Deadline for cable TV digitisation ends today

As per the guidelines set by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the deadline to acquire a set-top-box to switch to digital TV and to submit the mandatory Consumer Application Form (CAF) will end on Tuesday. This would mean that people who fail to do the same within the stipulated time might face a blackout.

As per a report by the Financial Express, almost 9-10 million subscribers could be affected due to this government norm. According to TRAI guidelines, the subscribers are expected to switch to digital cabel TV and submit the CAF indicating their preferred choice of channels, packages and services to their multi-service operators (MSOs) or local cable operators (LCO). The MSOs or the LCO are expected to notify the same to TRAI authorities who can then stream the particular channels or package to every individual subscriber. This is expected to reduce the distribution charges for various channels and also bring down the monthly cable TV rent that the subscriber has to pay.

Subscribers who fail to abide by the norms could face a blackout

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry few years back had started the initiative of digitisation of cable services throughout the country and were expected to reach their goal by December, 2013. This programme was initially started by making digitisation compulsory in the metropolitan cities, viz. Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

Though this move was welcomed by most of the cable TV subscribers, many did not favour this move and still have not installed a set-top-box, which is a must for digitisation. This meant that the deadline had to be extended. The programme, now in its third phase, which is expected to end on September 30, 2014, will cover all the cities and town missed in the initial two phases, while the fourth phase will cover rest of India by the end of 2014.