Cabinet clears digitisation of TV services

[shailenderb]

According to reports, all the 4 metros would have only digital TV services by end March 2012. The report goes on to say, this would benefit both the broadcasters and the consumers. By 2014, in a phased manner, entire county would be covered by digital telecast.

Does this mean end of cable TV? How would it benefit people with normal TVs? They would in fact end up paying more compared to the Rs. 90 - 150 they are paying for all the channels now.

 

[siva1306]

Absolutely. This is purely benefit for DTH providers as they want to occupy the 80% cable network users market. Once the cable network wipes out, these DTH operators can start playing their own game.
As usually, cable network users may require to pay more than what they pay now.


Siva

 

[amol12]

I think this is positive move.
1. Never was I given a receipt of any payment by any of the cable operator(s).
2. Cable network operators always had monopoly in a given region (at least they had wherever I lived) and their service and quality was always pathetic.
3. Its been 4 years I got DTH and even then DTH was way cheaper than cable in the area I live. I am not sure of current situation though. I am not sure where Rs. 90 - 150 are being charged but as far as I remember I was charged way more than that even 5 years before.

 

[manoj.p]

Cable industry won't get wiped out. They will change the service from analog to digital. Everyone will have a settop box just like DTH. Govt was trying to implement CAS for a long time. Looks like this is the beginning in right direction and can get HDTV on cable in near future.

Good move, because now cable operators won't be able to lie about their actual subscriber nos.

 

[rdevakumar]

I am using SCV settop box in Chennai. For my second TV, i am using direct cable connection without any settop box. If i understand correctly, now i will need one more settop box if i need to connect the second TV

If that is the case, i will move to DTH where i have the HD option for the TV in the living room and may use the existing settop box for the second TV

 

[cavallino]

The cable industry won't be wiped out it would in fact benefit. They would try to offload the cost of the box on the consumer if they can if not they will bear the initial brunt with some subsidy from the government. They would gain immensely in terms of bandwidth saving - which means they can carry more channels on the same bandwidth and collect more carriage fees.

By the way dan network charges 500 rupees to deploy a digital box in my neighbourhood even today. They ran a scheme sometime back when they distributed free boxes to "select" customers