MSOs Eye HITS Platform For Phase III And IV

Many large MSOs are eyeing bigger market of 150 million additional cable subscribers residing rural and semi-urban towns and villages of Phase III and IV. Grant Investrade, also known as GHITS, a Hinduja Ventures entity, is lining up investments of Rs800-Rs1,000 crore for its Headend-In-the-Sky (HITS) cable services. Hinduja Ventures is already present as a national-level multi-system operator (MSO) under its cable arm InCable. GHITS is waiting for its licence from the government. Jain TV Group's Noida Software Technology Park has already obtained the HITS licence and tied up with many technology companies for the services. There are two other individuals who have applied for the HITS licence.

GHITS is offering a neutral platform (no alignment with any broadcaster), billing, call-centre and allied services apart from supplying digital set-top-boxes (STB). The company plans to raise around Rs1,000 crore over the next few years, as it moves to the hinterland.

According to Tony D'Silva, CEO of GHITS, the company will offer LCO’s the benefit of “lower cost” on STB due to bulk negotiations. GHITS will offer MPEG4 quality signal with the benefit of MPEG2 down grade for more economical boxes, including MPEG4 and HD boxes. Tony is an industry veteran having expertise in distribution of channels, managing large cable networks and DTH platforms.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/digitization-news/item/1917-msos-eye-hits-platform-for-phase-iii-and-iv.htmlSource: http://cablequest.org/news/digitization-news/item/1917-msos-eye-hits-platform-for-phase-iii-and-iv.html