Bangalore, the city which comes under the second phase of digitisation might be looking at a massive cable TV blackout come January 31, 2014. According to reports, as many as 500,000 TV sets could go blank if they are not connected to STBs to receive digital signals.
According to Sibichen K Mathew, an adviser for Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), as of December 31, 2013, only 80% of the television sets were covered by digitisation. There are approximately 2200000 television sets in the city which means nearly 500,000 of them are facing a cable TV blackout if they don’t act before the deadline.
Moresoever the cable operators in the city are worried about the onset of digitisation. The Karnataka State Cable Operators Association president Patrick Raju has said that this process would lead to monopoly. He said, “According to TRAI guidelines, cable operators have to merely collect subscriptions from consumers and hand them over to MSOs. Post-digitisation, MSOs may hike the subscription fee. Since they are the only service providers, consumers will have no option but to pay up.”
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