Television

Of the apparently 38 or so HD or near-HD channels that are broadcast into India, only 12 measly ones are included in the HD "bouquet" provided by Tata Sky to its subscribers.

Bangkok rather than Singapore appears to be the new destination of choice when it comes to buying TVs. Over at HiFiVision, one of the users has posted a rather handy guide/trip-report on doing so with notes on avoiding common pitfalls.

(Apparently making a nuisance of yourself is also useful sometimes.)

A story on Live Mint notes that TRAI is trying to enforce a rule restricting advertising time on television channels to 12 minutes per hour. The following are some of the reactions cited in the article:

Indians over a certain age might remember "Giant Robot" (or "Giant Robo") with a degree of nostalgia. Back in the day when Doordarshan was the Hobson's choice of TV viewers, we were treated to some pretty exotic features such as this Japanese TV show which I believe was telecast at around 7:00 pm.

According to the MEA, there are 90 TV channels of foreign origin which are being down-linked into India legally. There are apparently many which have not sought the necessary permissions to do so including 24 which have been deemed by the Intelligence Bureau to be "anti-national". Most of these are down-linked and broadcast via cable TV in India's border states.

BSNL plans to launch triple play services in Pune on Independence Day. Apparently, a similar initiative is being undertaken in Bangalore as well.

Pune will become the first city in the country when the BSNL will launch multi player services through broadband connection on August 15. Here are some of the features that are on offer:
* Bouquet of cable channels
* Video on demand
* Video conferencing
* TV-to-TV SMS
* E-classes

Triple Play services are apparently in the closing stages of various technical trials around the country, and will possibly be rolled out as early as "early 2006".

"We are in talks with Bharti for trial in Mumbai, but we will be looking at non-exclusive tie-ups across the country," said Hathway Cable & datacom, MD and CEO, K Jayaraman.

Siticable will be tying up with Railtel for voice and has already developed a three-in-one modem for voice, video and telephony in-house through its technical arm Pacenet. The company will roll out its service in the next two months. Hinduja brothers-promoted InCable is believed to be conducting technical trials. State-owned MTNL will start its video service in Delhi and Mumbai by early March this year, and has tied up with Time Broadband Services to source video content.