<p>Cable TV operators here on Friday said they will observe a 48-hour blackout to protest the March 31 digitisation deadline and an “unfair” revenue-sharing model under the digital addressable system. <br /><br /></p>.<p>The blackout will last till March 31. The operators are demanding extension of the deadline, a higher revenue share and lower tariffs for consumers. <br /><br />“We are not against digitisation. Our protest is against the package being offered by the multi-system operator (MSO),” said Ashok Pandit, president of Trans Yamuna cable TV operators association. <br /><br />“They are offering us just a 33 percent share, which is unfair and unacceptable.”<br />Pandit, said local cable operators were not taken into confidence when the decision to go digital was taken. <br /><br />“The MSOs took few hand-picked local operators to the government to claim they had taken all of us into confidence,” he said.<br /><br />He added that consumers who were paying just Rs 100 to Rs 150 under the analogue system will now have to pay three or four times more in addition to buying a digital set-top box.<br /><br />Sanjay Sahni, a cable operator from west Delhi’s Rajouri Garden said, “The decision has been imposed on us. The aim of these companies is to monopolise the cable industry.” <br />“We did all the ground work in the 1980s and 1990s when these companies were not interested in this sector. Now that we made it a multi-crore industry, these companies are taking the major revenue share,” he said.</p>
<p>Cable TV operators here on Friday said they will observe a 48-hour blackout to protest the March 31 digitisation deadline and an “unfair” revenue-sharing model under the digital addressable system. <br /><br /></p>.<p>The blackout will last till March 31. The operators are demanding extension of the deadline, a higher revenue share and lower tariffs for consumers. <br /><br />“We are not against digitisation. Our protest is against the package being offered by the multi-system operator (MSO),” said Ashok Pandit, president of Trans Yamuna cable TV operators association. <br /><br />“They are offering us just a 33 percent share, which is unfair and unacceptable.”<br />Pandit, said local cable operators were not taken into confidence when the decision to go digital was taken. <br /><br />“The MSOs took few hand-picked local operators to the government to claim they had taken all of us into confidence,” he said.<br /><br />He added that consumers who were paying just Rs 100 to Rs 150 under the analogue system will now have to pay three or four times more in addition to buying a digital set-top box.<br /><br />Sanjay Sahni, a cable operator from west Delhi’s Rajouri Garden said, “The decision has been imposed on us. The aim of these companies is to monopolise the cable industry.” <br />“We did all the ground work in the 1980s and 1990s when these companies were not interested in this sector. Now that we made it a multi-crore industry, these companies are taking the major revenue share,” he said.</p>