IndianMascot
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Ninan discussed that while DD's antennas are rapidly being replaced by DTH or cable, the extremely poor stuck to black and white television sets or sets with no connection. Interestingly, her study also throws some light on why the rural poor are shifting to DTH, even if it means going without milk or some other rations once in a while. Most consumers felt that the new system offered them more choices. Many of them also chose digitisation because of their children who want to watch sports or entertainment programmes.
Interestingly, regional language feed post digitisation has become extremely popular in certain pockets of Gujarat. The consumers watch Discovery and National Geographic channels in Hindi and other shows in Gujarati. Ninan concluded her discussion with the challenges.
While digitisation has given viewers a lot of quality content, what it still does not provide is the regional language of their choice. While DD Direct gives them a choice of 55 channels, private players like Tata Sky or Dish TV offer a bouquet of 150 or more channels. Additionally, information valuable to these viewers - like technical skills or job preparation skills are not given out on private channels. Women's health, self-help, empowerment are other topics which have gone missing from the television radar. But the biggest challenge seems to be unstable power connections where even if the set is available, no one can view their programmes of choice.
TV.NXT 2014: "Digitisation has increased choices but reduced affordability": Sevanti Ninan > afaqs! news & features
