Google in talks with Indian DTH operators
Rebecca Hawkes | 10-10-2013
Google is discussing ways of bringing YouTube to Indian TV screens in collaboration with direct to home (DTH) satellite TV providers.
According to Google’s global director of platform partnerships, Francisco Varela, talks are on-going with local partners to boost YouTube’s popularity, even though India is one of its fastest growing markets. He declined to name which of the six private Indian DTH players the US giant is courting.
“When we talk to direct to home providers or television makers or device makers, it’s so that you can watch YouTube on every screen you have, in a fully scalable way,” Varela told the Economic Times.
The online video platform has over 55 million unique monthly users in India, up from 15 million in 2011, despite the country’s issues with internet speed and reliability.
Speaking recently with the Hindustan Times, Google’s managing director for India, Rajan Anandan, said: “The ecosystem on connectivity side - the bandwidth - has a long way to go. So quite frankly if were to say what are top three things that India can do to accelerate the Internet ecosystem. Then, number one it is bandwidth, number two it is bandwidth and number three it is bandwidth.”