BSNL opts for franchisee route for broadband content services  ( April '20,2005, FE)

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is taking the franchisee route for the content and content delivery platform of its broadband business. It is willing to share up to 85% of revenues from this with its franchisee.

It is preparing an expression of interest, expected to be ready by early May. It has already received requests for proposal (RFPs) from 25 companies in February, a BSNL official told FE. Some of these companies are Rediff, ORG, TIVI Net, the Times Group, Times Internet and Exaltant Networks.

“We are trying to arrange the content and content delivery platform for broadband subscribers within the next four months. This would accelerate the growth of broadband services. We are looking at offering video-on-demand, gaming, e-education and e-health to our customers,” the official said.

BSNL has laid down some criteria to be fulfilled by the prospective franchisee partner. It is looking at Indian companies in the IT, telecom and content space, with a turnover of not more than Rs 3 crore, he said. As no single company is offering both content and the content delivery platform, BSNL is talking to companies in both segments.