[by Cerius Shah] There appears to be competition for Mobile TV, from DTH. According to this ET report, Essel Group owned Dish TV is in talks with the Indian Railways to provide mobile TV via DTH. According to the report they are in final stages of negotiations. Dish also plans to install services in cars and buses but at Rs 1.5 lakh for the Speed Ray and Rs 70,000 for the T5 (works only in AP, KA and MH) they are looking at selling 10,000 units in the first year of launch.

Mobile TV for cars will be priced at the same price as the home subscription. Although the mass transport solution seems expensive, it’s in-line with securing properties on the grossly under-advertised public transport routes in the metros. Quality of service for GPRS, lack of entertainment options and cheap transit media coupled with an LCD permanently tuned to Zee? Why we could have bogies segregated according to Bangla, Telegu, Marathi!

Nikhil adds: This development is interesting in light of the fact that Zee’s asked for mobile operators be allowed to provide TV on mobile only on 3G networks—hence a asking for delay in deployment. Looks like the TRAI will now have to contend with a DTH vs Mobile TV situation, and the regulations governing each. Who said convergence would be easy?

• Zee: MobileTV Recommendations Are Operator Skewed
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