All Entries Tagged With: "Roop Sharma"
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 »»»
DTH firms may miss à la carte deadline
Customers seeking greater choice over what they watch and how much they pay for it may have to wait for some more time with mostdirect-to-home (DTH) and Internet protocol TV companies set to miss a 1 January deadline for offering an à la carte option. A July 2010 order by the regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said that all digital platforms must offer consumers the choice of paying only for channels that they wish to watch. Currently, companies offer bouquets or bundled channels priced as a package. DTH companies, which together serve around 29 million households, cite technical »»»
TV broadcast carriage fees set for a burial
New Delhi: In a move which promises to have a major impact on the cable and broadcast industry, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is looking to ban carriage fees. While broadcasters—particularly the 240-plus news channels—have supported such a ban for long, the cable industry has always contested Trai’s intervention. Trai regulates both telecom and broadcasting sectors in India. If implemented, the move will cut revenues of major cable distributors and DTH operators. However, it will help the TV channels which are currently forced to pay carriage fees to get visibility in the »»»
Focus 2009: DTH players seek rationalisation of taxes
The DTH (direct to home) industry is seeking tax rationalisation from the government for the industry to grow and to speed up the digitisation process. The industry captains say that the taxation on the sector in India is possibly the highest across the globe. “When the licenses were issued by the government, there was no tax and we rolled out the product at a particular price. Today, we pay service tax, entertainment tax and VAT. We haven’t passed it on to the consumers,” said Rajiv Khattar, president, projects, Dish TV. He was speaking at the session on ‘Spotlight DTH’ »»»
DTH operators feel HITS will expand the digital market
NEW DELHI: Direct-to-home operators said they did not treat the cable operator as their competitor and felt DTH was simply one other way for the country to get digitised. They were also unanimous that Headend-in-the-Sky (HITS) would not hit them adversely as that would also help expedite the march towards digitisation. In any case, they felt that the country was large enough to accommodate different kinds of technologies. The operators were speaking during a session on ‘Spotlight: DTH’ on the final day at the Focus 2009, the third Global Summit on Entertainment and Media, organised by Assocham. Airtel »»»
Cable-DTH-HITS: complementary and supplementary
The spotlight of the second day at Focus 2009 was on the Direct-to-Home (DTH) sector in a technical session with the representatives from the leading DTH players in the Indian market Dish TV and Airtel DTH on the same panel. The panel comprised of Mr Rajesh Khattar, President Dish TV; Ajai Puri, Director & CEO, Airtel DTH; Mr Alan Dishington, GM, NDS India and Mr. Mohit Ralhan, Head- Media Baring Private Equity Partners Ltd. The session was moderated by Ms Roop Sharma, President, Cable Operators Federation of India (COFI). The session revolved around the growth of the DTH market in India, the »»»
High Court stays on proposal to auction cable TV licence
MUMBAI: Haryana cable operators and cable operators all over the country must be heaving a sigh of relief. The Chandigarh High Court today granted a stay on a proposal by the Haryana government to auction cable TV in the state. A consortium of cable operators had taken the Haryana government to court seeking redressal following a notice issued by it calling for applicants for auction of cable TV licences for three years in the state. Says Cable Operators Federation of India president Roop Sharma (who lobbied with the government on behalf of the consortium),”The notice was sent out by the »»»
