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Bharti Airtel partners Infosys for digital TV
By Ankita Bhalani
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Thursday, 16 October 2008, 23:45 IST |
2 Comments
Bangalore: Bharti Airtel, an Indian telecom provider has launched its direct to home service (DTH) TV service in partnership with Infosys Technologies. Airtel will now deliver high quality customer services with Infosys' innovative technology platform. With the effort of 50 Infosys' employees, Airtel will be able to take TV to the next level with introduction of exclusive applications of iCity, iNet and tPortal.
iCity will enable viewers to access local city information while through iNet they can enjoy hassle-free internet-like experience in the television and get live and personalized stock quotes, breaking news, horoscopes, cricket scores and shopping deals in the city without interrupting their television viewing experience. The DTH service will also have select websites packaged suitably for TV-viewing in an application called tportal.
With DTH service, Airtel has moved on from integrated mobile connection and broadband brand to media. Airtel DTH service aims to provide interactive and personalized applications with Infosys' Digital Convergence Platform.
Atul Bindal, President, Telemedia Services, Bharti Airtel said, "Through this partnership with Infosys, Airtel aims to revolutionize the TV-viewing experience and usher in the future of television into the country."
S D Shibulal, Chief Operating Officer, Infosys said, "The technology platform that powers Airtel digital TV brings the potential that computers offer to our television sets in addition to entertainment, it is now possible to experience interactive information services and engage in transactions using regular TVs. The availability of these services in the Indian market marks a significant milestone- the transformation of the idiot box into a smart box."
The service will be launched in 62 cities and will grow to 252 cities. It will be using state-of-the-art MPEG4 broadcasting center. Some exclusive features of the Airtel digital TV are the inclusion of ten channels of World Space radio with the service, cinema ticket booking, five iTV applications, restaurant booking, traffic update of major cities, screen and channel customization, movies on demand in six languages, complex games, short variety programs etc. The viewer will also be able to watch programs from different angles, have channel consistency, record programs and view six channels of same genre. The viewer can also have access to widgets of weather forecast, stock quotes, cricket scores while watching a program without switching the channel.
