All Entries in the "Cable TV" Category
Govt for uniform FDI limit in cable TV at 74%
The government has proposed a uniform Foreign Direct Investment cap of 74% across the digital cable TV sector. “We are definitely looking at having a uniform FDI cap of 74% for the digital cable TV sector which at present has different caps. The cap for non-digital cable TV would continue at 49%,” Uday Kumar Varma, secretary, information and broadcasting ministry, told HT. Explaining the rationale behind the move, Varma said: “Digitalisation would require huge investment. With raised FDI limits we are looking at greater capital flows into the sector.” India is targeting »»»
Chennai may miss digitisation deadline
Chennai, Feb. 6: Though the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting says that metro cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai) will become digital by June 30, 2012, it does not seem possible. “We may miss the deadline as it calls for an investment to the tune of Rs 300 crore to procure set-top boxes, set up head-ends and control rooms,” said Mr D. Vivekanandan, Managing Director, Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation Ltd. According to him, though the State Government is not against the digitisation, the delay may be indispensible. The Government, in fact, is yet to make a policy decision »»»
TV sector gears up for digital deadline
With the official deadline for phasing out analog cable TV services fast approaching, digital cable and direct-to-home (DTH) companies are worried because customers are not adequately aware about the mandatory need to switch over to digital services, which will lead to a last minute scramble for settop boxes. Senior industry executives told Mail Today that although digital customers have been growing, there seems to be lack of awareness about the government’s decision to phase out cable TV networks from Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai by June 31, 2012. Noida and Gurgaon are next in line »»»
SITI Cable Business partners geared up for digitization
SITI Cable organized business partners meets to set the pace of cable TV digitization, with the Government recently passing the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Bill requiring the four metros Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai to shift to digital cable by June 2012 and the rest of the country to be digitized in phased wise manner by December 2014. With this bill, the onus shifts now on cable service providers to gear up for shifting to digital cable TV infrastructure from analogue. To speed up this transition, SITI cable organized the series of meets for Delhi Cable Operator in »»»
Cable operators facing set-top box shortage as digitisation deadline approaches near
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: Five months before time runs out for homes across India’s top four metros to switch to digital transmission to continue watching cable television, operators are battling short supply of set-top boxes as well as ignorance among consumers. More than 60,000 set-top boxes need to be installed every day to enable an estimated 10 million homes across Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata to meet the deadline mandated by the government. But with India going digital at the same time as Brazil, Russia, China and South Korea, among other countries, set-top box makers are finding it difficult »»»
Is this the end of cable mafia?
Since the cable TV industry’s stunningly chaotic beginning in India in the mid-90s, those in this vast and unregulated trade have had a free run. In the absence of government regulation and its accessory, red-tape — the Indian cable industry has managed to climb to number three position in the world. But the coming summer, things are in for a shake-up. The centre has approved the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2011, which proposes to make it mandatory for every household in the metro cities (in phase one) — Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi and Kolkata — to have a set-top »»»
Amagi brings new VAS revenues to MSOs
With digitisation of the cable TV industry in India soon reaching its sunset date, MSOs are making large capital expenditures to provide STBs (set top boxes) to their subscribers. However, with few significant revenue opportunities, VAS is becoming an important strategy by which operators increase their revenues and profits. VAS brings in multiple opportunities, some of them in the form of video-on-demand, video conferencing, local classifieds listing, TV-commerce, games, viewership measurement, and advertising. To begin with, approximately 50 MSOs across India have partnered with local television »»»
