Advanced Television

India gets tough on encryption

March 22, 2013

By Chris Forrester

India’s Information & Broadcasting Ministry (I&B) says cable MSOs, now beginning to make progress with digitisation of its signals, must also fully embrace the obligatory encryption of signals (via Conditional Access). I&B is setting up a centralised monitoring system to check that MSOs are keeping their word. This is a major step forward in a country where under-reporting of actual paying subscribers has been rife for decades.

The government’s monitoring system will be able to detect those cable operators who are flouting the existing rules. One pilot project is already up and running in Bangalore (the centre of India’s computing expertise) which includes the acquisition, logging, analysis and reporting of the number of channels being carried, name of channels/services, encryption status, etc.

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