Digitisation process gathers steam in other cities

The government is confident that 38 cities will make the switch to digital cable by the March 31 deadline. And this confidence stems from its contention that with just two weeks to go, 60 percent of households have already converted, reports Pavni Mittal of CNBC-TV18.

The I&B ministry is dead serious about meeting its March 31 deadline to convert households across 38 cities, including Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Hyderabad, from analog to digital signals. And a bulk of this has already been achieved.
As per ministry data, 58.84 percent of the 1.6 crore television sets have already gone digital with full digitisation achieved in Hyderabad, Amritsar, Ludhiana and Chandigarh.
So unlike in phase-1, the government says Phase-II will not see any deadline extension. But it is quick to assure viewers that will be no broadcast blackout when the deadline expires.
Uday Kumar Varma, secretary, I&B ministry, says that it does not happen like this midnight of March 31 you switch off. Its a process and everyone should get time to adjust. There could be a digital switchover on March 31 but still there could be snags in the system.
 
Broadcasters, for one, are happy with the government's "no extension" resolve.
Uday Shankar, CEO, Star India, says I have seen no indication that the government is looking at an extension and that’s very encouraging.
But the first phase of digitisation, which covered the 4 metroes, is still not complete. And 6 months have passed since that deadline. Mumbai and Delhi were success stories, but Chennai made an issue of it in Madras High Court. And Mamata Banerji's government in West Bengal is just not playing ball. However, the central government does not want to force the issue.
“Its a deliberate decision on our part not to force it. Although we have started giving show cause notices to MSOs who are not giving. The day we want to take legal aciton against them we will. On the balance, we are not doing it, because its better for it to sink in, Knowing that the state government has some reservations about the deadline and we don’t want to do anything that affects the process,” says Varma.
The ministry says that Srinagar, Jabalpur and Vishakhapatnam will be problematic as each has achieved less than 20 percent of the target. Meanwhile, broadcasters are in talks with MSOs and analog signal will be switched off in a phased manner to ensure a smoother transition. But unlike in Phase 1, TAM data will not be suspended this time.