Direct-to-home (DTH) television service providers are upset as they have been saddled with a huge inventory of set-top boxes which they had ordered to meet the July 1 deadline for digitised services.
DTH service providers such as Tata Sky and Dish TV are of the view that the DTH community, which is licensed, regulated and pays taxes on behalf of each one of its customers, has once again lost out to analogue competitors, who are not subjected to the rules.
In the meantime, the government will continue to lose huge revenue as local cable operators report only 20 to 25 per cent of their subscriber base.
Harit Nagpal, president, DTH Operators Association of India, said, "The extension is a major setback for the DTH industry, which has invested a great deal on set-top-box inventory and hiring of manpower to install services."
Nagpal also said, 'It is difficult to understand what different thing will be planned in the next three months that was not in the last six months.
The decision to defer the plan for switchover from analogue to digitalised signals was announced by the government on Thursday as it was found that metros like Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata were not ready for it.
'The ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B) has decided to modify the June 30 deadline for a complete switchover to October 31, 2012,' a statement issued by the ministry had said.
'All Trai regulations for Digital Addressable System will come into effect from November, 1, 2012,' the statement added.
Digitalisation of the cable services in the entire country by December 2014 is one of the ambitious tasks that the I&B ministry has set for itself and the first step towards achieving this goal was its implementation in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai by June 30.
Set-top boxes pile up after govt delay
DTH service providers such as Tata Sky and Dish TV are of the view that the DTH community, which is licensed, regulated and pays taxes on behalf of each one of its customers, has once again lost out to analogue competitors, who are not subjected to the rules.
In the meantime, the government will continue to lose huge revenue as local cable operators report only 20 to 25 per cent of their subscriber base.
Harit Nagpal, president, DTH Operators Association of India, said, "The extension is a major setback for the DTH industry, which has invested a great deal on set-top-box inventory and hiring of manpower to install services."
Nagpal also said, 'It is difficult to understand what different thing will be planned in the next three months that was not in the last six months.
The decision to defer the plan for switchover from analogue to digitalised signals was announced by the government on Thursday as it was found that metros like Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata were not ready for it.
'The ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B) has decided to modify the June 30 deadline for a complete switchover to October 31, 2012,' a statement issued by the ministry had said.
'All Trai regulations for Digital Addressable System will come into effect from November, 1, 2012,' the statement added.
Digitalisation of the cable services in the entire country by December 2014 is one of the ambitious tasks that the I&B ministry has set for itself and the first step towards achieving this goal was its implementation in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai by June 30.
Set-top boxes pile up after govt delay