Advanced Television

India claims 90% digital converted

February 25, 2016

By Chris Forrester

India’s Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) says that its Phase III cable TV analogue-to-digital conversion process is going well, and that 90.44 per cent of homes are now converted.

The Ministry says that cable MSOs and local distributors have supplied 12.43 million addressable set-top boxes in the period to February 15th, and up from 6.9 million at the end of 2015.

There are still headaches, however, with some regions having obtained local government permissions to delay the switchover. Some 685 such areas are involved in delays although 450 of these are villages with fewer than 1000 homes. 226 areas are, in essence, small towns and have between 1000-5000 homes.

The Ministry is also getting tough with the local (and some regional) governments and is applying for High Court and Supreme Court actions to transfer all these local permissions to the higher Court for hearing, and to cancel the delaying permissions.

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