Speaking exclusive to IndianMediaBook about the status of DAS Phase III, Jagdish Kumar, MD and CEO, Hathway said “As per the ministry Phase III has completed 95 per cent across India. But there are certain areas where we are facing concerns. At Hathway our target was to get 3 million, but unfortunately we have just got 1.5 million and still we have 1.5 million to go.”
After successful implementation in phase I and II, cable TV industry is facing many challenges in completion of phase III. The deadline was December 2015, but at present, the implementation has been stayed for varying periods across Phase III markets of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Odisha, Sikkim, Telengana apart from Tamil Nadu where digital addressable system (DAS) implementation has been challenged since Phase I rollout.
“Basically there are two areas of concern, firstly the uncertainty of extension of stay from courts. But we hope as the Supreme Court has involved in this process, by April that should end. Secondly, lot of broadcasters are still delivering analogue signals. That has to be stopped completely and broadcasters need to understand that to achieve 100 per cent digitisation it’s very important to switch of the analogue signals”, added Kumar.
Cable TV operators are also facing lots of obstacles in deploying boxes. Kumar informed that LCOs are also getting benefited with digitisation and after digitisation they have witnessed hike in revenue from subscribers.
It is often said that paying capacity in phase III areas is not high. Subscribers are not capable to pay. But according to Kumar in phase III there are some regions such as Gurgaon and Noida, where people can afford and ready to pay. But at the same time, there are certain areas where paying capacity of subscribers is not high. Hence, cable TV service providers are not seeking higher revenues and have packages which suits such subscribers.
Sharing his thoughts on government’s inter-portable STBs initiative, Kumar said, “Portal STBs is a good initiative, but the outcome will all depends on implementations. Phase III is about to complete, so first of all it’s very important to think about 150 million STBs, which have been installed already. Boxes also differentiate lots of consumptions. If you have single CAS systems and if it is hacked, then you will have problem. We spend lot of money in security of our content.”
Technology is evolving at faster pace and is the time of rise of OTT platforms. Broadcasters and major content providers are coming with their own OTT platforms.
“OTT is just been an additional screen. In developed markets, people will continue to complement TV watching with OTT watching. People will use OTT service to search or to seek recommendations or to find more information about programming, but at the end TV viewing space will remain as it is”, expressed Kumar.
The government has set a timeline to complete the digitisation in four phases. Phases I and II covering metros and 38 cities are already over. The Phase III deadline (all urban areas) was 31 December, 2015 and the Phase IV deadline (the rest of India) is 31 December, 2016.
“I think by December 2016 we should be able to complete the cable TV digitisation but the two way broadband digitisation will take some time,” concluded Kumar.
Jagdish Kumar, MD and CEO, Hathway shared his views exclusively with IndianMediaBook at Casbaa India Forum 2016
