Country’s largest telecom operator marked its foray in the media and entertainment segment Thursday with the launch of the Airtel Digital Media Business.

With this, Bharti Airtel will be able to offer content delivery solutions for media and entertainment sector. The creation of its Digital Media Exchange will offer the industry, a secure digital distribution capability across multiple media platforms.

“There is a clear demand for secure digital distribution capability across multiple platforms. Airtel Digital Media Business will help establish India as an innovation hub for global content and format delivery. This significant step takes Brand Airtel ahead from being just a telecom brand to a lifestyle enabler,” said Sanjay Kapoor, CEO-India and South Asia, Bharti Airtel.

“Airtel’s Digital Media Business is integrated with our global network of submarine cable systems, international points of presence (PoPs) and our Content Delivery Network (CDN) services. It will now be able to deliver on a secure platform, high quality content across geographies” says Rajan Swaroop Executive Director, Enterprise Services, Bharti Airtel.

The company will invest about Rs 300-400 crore on an incremental basis in 3-4 years.

The move will also pave the way for over 16,000 cinema screens across the country to potentially offer high quality international viewing experience for consumers in India. Addressing critical areas of operations for media organizations, Airtel through its Teleport services would offer content gathering, distribution services to television channels.

This would also include complete content management services such as playout, archival, collocation and storage. Besides, Airtel will also offer content producers- an integrated content delivery and aggregation platform that can repackage content for all formats.

Being both content and access agnostic, Airtel’s Digital Media Business will open up the market opportunity for the Indian media and entertainment industry that is estimated to grow from Rs. 611 billion to Rs.929 billion at 11 per cent CAGR over 2009-2013.

“We are not owners of content and applications, we are the marketers,” said Kapoor.

Asked about the revenue model, Kapoor said it would be generated from the subscriptions.