Cable TV users in Chennai will have to buy a set top box before July 1, when all cable operators will switch to providing signals only in digital mode. This has been directed by the Union information and broadcasting ministry.

Some 20 lakh households in the city with non-DTH connections will have to go for set-top boxes to continue watching their favorite television channels.

“All households in Chennai which are using the conditional access system (CAS) will have to buy new set-top box from the cable operators.

Currently only 2.5 lakh have set-top boxes, while over 20 lakh homes have direct connections through cable operators, and another 2.5 lakh, Direct to Home (DTH) connections,” say sources in the Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation Limited ( ACTL).

Once the digitisation happens, it will lead to standardisation, giving viewers access to all channels. But the I & B ministry’s order has bemused the ACTL as it had recently invited cable TV operators here to join it after breaking the monopoly of SCV in other parts of TN.

It is now debating whether to accept the applications from cable operators in Chennai or wait till the end of June. “We are now wondering whether to go ahead with the applications received from Chennai cable operators or not. We will decide this after discussing the issue with the government,” says an ACTL official

The ACTL is clueless about where to acquire the set top boxes that are to be used from July 1. “We have not yet received any directions from the Centre. Procuring set top boxes and distributing them is not going to come cheap,” note the officials.

Source: Deccan Chronicle