Chennai : The Tamil Nadu government owned Cable TV Network Arasu Cable TV’s failure to acquire DAS licence from the Centre and the prolonging delay in processing its application by the Information & Broadcasting ministry and subsequent uncertainty due to TRAI’s recomendation against allowing state government bodies in Cable TV distribution business is putting Arasu Cable under pressure as the Cable TV operators in the State have threatened to walk out of Arasu Cable network if the State government fails to obtain a digital addressable system (DAS) licence from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting within 15 days.
Addressing presspersons here on Sunday, D.G.V.P. Sekar, Chief Coordinator, Federation of Cable TV Associations of Tamil Nadu, said if Arasu Cable did not obtain the licence, the operators would form limited companies, obtain licences and set up control rooms in all 32 districts.
Mr. Sekar said Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had recently expressed concerns over the poor implementation of DAS in Chennai. It had asked broadcasters, multi-system operators (MSOs) and local cable operators to take immediate action or face blackouts.
“We cannot leave our customers in the lurch. We have been in the business for the past 25 years now, and there are over 40,000 cable TV operators in the State. Hundreds of employees are also dependant on the industry,” he said.
Complete digitalisation of cable TV networks will lead to better quality viewing across channels.
It may be noted that small MSOs in South and North region of the country had forming a separate federation last week at Bengaluru and New Delhi, for collective representation and for implementing latest technologies in DAS distribution regime with a better negotiation with various parties.
