High Court stays cable TV changeover by a day

The High Court on Thursday passed an interim order to prevent authorities from disconnecting existing cable TV analog connections till April 1. 

Hearing to the Karnataka Cable TV Operators Association petition, Justice S Abdul Nazeer passed the order and issued notices to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The analog connections were to be disconnected on March 31 following the compulsory digitisation of cable TV networks using set-top boxes. In their petition, however, the operators claimed that there were not enough set-top boxes to cater for Bangalore’s population.

Another point of contention between the cable operators and multi-service providers concerns the revenue-sharing ratio, ever since the compulsory digitisation rule came into existence.

The next hearing will be held on Monday when the court is also expected to take up the petition filed by the Mysore City Cable TV Operators who have sought an extension of the March 31 deadline to instal set-top boxes.