Hyderabad: The TS government has set December 31, 2015 as the deadline for digitisation of cable TV services and has asked all MSOs and cable TV operators to expedite the process and ensure set-top boxes in all households with cable TV connections within the deadline.
The government has made it clear that it will not give more time to implement digitisation of cable TV services after December 31. The original deadline ended on September 30 last year, but it was extended till December 31 this year after many households fail to set up STBs.
The existing analog transmission of channels will be shut down from January 1, 2016.
Minister for commercial taxes and cinematography, Talasani Srinivas Yadav said the government would implement digitisation totally from January 1, 2016 as directed by the Centre and installation of STBs was mandatory to avail cable TV services.
“The deadline has already been extended several times earlier. Enough time has been given to all including MSOs, cable TV operators and consumers for setting up STBs and follow digitisation norms. The digitisation will ensure quality cable TV services for both operators and consumers besides giving a choice to consumers to select the channels of their choice and pay for only the channels they watch,” he said, after inaugurating the Cablenet Expovision at Hitex on Wednesday.
Broadcasters, MSOs, cable TV operators, manufacturers of STBs and consumers attended the exhibition aimed at creating awareness among all the stakeholders.
