In response to a petition filed by the Chennai Metro Cable TV Operators Association, the Madras High Court on Wednesday issued an order restraining the Centre from switching off analog mode in Chennai until November 5.
However, the Bombay High Court rejected a similar petition filed by a local cable operator to extend the deadline for switch-over to digital addressable systems in Mumbai.
The Centre had earlier announced that Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai would have to switch over from analog to the digitised mode with effect from November 1, 2012.
Johnson D Kennedy, president of the cable TV association in Chennai, said the deadline had been extended until November 5 when the high court will hear the case again.
He added the city has only 160,000 set top boxes in place, while the actual requirement is four million. “If it is implemented today, the public will have suffer,” said Kennedy.
According to the information and broadcasting ministry, 61 per cent of the cable homes in Chennai had already gone digital and with direct-to-home (DTH), the percentage of digitisation would be 85 per cent. According to the ministry, digitisation in Mumbai is almost complete, while that of Delhi and Kolkata have 88 per cent and 82 per cent, respectively.
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The ministry has also set up teams for physical verification of the progress.
The Chennai operators said the ministry’s findings for the city were based on outdated data and, hence, wrong.
They pointed out that the government did not even consider the free television sets given by the former government, led by the Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam. This alone triggered an increase of 20 per cent in the number of TV sets in the city, the operators contested.
In Mumbai, Paresh Thakker of Bhavani Rajesh Cable had filed a petition before the high court, claiming the October 31 deadline cannot be met. The petitioner said that a large number of consumers are yet to receive set-top boxes that might result in blackout in large parts of the four metros if the deadline is not extended.
According to industry estimates, there are 4 million cable connections in Chennai, controlled by six licensed multi system operators (MSOs) and around 1,500 cable operators.
Out of the 4 million, only 250,000 set top boxes were issued. The DTH connections would be about 600,000, making it about 850,000 households with access to digitised television signals, and leaving behind 3.2 million households.
Experts attributed two reasons for Chennai cable operators not taking up the digitisation seriously. One, many operators were confident that the deadline would be extended and, two, the assumption that Arasu Cable Corporation, the state-run MSO, would take over the city. By Monday evening, 11 companies have got licence for digitisation, but the list did not include Arasu Cable, they added.
According to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, as on October 30 the overall percentage of Cable TV digitisation in four metros has gone to 91 per cent. With DTH, the digitisation percentage has touched 94 per cent. There was a huge surge in the installation of set top boxes (STBs) in the metros, especially in Delhi, the Ministry said on Wednesday. A total of 1,05,180 STBs were installed, out of which approximately 65,000 were installed in Delhi alone. According to the ministry, Mumbai has already achieved 100 per cent digitisation, while in Delhi it is at 95 per cent (along with DTH it has touched 97 per cent); Kolkata is at 83 per cent (85 per cent with DTH) , and in Chennai the pace of seeding has remained static. Cable TV digitisation in Chennai stands at 62 per cent; however with DTH the percentage has touched 86 per cent.
Yesterday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had threatened to launch a countrywide agitation if cable TV services see a blackout. “We cannot accept this stand by the Centre. When set-top boxes are not at hand, analog systems should be allowed to continue. The Centre has no right to black out television,” said Banerjee.