ITV

Tag: digital signals

  • Arasu has a provisional MSO licence to operate: Manish Tewari

    Arasu has a provisional MSO licence to operate: Manish Tewari

    NEW DELHI: The Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation, a multi-system operator (MSO) run by the TN government – has been claiming that the government has not given it an operational licence, thereby restricting it from transmitting digital signals to its subscribers. The MSO even filed a case in the Madras High Court in December, 2013 and got a stay over Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) earlier order which stated that MSOs transmitting analogue signals in Chennai would be prosecuted.

     

    While the case is yet to get its second date of hearing, the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) minister Manish Tewari, in a response to a question in the Parliament, said that on 26 November, 2007 Arasu had applied for grant of MSO registration in conditional access system (CAS) notified area of Chennai. The Ministry had granted provisional permission on 2 April, 2008. It was on the condition that after TRAI recommendations are considered, the Ministry will decide whether state governments/PSUs and other entities can enter into broadcasting activities including MSO/Cable operations.

     

    Along with Arasu, four other MSOs in Chennai were also given CAS licences in 2006 including IMCL, Hathway Cable and Datacom, Kal Cable and JAK communications.

     

    In response to a question about licences given to private players in other southern states, Tewari said that CAS was implemented in the notified areas of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata on 31.12.2006; while in Chennai, it was implemented since 2003 under notifications of 14 January, 2003 and 31 July, 2006. Since CAS was implemented only in Chennai, no CAS permission was granted to MSOs in other southern states.

     

    The entire episode has in a way turned everything around. The case is pending in court till the time TRAI submits its response. So while TRAI – which is completely against the idea of govt. owned MSOs and awaits Ministry’s response to its recommendations – awaits the responses, it could mean that Arasu is free to operate. Moreover, it can even give digital signals or seed STBs as TRAI can’t take any action against it, given that the MSO has a temporary licence.

     

    The picture will be clear only after the Ministry brings out its regulation and the case in the Madras High Court proceeds.

  • UK switchover almost complete with 98 per cent getting digital signals: Ofcom

    UK switchover almost complete with 98 per cent getting digital signals: Ofcom

    MUMBAI: A total of 25.1 million households in the United Kingdom were receiving digital TV across all platforms in the fourth quarter in 2012, marking an increase of almost five per cent from the year before.

    The Digital Television Update report by the British media watchdog Ofcom says digital TV is now received in 98 per cent of UK households following the completion of digital switchover last October.

    A total of 75 per cent households watched TV over digital terrestrial signals in the fourth quarter of 2012, an increase of 0.5 percentage points on the fourth quarter of 2011. In the fourth quarter of 2012, 54 per cent households subscribed to pay TV, up by two percentage points on the same period in 2011. A total of 37 per cent households subscribed to pay satellite in the fourth quarter of 2012, the same proportion in the corresponding period in 2011. A total of 13 per cent households subscribed to cable in fourth quarter of 2012, which was the same proportion in the corresponding period in 2011.

    In the fourth quarter of 2012, 3.4 per cent households had multi-channel platforms other than digital terrestrial, satellite and cable, up by 1.4 percentage points on the same period in 2011.

    There were an estimated 2.12 million free-to-view digital satellite households in the fourth quarter of 2012, up from 2.04 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to the survey data.