(3 October 2006 6:00 am)

New Delhi: The stage is set for a high powered seminar on broadband and IPTV which commences in New Delhi' India Habitat Centre today. Organised by indiantelevision.com and Media Partners Asia, Hong Kong, and titled The India Broadband Digital Networks forum – Delivering the Digital Home, the seminar will feature high profile speakers such as I&B secretary SK Arora, Trai chairman Nripendra Misra, Zee TV chairman Subhash Chandra, Liberty Global director Shane O Niel, who will kick off the morning's proceedings with their keynotes, followed by a panel discussion. The purpose of the session: to try to get a perspective from government on which way broadcasting, cable TV, broadband, IPTV, internet regulation is headed, apart from a view from industry leaders how they see the Indian market panning out.

The afternoon session has Siticable head JS Kohli, Tata Sky boss Vikram Kaushik, Ortel Communications Jagi Mangat Panda, HSBC Securities MD and global media investment banking head Sandeep Pahwa, Comverse CBO Raghav Sahgal, NDS Asiapac operations director David Godfrey, Scientific Atlanta VP and international business GM Ken Klaer. Their focus will be to come to an understanding on why strategically digital is the way to go forward, and how each of them is dealing with this imperative to consolidate and converge.

The last session has got Zee TV vice chairman Jawahar Goel, Star India's revenue director Paritosh Joshi, Hathway boss K Jayaraman, HFCL Infotel CEO Surendra Lunia, Bharati Televentures technology Veep TV Sriram, HomeCable CEO Vikki Choudhry, Tandberg Television IPTV business development director Alan Delaney, Indusind Media executive director Ashok Mansukhani. The goal: to get a reality check on whether that strategic imperative is going to be achieved, what is hampering the move and how the impediments will be cleared.

Says Indiantelevision.com CEO Anil Wanvari: "Cable TV, satellite TV, broadband, and telco operators are all keen to understand what the lay of the land will be like, how each of them can work together or independently, the business models which will be successful. We hope through this seminar to get to some of those answers."

The India Broadband Digital Networks Forum has Tandberg Televison, NDS, Scientific Atlanta, NDS and Comverse as the industry sponsors, with CNN IBN being the Support Sponsor, NDTV the telecast partner, CMCG as the PR partner and Cable Quest, Satellite@ Internet India and Satellite & Cable TV as the print partners.