Digitisation Phase II: 5.9 mn boxes yet to be installed

It's not yet confirmed if the deadline will be extended by three months to June 30

With less than 10 days left for the March 31 deadline of Phase II, as per ministry of Information and Broadcasting data, a total of 5.9 million analogue TV homes are yet to be installed with set-top boxes (STBs) in the 38 cities falling under the mandate.

While there have been rumours about a possible extension of the deadline by three months, i.e. till June 30, it could not be independently confirmed till the filing of this report.

The level of digitisation in the cities, as of March 20, has reached 65.05%, as per the ministry sources. Out of this, 26.24% homes are covered by direct-to-home (DTH) alone. As per the data available, out of 16.01 million TV homes, a total of 6.21 million homes have received cable STBs, while 4.2 million have been installed with DTH boxes.

The ministry has made a provision of 20% for multiple TVs in houses in the 38 cities and TVs in offices/shops. The total number of TV Households according to Ministry statistics is 13.34 million.

In cities like Ludhiana (173.68%), Hyderabad (127.79%) and Chandigarh (106.53%), the deployement of STBs has exceeded 100%, while in Visakhapatnam it is less than 7%.

“While the Ministry figures have been showing a 65% digitisation, the ground realities are very different. Our local cable operators (LCOs) have seeded less than 35% boxes in many places. We have been told that it will not be possible to meet the deadline,” a top executive of a leading multi-system operator (MSO) said.

A Jabalpur-based LCO also echoed the same sentiments. “There is lot of reluctance from the consumers’ end. They want to wait to see if actually the signals go black on deadline. We don’t have enough boxes also. If the deadline of March 31 is enforced, there will be chaos,” Ramesh Jha, owner of a LCO said.

Meanwhile, the ministry has also set up a Centralised Monitoring System to monitor the progress of digitisation and to ensure the mandatory adherence of transmitting digital encrypted signals by multi-system operators (MSOs).

This Centralised Monitoring System will be able to detect those MSOs who do not carry the mandated encrypted signals. As per mandated by Section 4A of Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, MSOs are required to carry encrypted signals of TV channels in areas where digitisation has been implemented. Transmission / Re-transmission of unencrypted signals would amount to violation of terms and conditions of MSOs.