Cable operators in Bengaluru protest; set top box mandatory from April 1

[mmadhankumar]

Cable operators in Bengaluru are protesting, with the hope that the April 1, 2013 deadline for the implementation of the Digital Addressable System will be extended. The government has maintained that no extension will be provided.

Cable TV operators in Bangalore and Mysore staged a black flag protest, to oppose the 31st March deadline for the second phase of digitization, which will cover these two cities as well. The Karnataka State Cable TV Operators Association has gone ahead and submitted a memorandum to Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, stating their demands. Their list of demands include – 1. Extension of the deadline, 2. Changing the revenue-share model with multi-system operators (MSOs) as prescribed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, and 3. Evolution of a licensing frame for local cable operators (LCOs).

The association “wants to know” the status of digitization in the cities covered in the first phase, which included three metro cities – Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.

Meanwhile, at a seminar on ‘Digital Addressable Cable TV System - A New Era’ organized by the Broadcast Engineers Society of India, the Technical Advisor for Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Technical, Shri Yogendra Pal said, “Digitization is necessary for regulation and advisability of problems that are plaguing the cable TV sector.”

TRAI recommendation: To begin with TRAI has mandated that all Multi Service Operators (MSOs) carry a minimum of 200 channels from the beginning. This number has to be bumped up to 500 channels by 2013. Also, subscribers will have to be offered 100 free-to-air channels as a basic pack – Basic Service Tier, if they wish to subscribe to that, at a minimum of Rs 100, carrying all 18 Doordarshan channels and five channels of each genre - news, sports, infotainment, music, lifestyle, movies and general entertainment. Also, TRAI states that a set top box should cost Rs 1500, with the customer paying Rs 850 up front, and the rest in installments. There will be a 1-year warranty on the hardware.



Read More: Cable operators in Bengaluru protest; set top box mandatory from April 1 - LCD TVs | Plasma TV & Televisions | ThinkDigit News

 

[HOUSE-MD]

500 minimum channels is a good initiative as MSO's will be left with no option but to allow all channels, otherwise the MSO's formed by the channel owners will do everything to remove their competitive channels as we are currently having in TN.

Also TRAI may allow consumers to purchase STB from the local market as people can carry them when they change locations, else the money paid for STB will go waste.