BackChennai lags behind in Centre’s digitzation initiative
Cable operators yet to supply set-top boxes widely enough to meet the 31 October deadline
Premium(Priyanka Parashar/Mint)
Several Chennai households may have to go without television on 1 November as they don’t have the set-top boxes that will be needed to view broadcasts after the mandatory switch to digital from analogue signals starting that day.
The Union government has said it won’t budge on the deadline by which the change needs to happen in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. West Bengal has sought an extension of the deadline and Tamil Nadu may do the same.
With 20 days to go, the state-run Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corp. Ltd, multi-system operators (MSOs) Sumangali Cable Vision (SCV) and JAK Network besides cable operators are yet to supply set-top boxes widely enough to meet the digitization deadline of 31 October.
“It’s a big confusion," said M.R. Srinivasan, general secretary of Chennai Metro Cable TV Operators Association (CMCOA), which says it represents 1,800 cable operators. “Cable operators are in a limbo and do not know what to do as the state-run Arasu Cable hasn’t said clearly how much the end customer will have to pay if he buys a set-top box from the cable operator."
It has said cable operators should pay an advance of ₹ 500 per box but has not clarified on its final price, he said. Cable operators are in a dilemma over whether to get set-top boxes from SCV or JAK by paying an advance of ₹ 1,000 apiece because they don’t know if the government will drop prices on the Arasu set-top box later, said Srinivasan.
Vittal Sampathkumaran, managing director of SCV, declined to comment. B. Jayaraman, who heads JAK Network, was not reachable.
Arasu Cable plans to refloat a global tender on 12 October to purchase set-top boxes. The cable network had to scrap the earlier tender for 2.5 million set-top boxes as the lowest bid was ₹ 2,300 per piece.
“The prices quoted by international players were higher than the price expected by us," said K. Radhakrishnan, chairman, Arasu Cable. The estimated price for the box had been ₹ 1,200 to ₹ 1,500.
“We are trying but it would be tough to procure the set-top boxes before the mandated deadline," he said.
The state-operated cable network is getting its control room ready to provide the signals.
“We plan to write to the central government in two days to extend the deadline," said a senior government official, who did not want to be named. The West Bengal government last week asked the central government to extend the digitization deadline in Kolkata due to the Durga Puja festivities and unavailability of set-top boxes.
Direct-to-home (DTH) companies may be taking advantage of the confusion.
“I can say Chennai is no different market to other metros in terms of demand for set-top boxes -- demand has increased," said Harit Nagpal, managing director and CEO, TataSky Ltd, without giving details.
Sun Direct, the largest DTH operator in Tamil Nadu with over seven million subscribers, did not respond to queries.
Chennai is a large market that’s different from other metros as there is greater demand for local language channels and not as much less for Hindi channels, said Salil Kapoor, chief operating officer, Dish TV India Ltd, a DTH operator, which roped in Tamil actor Jeeva as its brand ambassador in August.
Dish TV’s second quarter earnings are expected in two weeks and it was therefore unable to provide numbers on the increased demand, Kapoor said.
Meanwhile, CMCOA has written to the information and broadcasting ministry that the government’s claim of 69% TV households having set-top boxes in Chennai is incorrect as it takes into account only 1.1 million households with televisions. There are at least four million TVs in the city, Srinivasan said.
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