No Relaxation On DAS Phase II: I&B Ministry

In view of the progress in implementing DAS, Information and Broadcasting Ministry Secretary Uday Kumar Verma said that the cable television sector would gain much more in the long run from switchover to digital access system than direct-to-home (DTH) television.

Speaking at the CASABA India Forum in New Delhi on 7 March, 2013 Varma said that cable TV would be able to provide more value added services than being provided by DTH and there was greater spectrum available to cable TV than DTH. Inaugurating the one-day meet on ‘Digital Visions and Dividends’ he informed that there would be no extension of deadline of the second phase of switching off analogue signals on 31 March covering 38 cities. He also claimed that the first phase covering the four metros had been successfully launched despite the court case in Chennai and the initial reluctance in Kolkata. He also informed that 55 percent of the Phase II cities had already been digitised and the multi-system operators (MSOs) had just two million set top boxes in stock and another two million under procurement.

In another session later Supriya Sahu, Joint Secretary in the IB Ministry said that that the government was speculating an amendment to the DAS rules where it will switch off the analogue signals in stages. Some service providers had not given the access forms to the subscribers but TRAI was examining the issue deeply. She informed that the teams of Ministry were also visiting service providers who have failed to meet the deadlines. Revenue flow and consumer bills were a big concern but TRAI would soon sort out this problem with the aim of a smooth switchover.

She pointed out that the biggest challenge was to reach out to every stakeholder and availability of STBs at affordable prizes. But she claimed that the progress in Phase II was smoother than in Phase I. Data which was being collected every week and meetings were held regularly with MSOs on the progress.

According to TRAI’s Principal Advisor of Broadcasting N Parameshawaran, one big benefit would be the growth of niche television channels. He also admitted that subscriber forms had not been distributed and this was leading to problems related to revenue sharing.

While addressing, Indian Broadcasting Foundation President and Multi Screen Media CEO ManJit Singh said that the most crucial achievement was transparency in financial deals. He said it was necessary that MSOs helped in putting up STBs as the average revenue per user (ARPU) which was bound to go up. He also felt that the TV industry which was heavily dependent on advertising may also see a change in its revenue models.


Source: http://cablequest.org/news/digitization-news/item/1664-no-relaxation-on-das-phase-ii-i-b-ministry.html