Cabinet okays digital cable technology HITS

The Cabinet Thursday approved guidelines for Headend In The Sky (HITS), a service that will digitise cable content (currently analogue) in the country and revolutionise the way users watch television.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said HITS, a digital delivery mode of distribution of TV channels, would speed up the process of digitalisation of cable services. She, however, added that the policy guidelines would not be mandatory for cable operators who could choose to continue with the present analogue mode of content.

“HITS will serve the whole country providing signals through satellite to the multi-service operators and cable operators, who can further send the digital signals to subscribers using their networks,” explained Soni.

Cable operators would be required to set up infrastructure and obtain a teleporting licence after which they could downlink digital content from a satellite, which would then be distributed to users via cable.

The minister said foreign direct investment (FDI) cap in HITS would stand at 49% though FDI caps for all broadcast sectors would be reviewed soon.

Cable operators like Essel Group’s WWIL, which operates Siti Cable, have already invested into invested into HITS technology and would thus be benefited.

“It is a boon that will help digitalisation,” said A Mohan, Executive Vice President of Essel Group. “It needs to be followed up with immediate steps toward HITS. We need a comprehensive tariff policy framework for a HITS operator. The government should also come out with a digitalisation plan for the cable industry.”

Mohan said the digitalisation would help in cutting costs for WWIL. The WWIL stock responded positively on the exchanges and was locked up at 20% upper circuit at Rs 20.40 at the time of closing on Thursday.

“Overall, it is a positive development for the broadcasting sector and will speed up the slow process of digitalisation in the country,” said Vikash Mantri of brokerage firm ICICI Securities.

Mantri pointed to a paper by regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) that said the cost of digitalisation of the entire country could now come down to about Rs 1,300 crore as opposed Rs 15,000 crore currently without HITS.

He, however, said one would need to see further policy details on whether there would be license fee agreement to see how digital cable would stack up by way of costs against other broadcast streams like direct-to-home, a form of digital TV.