Hinduja's HITS targets cable TV digitisation in small cities

Hinduja group company Grant Investrade, which this month received licence to operate headend-in-the-sky (HITS) service, is targetting cable operators and MSOs in small cities and towns to be covered under the last two phases of network digitisation.
HITS service enable small cable operators and multi system operators (MSO) to receive digital signals of channels through less equipment.
Grant Investrade Managing Director Tony D'Silva said that nearly 110 million homes would come under the Phase III and IV of cable TV digitisation.
"By December 2015, the government has made it mandatory for digital broadcasting by cable operators and MSOs under phase III," he said.

Under the digitisation programme, cable operators and MSOs are required to shift to digital broadcasting across the country by 2016. The first two phase - phase I and II which covered metros and major cities have been completed.
Phase III and IV markets cover all places barring the four metros and major cities of India.

The company had applied for HITS licence in November 2012 and the approval was accorded in July this year, D'Silva told reporters here today.
He said the targetted markets were mostly served by cable operators.
"These people will have to spend a huge amount of money to install the digital headend and also meet huge operational costs monthly to keep the network running," he said.

D'Silva said these last mile operators would be able to seamlessly and cost-effectively migrate to the digital platform by the stipulated deadline by taking their HITS service which was marketed under the 'NXT DIGITAL' brand.
The company was installing the earth station at Noida, he said.
The monthly power bill would also lower drastically if the operator opted for the service, he added.