighting for it.

…….the incumbents said they remain committed and focused on growth. “We will continue to enhance our market leadership and simultaneously open new revenue streams like m-commerce, m-entertainment, digital media and many other products……Deleted.

They have no real option but to focus on Value Added Services which is “babes, bikinis and bollywood”. Unless these people want to “focus” on phone sex services which would be a “high revenue earner” for them.

Rest of the write up seems to sum up the gloom and “brave words” just to reassure the shareholders that “we are up to it”. That we would weave our small little web of deceit, of lies and pull wool over the regulators and leave no stone unturned to defraud our customers because they are basically bunch of idiots and nincompoops. No one knows how much unaccounted for wealth flows in and out of system or whether this elaborate system allows them to launder their money in more effective way. There is no accountability to the customers because they are using a PUBLIC resource and merely by adding value to it doesn’t entitle them to the ownership of it.

Sadly, this isn’t mentioned anywhere. This of course, would be mentioned at all.

Tags: Advertising, Airtel India, Airtel sucks, API, Assholes, Business Standard, Digital Media, EDGE, End of Boom, fraud, Idiots, Incumbents, India, Indian Telecom Party, Indian Telecom sucks, Indians, M Commerce, Media, Mobile, Opera, Phone Sex, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Telecommunications India, Telecommunications India, TRAI, Universal Obligation Fund, Value Added Services, vodafone Essar, Vodafone India

Reuters reports that BSNL could order upto $3 billion of telecom equipment. Yup. They are planning to float an international tender for the same.

A comforting thought that India is on the verge of another “telecom revolution”? Well, the money seems to have been financed by the Access Deficit Charge( ADC) that flows in BSNL’s coffers as it gets fat on the payments which in any case it doesn’t deserve.

Meanwhile, BSNL plans to set up a rural CDMA network on Build Operate Own and Transfer(BOOT) basis. Is this strategy right? I believe that if the resources come to the community, it might work out in their favour. I haven’t come across this while reporting on the Telecom scene ever.

More Details on Hindu Business Line.

What is going to be the future of Idiot box- asks Business Standard They have all those fancy terms like time shift TV, IPTV et al.

Amit Khanna has given an interestiing insight in digital media. Fair enough. Though the readers should read in between the lines. He is highly paid exec of Reliance and gets probably paid media exposure. In other words, that is the future of what Reliance may be contemplating.

Link viaContent Sutra

Tags: Access Deficit Charge, BSNL, Business Standard, CDMA, Digital Media, India, IPTV, Media, Opera, Reliance, Telecommunications India