JOIN US“It is not anti-poor, it is not anti-small operators, it is not against persons who are earning their livelihood in the cable industry and it is certainly not for the big players. This is for the good of India and for the country to go forward in an organised fashion,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said, speaking during the discussions on the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Second Amendment Bill, 2011.
Dispelling fears that digitising cable services would cost a fortune for small cable operators in the country, Soni said they will have to spend two or three lakh rupees to upgrade their networks and will be given six months time to do so.
The minister further added that digitisation of cable television network will carry with it a large number of benefits for every stakeholder.
“The most important benefit flows to the common man, who is the most important stakeholder. Digitisation will enable the consumer to exercise a la carte selection of channels, get better picture quality, access to value added services like video on demand,” she said.
For the broadcasters and cable operators, Soni said, the system will ensure transparency, fairness and allow complete addressability, resulting in increase in revenue and reducing their dependence on TRPs as also advertising revenue.
“We hope that this will lead to better and more meaningful content,” she said. Similarly, the government will also stand to gain because addressability will lead to the reporting of correct subscriber base and will enable collection of proper taxes. Thus the government revenues will avoid all revenue leakage,” she said.