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Loads of angst and 25 million digital cable homes - that's all digitisation seems to have achieved three years and Rs 8,000 crore later. In 2011, when it was mandated, the hope was digitisation would usher structural changes to kick-start the Rs 43,000-crore Indian TV industry. It would add a couple of billion dollars to pay revenues over the long term, bring complete transparency, higher tax revenues and more variety for consumers.
Besides putting digital boxes into homes and increasing the number of channels on offer, "there hasn't been much progress pre and post-digitisation," agrees Sameer Manchanda, chairman & managing director, Den Networks (see Little Change: before and after digitisation). Sudhanshu Vats, group CEO, Viacom18, lists the reasons. One, LMOs, or last-mile cable operators, are unwilling to share revenues. Two, MSOs, or multi-system operators (firms such as Den or Hathway for wholesale TV signals), haven't focused enough on building processes and management bandwidth to take digitisation through. And three, price control.
To this list, Tony D Silva, managing director and CEO, IndusInd Media and Communications, adds poaching of subscribers. Jawahar Goel, managing director, Dish TV, contends that broadcasters are too taken up with programming, the glamorous part of the business, leaving distribution for people down the line. The resulting lack of coordination with the digitisation task force has created this situation.
Has another attempt at cable TV digitisation failed? | Business Standard News
