DTH
SecureMedia & IBM team to deliver on demand biz solutions to IPTV industry
MUMBAI: SecureMedia, the US-based provider of conditional access and digital rights management (CA/DRM) software solutions for video content delivery over IP networks, has announced that it has achieved industry optimised status in IBM’s PartnerWorld Industry Networks.
As a participant in the PartnerWorld Industry Networks, SecureMedia can take advantage of IBM’s sales, marketing and technical expertise to develop and deliver solutions that meet customer requirements in the IPTV industry.
Customers are seeking solutions that can help them better integrate processes and applications and allow them to quickly respond to changing market opportunities, all key elements in transforming to an on demand business.
SecureMedia’s Encryptonite System software provides persistent cryptographic protection of video content from its source to the point of consumption while enforcing consumers’ usage rights to content, states an official release.
Encryptonite operates on a variety of hardware and operating system platforms and features an ultra-light and processor-efficient client for low cost integration in resource constrained embedded devices, set-top boxes, and PCs. Encryptonite provides content owners and distributors the highest levels of digital content security while offering service providers operational flexibility, massive scalability, and low overhead performance in protecting VOD and broadcast IPTV.
SecureMedia has been working alongside IBM at Cavalier Telephone in Virginia in the launch of North America’s first IPTV service based on the new H.264/AVC video standard. Cavalier Telephone is a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) serving business and residential customers across five states and the District of Columbia. Cavalier will provide its customers with a complete lineup of the top broadcast pay TV channels, as well as Video on Demand (VOD) content from the major Hollywood studios, all protected by SecureMedia’s Encryptonite System, the release adds.
DTH
Prasar Bharati’s WAVES earns Rs 2.9 crore in first year
Platform scales content, users but monetisation gaps limit revenue growth.
MUMBAI: Big waves, small ripples at least for now. When Prasar Bharati launched its OTT platform WAVES at the 55th International Film Festival of India in November 2024, it pitched a bold vision: a homegrown rival to global and domestic streaming giants, blending video, audio, gaming and commerce into a single digital ecosystem. Five months into FY2024–25, however, the platform’s revenue stands at just Rs 2.90 crore, a figure that underscores the gap between ambition and monetisation.
On paper, WAVES looks anything but modest. The platform has ingested 13,608 titles, totalling 9,495 hours of content, with over 13,000 titles already live. It has streamed more than 575 live events from the Mahakumbh Amrit Snan and the 76th Republic Day parade to the Hockey India League, Kabaddi World Cup and Mann Ki Baat while offering 74 live TV channels and 12 radio channels. With over 10 lakh registered users and more than 200 content partners onboarded, the scale resembles that of a fully operational streaming service rather than a pilot project.
The architecture supporting this scale is equally robust. Built under Prasar Bharati’s Central Archives vertical, WAVES runs on a cloud-based infrastructure with DRM, encryption and an integrated analytics dashboard. It includes dedicated units for content ingestion, quality control, publishing, graphics, marketing and billing, and is distributed across platforms such as OTTplay, Tata Play and BSNL. The offering extends beyond video to include audio-on-demand, e-games and even e-commerce via ONDC integration.
Yet, the numbers reveal a core disconnect. Despite its scale, WAVES generated just Rs 2.90 crore in a market where India’s OTT industry crossed Rs 23,000 crore in 2024. A key bottleneck lies in monetisation infrastructure: subscriptions cannot currently be purchased within the app and must be completed via an external website. In a mobile-first country where over 95 per cent of OTT consumption happens on smartphones, this extra step creates friction that most users are unlikely to overcome.
Ironically, content is not the problem, it is the platform’s biggest strength. Prasar Bharati holds one of the world’s richest broadcast archives, including 45,154 hours of digitised Akashvani programming and 35,723 hours from Doordarshan. For WAVES alone, over 3,800 hours of archival content have been made OTT-ready, including classics such as Ramayan and Shaktimaan, alongside rare cultural recordings and historical broadcasts.
There are early signs that this library holds commercial potential. Revenue from archival content licensing rose sharply to Rs 3.38 crore in FY24, up from Rs 67 lakh the previous year. Meanwhile, free digital platforms continue to drive massive reach, the PB Archives Youtube channel clocked 119.78 million views and added 4,02,000 subscribers in FY2024–25, crossing 1.7 million in total, while DD News has over 5.84 million subscribers.
That, however, presents a strategic dilemma. While free distribution builds scale, it also conditions audiences to expect content at zero cost making it harder to transition to paid models. WAVES, designed as a hybrid AVOD-SVOD platform with advertising and subscription layers, is yet to fully crack this balance.
The broader challenge is not technological but strategic. In an ecosystem dominated by platforms offering seamless payments, aggressive pricing and high-budget originals, WAVES is still bridging the gap between being a content repository and a commercially viable product.
For now, the platform reflects both promise and paradox. It has the scale, the content and the infrastructure but until monetisation catches up, WAVES remains less a revenue engine and more a digital showcase of what India’s public broadcaster could become.
