Operators come out with rates for digital cabile TV

Officials of the ministry said this was a major step towards achieving digitization of cable sector for which the government has set a deadline of October 31, 2012 for the four metros.

The MSOs which have announced the prices are DEN, Digi Cable, Hathway and WWIL.

Digicable has announced a basic category under which they would provide 145 channels for Rs 180 and a Gold segment in which 151 channels will be shown for Rs 200. In the Premium category, 165 channels would be shown for Rs 250.

Another MSO, the Hathway Cable and Datacom limited has offered a basic package of 135 channels for Rs 160 and a Medium segment of 198 channels for Rs 220. In the Premium segment, it offers 242 channels for Rs 275.

DEN offers Packs 1, 2 and 3 categories for Rs 180 (112 channels), Rs 225 (219 channels) and Rs 270 (235 channels), an I&B statement said.

Another MSO, WWIL has announced a Janta package of 118 channels in Rs 100. WWIL has also announced Popular 1 (Kolkata) category which offers 151 channels, Popular 2 (Mumbai) which offers 153 and Popular 3 (Delhi) which offers 142 channels. All three packages are priced at Rs 150.

The ministry said that as per TRAI