A Win-win for All

Amending the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act is helping the Indian government usher in cable digitization in the country in a big way

The cable industry in India has grown rapidly to an estimated 94 mn in 2011 from a trifling 0.4 mn in the beginning of 1992. The total number of TV households in the county is estimated to be around 147 mn. Additionally, the number of pay channels has grown steeply from 20 in 1995 to around 167 and there are more than 800 channels registered with the Information F Broadcast (IFB) ministry. Furthermore, the country is witnessing a drastic shift in consumer behavior; customers today do not shy away from forking out extra money to get best in class services. All these factors put together have provided an impetus to cable digitization in the country.

The Indian government has been pretty aggressive about cable digitization in the country; the parliament recently cleared the bill to amend the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act for ushering digitization. As per the act, cable digitization will be implemented in 4 phases across the country and would be completed by Mecember 2014. In view of the development, the IFB ministry has decided to “modify the June 30th, 2012 deadline for a complete switchover, in the main metros to October 31st, 2012. The new deadline would be monitored more vigorously and reiterates the government’s commitment to digitization in the country”.

Impact on Various Stakeholders

The ever-increasing demand from consumers, combined with massive increase in number of TV channels has posed an insurmountable challenge for analog cable TV. The advent of cable digitization in the country is a much required change not only for consumers but also for the rest of the stakeholders. The consumers will have access to 500 plus TV channels, a better viewing experience, new and better services such as HM, broadband, and video on-demand. TV viewing will become more interactive, personal as well as social.

Cable digitization will also streamline the underreporting of subscription revenue by LCOs, as a result MSOs would gain an estimated 6-fold increase in subscription revenue. Migitization will further help cable service providers to tap additional business opportunities in the form of value-added and interactive