Microsoft TV, Coming soon to India

Microsoft and Reliance Communications have signed a 500-million-dollar deal to launch India's first high-definition Internet TV service, executives from both firms said.

The Internet protocol Television (IPTV) will start early next year in 30 cities including the financial hub of Mumbai and the capital New Delhi, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer and Reliance Communications Chairman Anil Ambani told reporters Monday.

"The IPTV will bring in a digital home concept in a world-class manner," Ambani said. "Until now television was a broadcast one-size-fits-all experience. IPTV offers subscribers more choice, control and convenience."

"The IPTV technology is in its initial stages of growth. In one year, we expect the US and India to be the fastest-growing markets for this technology," Ballmer said.

"In the coming years, all the world's information and technology will turn digitalised. Whatever can be digitalised, will be digitalised."

India's movie industry, including the widely known Bollywood, produces the most films worldwide annually.

More than 30 cable news and scores of entertainment channels have sprung up in the past decade as the country eased restrictions that had favoured a state-run broadcaster.

About 71-million homes in the country of 1.1 billion people already have television, and 61 percent of them have pay TV, mainly through cable and satellite, according to industry figures.

Reliance Communications, India's second-largest telecom firm, owns and operates the world's largest Internet connectivity infrastructure, 165,000 kilometres (102,000 miles) of fibre-optic cable that spans India, the US and Europe.

The service will use Microsoft's Mediaroom IPTV software, a press release said, adding it was the Seattle-based firm's first exclusive deal for such services abroad.

The IPTV core planning team will be based in California while a research unit will be based at Hyderabad .

Both executives declined to give details on what content would be available or pricing levels.