Digitisation drive hit us, say cable operators

A cable operators body today said the government's digitisation drive had affected them adversely and claimed that it was one of the reasons for the poor show of Congress in the Assembly elections.
"Cable TV operators have been forced to hand over control to a few MSOs supported by the rich broadcaster groups in the new digitisation policy that mandates every cable network to migrate to digital cable within a short period ranging from six months to one year," Cable Operators Federation of India president Roop Sharma said.
"In a hurry to achieve this, the government has thrown the industry in a state of uncertainty for years to come," she said, adding that the Congress government's policies had elt to thousands of cable operators becoming unemployed.

She said because of digitisation, consumers were forced to spend money to buy set top boxes.