As many as five Iranian companies have obtained permits for delivering Internet Protocol Television services.
Mehdi Akhavan, a member of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, noted that international trends indicate that ties between ICT technologies and digital media are becoming closer than ever.
According to ISNA, the official said that in the coming years, a major part of traffic on social media websites will be dedicated entirely to the digital media.
"Therefore, it is necessary for the Islamic Republic of Iran's Broadcasting organization to enter this realm," he said.
Akhavan noted that after the public announcement was made, several companies filed applications to obtain permits for IPTV services, five of which were eventually qualified to receive them.
"Four of the companies are currently signing contracts and the fifth is still in the process of negotiating a deal. All the companies will be acting on behalf of IRIB," he said.
Akhavan added that the companies will not require permits issued by the Ministry of Culture and that they have already started securing the groundwork for later developments.
The official did not name any of the companies.
IPTV delivers television services using the Internet protocol suite over a packet-switched network such as LAN or the Internet, instead of being delivered through traditional terrestrial, satellite signal and cable television formats.
Unlike downloaded media, IPTV offers the ability to stream the media in smaller batches, directly from the source. As a result, a client media player can begin playing the data (such as a movie) before the entire file has been transmitted. This is known as streaming media.
Some have suggested that if the system were to use the existing fixed-line telephone infrastructure, it could slow down regular Internet services due to peak streaming, a problem that has plagued European countries and IPTV projects.
