iWorld
Govt may invite bids for railway TV content this month, market pegged at Rs 2.3k cr
MUMBAI: Content on demand on trains and at stations is a sizeable market, says a report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and, the Indian Railways estimates the infotainment market to be around Rs 2,277 crore in three years’ time.
The Railway Ministry, in a bid to revamp railways, may invite bids for Content on Demand (CoD) and rail radio services in April. Services that would be included under the CoD initiative are — movies, TV serials, short videos, kids’ shows and devotional content. The CoD would also include streaming audio such as regional songs, movie songs, and devotional music; and providing electronic newspapers, gaming and educational content.
Railways’ bids for app-based cab services will also be invited by May.
The video, radio, digital music and digital gaming contracts will be for a period of 10 years. The railways is, through these initiatives, expecting revenue of Rs 16,000-20,000 crore in the next 10 years.
As per the BCG report, to provide offline content, railways may have to shell out Rs 38,000 per coach. But, the online content will be expensive — for Rs 25 lakh each. Coaches are required to be well equipped to offer content streamed via the internet.
The non-fare revenue plan is to roll out rail radio and CoD on one-third of the trains in the first year and most of the remainder in the second year. Ideas such as allowing weddings at stations or giving branding rights of trains and stations to FMCG companies.
Content companies such as Balaji Productions, Eros Entertainment and Shemaroo Entertainment, and aggregators such as Fever FM, Radio Mirchi, Hungama and Bindass may be interested in bidding. Internet players and service-providers in the offline streaming market include Moving Talkies, Dwingloo, PressPlay TV, Fropcorn, TouringTalkies, Zonk, CloudPlay and MyFreeTV.
Telecom companies such as Vodafone, Idea, Airtel, are also expected to be interested. The content providers will offer to the passengers both, paid and free content. The service provider shall provide only ‘U’, ‘U/A’ and ‘PG’ rated video content. ‘A’ rated content shall not be allowed.
This government policy includes providing video and radio content through WiFi in stations and on trains, leasing spaces on platforms to automated teller machines, giving outdoor spaces for installing advertising hoardings and billboards.
According to the railways, the entertainment CoD will be provided on the personal devices of passengers at stations and in trains and in a phased manner, which will be listed out in the Tender Document. The licensee/service provider will be permitted to provide streaming video and audio content services. Radio, however, will not be allowed at stations.
iWorld
What SMS letters G, T, S and P mean and how they help spot scams
Small alphabet tags on messages reveal whether texts are government or ads.
MUMBAI: Sometimes the smallest letter in a message can be the biggest clue. In an age where smartphone users receive dozens of alerts every day, the tiny alphabet appearing at the end of many SMS messages can reveal whether a text is official, transactional, service related or simply promotional. Understanding these tags can help users quickly identify legitimate messages and stay alert to potential scams.
Under telecom regulations in India, SMS senders are required to categorise messages based on their purpose. As a result, many texts end with a single letter that indicates the type of communication being sent.
If an SMS ends with the letter G, it typically means the message has been sent by a government authority. These alerts may include information about public services, government schemes, safety advisories or emergency notifications such as natural disaster warnings.
A message ending with the letter T signals a transactional SMS. These are usually sent by banks, financial institutions or digital services to confirm activities such as payments, account updates or one time passwords (OTPs).
The letter S represents a service related message. These notifications commonly come from companies and online platforms providing updates about services or orders. For instance, e commerce platforms like Amazon or Flipkart often send delivery updates and order confirmations that end with the letter S.
Meanwhile, SMS messages ending with the letter P are promotional in nature. These texts are typically marketing communications sent by businesses advertising products, offers or services such as education programmes, fashion sales or loan schemes.
Understanding these simple tags can also help users stay cautious about fraudulent messages. Cybersecurity experts note that scam messages often do not follow these regulated formats and may arrive without any category letter at the end.
While the absence of a tag does not automatically mean a message is fraudulent, it can serve as an early warning sign encouraging users to verify the source before clicking links or sharing personal information.
For those who wish to reduce marketing texts altogether, telecom operators also provide Do Not Disturb (DND) options.
Users of Jio can activate DND through the MyJio app by navigating to the menu, selecting settings and enabling the DND option with preferred filters.
Similarly, subscribers of Airtel and Vi can enable the same feature through their respective mobile apps to block promotional messages.
In a digital world flooded with alerts and notifications, recognising what a single letter means could make the difference between a harmless update and a potential scam.
