Instant-access desi TV whenever, wherever you want.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Internet TV service provider NimbleTV — which allows subscribers to access television programs from the “cloud,” on any device and from any location provided they have a high-speed internet connection — is now adding Indian channel packages to its service.
NimbleTV was launched in beta testing form in mid-2012, with the goal of providing affordable and easily accessible television to everyone. CEO Anand Subramanian, in an interview with Global India Newswire last year, called it “probably the biggest thing to have happened to TV in a long time,” and he’s not far from the truth.
Cable providers, and even specific channels, have spent many years and millions of dollars trying to create ways to make content more accessible to consumers, mostly in an effort to curtail piracy. With the advent of Hulu.com, as well as Netflix streaming making it incredibly affordable and easy for users to watch TV shows whenever they want, networks have realized that online streaming is here to stay. Unfortunately, Hulu and Netflix don’t offer everything, and whatever shows they do have are often delayed by at least a few weeks, if not entire months until the seasons are available on DVD.
HBO, in particular, launched its own online, subscribeable version of its channel called HBOGo, which allows users to stream the channel’s shows and original movies wherever they are, but HBO remains one of the biggest targets for online piracy — its popular series “Game of Thrones” is the most heavily pirated TV show in several countries around the world.
NimbleTV, however, is making content instantly streamable — while FOX is showing the latest episode of The Mindy Project on your living room TV, you can watch it at the exact same time on your iPad, smartphone, or laptop.
With the advent of Indian channels to NimbleTV, Subramanian — a 1992 graduate of IIT Bombay who is now based in the New York City area — aims to tap into a potentially huge audience that wants to watch Bollywood films, TV serials, and cricket matches on their own time, without having to worry about setting the DVR to record a program. NimbleTV also allows users to record programs, but does not require any hardware to do so. And because everything is stored in the “cloud” — that vaguely defined cyberspace where data can be stored and accessed whenever necessary — recordings do not take up any actual hard drive space.
The Indian channel packages, though not currently in service, are available for pre-order at the NimbleTV website and should start streaming within the next month or so (a firm date has not yet been announced). The channels provided include Zee TV, Sony, B4U, MTV, and Star Cricket, among many others.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com