Reliance Comm ready to switch on mobile video

MUMBAI: Reliance Communications (RCL) will be launching mobile video streaming for the first time in India on Thursday. It has made strategic alliance with UTStarcom for this purpose.

The official announcement will be held on Thursday, during Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s keynote address, which will be hosted on a mobile phone in India.

The service can be used to transmit the video on to a large screen through the mobile device at a remote location at a much lower capex and cost.

Mobile video streaming is similar to a webcast and has a great potential for providing online video of popular event footage to millions of viewers on a mobile phone.

There are no independent estimates of the video streaming market in India but industry pegs its potential to be around Rs 300 crore per annum. The popular events and specific-interest events industry size in India is around Rs 10,000 crore per annum and money can be made through location sponsorships and advertising during mass media telecasts.

Even telecast of specific interest events have significant potential for mobile casting and the company is looking at targeting the same in a major way.

At present, around 50% of Reliance Communications subscriber base of 27 million has devices supporting video and audio streaming functionality. However, most handset models launched in India are likely to have video and audio streaming facility.

Experts said revenue stream in such cases can work on two models. The first one, where the event organizer pays a lump sum fee to set up a zone and providing access to a particular volume of visitors. A reverse model could be to charge access fee per subscriber.