All Entries Tagged With: "Cable Operators"
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 »»»
Hathway Cable plans to invest Rs 1.75 bn in first phase of digitisation
MUMBAI: India’s leading multi-system operator (MSO) Hathway Cable & Datacom plans to invest Rs 1.75 billion in the first phase of digitisation even as it expects DTH to take away 10-15 per cent of its cable TV subscribers in the two lucrative markets of Delhi and Mumbai. Hathway has ordered 1.3 million digital set-top boxes (STBs) and signed a letter of intent for another 0.5 million STBs. “We estimate our subscriber universe to be 1.5 million (including 2nd TV) in Mumbai and Delhi. About 20 per cent of this will be second TV sets. We have a presence in Kolkata through our joint »»»
Lok Sabha passes cable digitisation bill
NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha today passed the second Bill to amend the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act 1995 that aims to replace the Ordinance promulgated in October. Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, while talking on the discussion on the Bill, assured the cable operators that they would not be “put out of business” contrary to fears expressed by some quarters with digitisation of cable services, and capacity building programmes would be held to apprise them with new technologies. Soni said that an enabling provision had put in place to the effect that only Rs 200,000 to »»»
Overdue tax from DTH cos in legal tangle
Indore: Commercial tax department is awaiting Supreme Court verdict on the petitions moved by Direct to Home (DTH) service providers and cable operators and expecting a favourable verdict so that it could recover a big amount owed by the companies to it as tax. The service providers including Reliance, Tata Sky and others started paying tax from last year following a Supreme Court order. But the department argues that since the companies had started operation since 2003, they should also pay tax for the seven years till 2010. On this issue, the service providers moved the Supreme Court. “These »»»
Digital mandate to bring substantial benefits for industry and consumer
MUMBAI: The government mandate to digitise cable networks across India will bring a significant transformation to the $7 billion TV industry with a positive impact on the nascent broadband market, says a report published by Media Partners Asia (MPA). MPA executive director Vivek Couto said, “India’s broadcasting and pay-TV market is on the cusp of a high growth value phase similar to North America between 1998 and 2003, Korea during 2003-7, and Taiwan during 2005- 10. Valuations of the domestic companies in these markets during the high-growth value stage typically skyrocketed, as networks »»»
Reliance Industries Ltd eyes cable operators’ network
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is in talks with cable operators to buy or take on long-term lease their fibre optic capacity. The company plans to use the capacity acquired to roll out broadband wireless access (BWA), 4G and high-speed internet services. The collaboration could go further. RIL is also in talks with manufacturers to install small base station antennae, instead of large towers, linked through a fibre optic back haul to provide mobile BWA services. Cable operators, including large MSOs (multi-system operators), confirmed talks were on with RIL and the company had given them a launch »»»
