Multi System Operators are Digital-ready

New Delhi, October 31: On 30th October, there was a huge surge in the installation of Set Top Boxes (STBs) in the metro cities, especially in Delhi. A total of 1,05,180 Boxes were installed, out of which approximately 65000 Boxes were installed in Delhi alone. This huge increase in the number of Boxes installed in Delhi has taken up the Cable TV digitization to 95% in Delhi; along with DTH the digitization percentage in Delhi has gone to 97%. While Mumbai has already achieved 100% digitization, in Kolkata the percentage of Cable TV digitization has gone to 83%; If DTH is also counted, the percentage of digitization in Kolkata has touched 85%. In Chennai the pace of seeding has remained somewhat static. The Cable TV digitization in Chennai stands at 62%; however with DTH the percentage has touched 86%. The overall percentage of Cable TV digitization in 4 metro cities has gone to 91% by 30.10.2012. With DTH the digitization percentage has touched 94% in the 4 metro cities.

As per the data provided by the DTH operators the number of DTH subscribers in Mumbai has gone upto 7.53 lakh, whereas in Delhi it is 10.17 lakh, Kolkata has 3.20 lakh subscribers and Chennai has 7.11 lakh subscribes as on 30.10.20212. Number of DTH subscribers in the 4 metro cities has touched 28.01 lakhs.

Reports from the field indicate that there is a huge surge for obtaining Set Top Boxes in the metro cities, particularly in Delhi. DEN Networks, leading MSO in Delhi has reported installation of about 50000 Boxes on 31.10.2012 alone. Meanwhile, Ministry Teams have fanned out in the metro cities and have completed their visits to all the digital Headends. The Teams have found that most MSOs are ready for the digital switch over and have operationalised their Digital headends with Conditional Access System and Subscriber Management System. Ministry teams will continue their visits for coming few days to ensure that the analogue signals are completely switched off. Ministry, in the meanwhile, has continued its Awareness Campaign and has decided to intensify its SMS Campaign to reach out to the remaining few people who are yet to install Set Top Boxes.

The Control Room in the Ministry has been flooded with calls especially from the consumers requesting information about the price of STBs and their availability etc. Control Room has so far received more than 4000 calls from 19th October onwards. On 30.10.2012 almost 500 calls were received by the Control Room. The Control Room of the Ministry is operational on all days from 8.00 a.m. to 10.00 pm and has representatives of Multi System Operators to reply to the queries of people.