Cable TV operators on Friday said they would observe a 48-hour blackout to protest the March 31 digitisation deadline and an ‘unfair’ revenue-sharing model under the digital addressable system (DAS).
The blackout will begin Friday and will last till 31 March. The operators are demanding extension of the deadline, a higher revenue share and lower tariffs for consumers. ‘We are not against digitisation. Our protest is against the package being offered by the multi-system operator (MSO). They are offering us just 33 per cent share, which is unfair and unacceptable,’ said Ashok Pandit, president, Trans-Yamuna Cable TV Operators Association.
Pandit said local cable operators were not taken into confidence when the decision to go digital was taken. ‘The MSOs took few hand-picked local operators to the government to claim they had taken all of us into confidence, following which this decision was made,’ he said.
According to him, consumers paying just Rs 100 to Rs 150 under the analogue system would now have to pay three or four times more than that in addition to buying a digital set-top box.
The blackout will begin Friday and will last till 31 March. The operators are demanding extension of the deadline, a higher revenue share and lower tariffs for consumers. ‘We are not against digitisation. Our protest is against the package being offered by the multi-system operator (MSO). They are offering us just 33 per cent share, which is unfair and unacceptable,’ said Ashok Pandit, president, Trans-Yamuna Cable TV Operators Association.
Pandit said local cable operators were not taken into confidence when the decision to go digital was taken. ‘The MSOs took few hand-picked local operators to the government to claim they had taken all of us into confidence, following which this decision was made,’ he said.
According to him, consumers paying just Rs 100 to Rs 150 under the analogue system would now have to pay three or four times more than that in addition to buying a digital set-top box.