BackBroadcasters unhappy, MSOs welcome digitisation deadline delay
Broadcasters unhappy, MSOs welcome digitisation deadline delay
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New Delhi: Television broadcasters have expressed disappointment over the government’s decision to postpone cable TV digitisation in four metros till October, while multi system operators (MSOs) welcomed it saying it was a “sensible" move.
“We are very disappointed with the change in the date. It was a law enacted and approved by Parliament, which was supposed to benefit the citizens," News Broadcasters Association president Narayan Rao told PTI.
The government must now ensure that there is no slippage again and no further extension of the deadline, he added.
“There is a feeling that if this can be extended once, it could be extended again. This should not be allowed to happen," Rao added.
On Wednesday, the ministry of information and broadcasting pushed back the 30 June deadline to 31 October for a complete switch over of cable TV to digital platform from analogue in the four metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.
The ministry cited gross unpreparedness for installation of Set Top Boxes (STBs) as the reason for the postponement.
“This is a sensible and welcome step. The earlier deadline was impractical as it was not possible to cover 10 million household within just six weeks time," MSO Alliance president Ashok Mansukhani said.
Asked if the new deadline could be met, he said: “The new deadline of 31 October is a bit tough but is reasonable and the industry should be able to meet the deadline or at least expect 80% of the household to be covered."
Cable operators, however, said the new deadline was not enough to install STBs in the households in the four metros.
“The deadline should have actually been postponed to 31 December, instead of October 31 because even extra four months are not enough to seed the required number of set-top-boxes in the market," Cable Operators Federation of India (COFI) President Roop Sharma said.
Direct to Home (DTH) service providers said they were disappointed with the extension of deadline as they have already started investing on the process.
“The extension will put strain on the financial health of the DTH industry due to additional inventory carrying costs and investments in infrastructure that the industry will have to incur now," Airtel digital TV CEO Shashi Arora said.
The government had set a target of digitisation of the cable services in the entire country by December 2014 starting with the four metros, which was supposed to be completed by 30 June this year.
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