Digitisation: Chennai may miss deadline

With less than two weeks left for the mandatory switch of cable television to digital from analogue signals in four metros, the progress in the installation of set-top boxes in Chennai for the transition continues to be slow. Fresh data released by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry on Friday showed that Chennai has achieved only 60 per cent cable digitisation so far.

The figure goes up to 85 per cent in Chennai if the progress made by Direct-To-Home (DTH) is also taken into account.

Cable services in Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai are slated to go completely digital by November 1 as per the deadline set by the government.

The progress in installation of set-top boxes in Chennai however continues to be a matter of concern, raising doubts over whether the city would be able to meet the October 31 deadline. Data released by the I&B Ministry on October 10 showed that Chennai had achieved 59 per cent digitization. In the past nine days, the city has managed to increase the coverage by just one per cent.

Meanwhile, in Delhi, the digitisation percentage of cable television is 74 per cent and with DTH it stands at 81 per cent. Mumbai continues to lead with nearly 100 per cent digitisation, followed by Kolkata at 78 per cent. With DTH, the percentage of digitisation in Kolkata goes up to 81 per cent.

Taking all the four metros together, the ministry said 81 per cent of cable television digitisation has been achieved so far, with the digitisation rising to 87 percent with DTH.

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