New Delhi : The prevailing issues surrounding the digitisation of Phase I and II had caused an adverse impact on the decision on rollout of Phase III of Digitisation in the country. This will be a huge disappointment for the broadcasters, as they were dreaming about the completion of digitisation process in the country at the earliest, which will give lot of clarity in their business prospect by removing the grey areas in distribution, subscription revenue and a more accurate viewership data.
The delay in rollout of the Phase III was due to the failure of the previous UPA government in completing the required formalities with regard to regulations, licences, permissions etc and so the current NDA government’s I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar had decided to extend the deadline for the completion of digitisation till the end of December 2015 after consulting with all the stakeholders. However, the ministry is determined to complete the implementation of DAS all over the country within the revised date of December 2015.
Earlier, the Ministry had a target to complete the Phase III of DAS by by 30 September 2014 which will be covering all urban areas (Municipal Corporations/Municipalities) would be digitised and Phase IV covering the rest of India would be digitised by 31 December 2014.
Implement of DAS had faced plenty of hurdles like lack of STBs in Indian market, court cases in various parts of the country. In the first phase for the four metros, Chennai could not be covered because of a stay by the Madras High Court. The second phase covered 38 cities with populations of more than one million. However, reports say that analogue systems are still working not only in the metros but also in these cities. This has resulted in half baked implementation in many areas as the LCOs and MSOs haven’t implemented the system in manner as required by the regulators. The issue of billing and maintaining of proper customer database and lack of completion in KYC forms are still a persisting issue in DAS I and II areas that often resulting in a tug-of-war between the Cable Operators and Broadcasters.
Moreover, cable operators feel that the set top boxes being imported are of inferior quality with very few facilities for servicing. The MSOs went to the Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) challenging the ratio of profit sharing between the various stakeholders. And TDSAT has been flooded with litigation involving broadcasters, MSOs, LCOs and DTH operators over the past year and a half – coinciding with the government’s thrusting digitisation down the throats of those involved in India’s relatively unorganised cable TV ecosystem.
It also resulted in an ugly spat between the DTH operators and Cable Operators, where the DTH operators association launched a complaint against the Cable operators in Mumbai and Delhi alleging them of sabotage by jamming their signal using Jammers. Terming such occurrences are due to the lack of financial strength on the Cable Operators part to match with the kind of investments and technology that is being implemented by DTH operators.
The move is seen as a disappointment for broadcasters and DTH operators as they are hoping to streamline the industry as soon as possible that will help them to increase their revenues and profitability. On the other hand Cable Operators are relieved temporarily with a breathing time to find a solutions to their pending issues like sourcing enough STBs with service back-up, installing cutting edge technology with add-on services to match with that of DTH operators and arrest the loss of subscriber base
