| I&B Minister Ambika Soni resigns | ||
|
Insearchindia.com Team | ||
|
(28
October
2012 2.23 pm) | ||
 NEW
DELHI: Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni submitted
her resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday,
a day before the cabinet reshuffle.
Soni's
resignation comes just four days before the sunset date for
analogue cable television in the four metros of Mumbai, Delhi,
Chennai and Kolkata. Cable TV delivery in the four metros
will mandatorily have to be via digital set-top boxes (STBs)
from 1 November.
She has served as Indian Youth Congress president during emergency in 1975, and became a member of the Rajya Sabha for the first time in March 1976. She also served as general secretary of the Congress from 1999 to 2006. |
||
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Cable ops
seek digitisation extension, Bombay HC to hear plea on 29 Oct
Insearchindia.com
Team
(28 October
2012 2:20 pm)
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: Just three days before the four metros
move towards digital cable, a clutch of cable operators will have their
petition heard in the Bombay High Court on 29 October seeking extension on the
ground that they need more time to get their networks up and running.
They will argue that digital set-top boxes (STBs) have not
reached a large number of consumer homes and they are yet to get the channels
from broadcasters for carrying on their cable networks for their subscribers to
watch.
“We will seek for more time as 1 November is too short a
period to sort out a myriad of issues. The STB penetration is not what the
government is stating. We haven’t got the decoders from broadcasters. How can
we run our businesses? There should be an extension of the digitisation
deadline,” said Kuldeep Puri, a promoter of Hathway Bhawani Cabletel &
Datacom.
Among the petitioners are the Puri brothers and Paresh
Thakkar, both associated with Hathway Cable & Datacom. The operators are
from the eastern suburbs of Mumbai like Chembur, Ghatkopar and Govandi.
“We have signed with IndiaCast and have finalised terms with
OneAlliance and Media Pro Enterprise India. But the decoders have not reached
us,” said Kuldeep Puri.
The petitioners want time so that new entrants would be
given a fair opportunity to set up their independent ventures.
The Puri brothers are planning to set up an independent
operation outside their joint venture with Hathway Cable & Datacom. They
will have Ericsson as their digital head-end while Sumavision Technologies will
provide the encryption solution and Skywalk be the STB supplier. They own 12
per cent stake in Hathway Bhawani Cabletel & Datacom, according to data
available till 30 September 2012.
“Our joint venture arrangement continues. Hathway has also
agreed that we can go ahead and independently run our operations to tap other
subscribers,” said Kuldeep Puri.
The government has claimed that the average percentage in
the four metros of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai had touched 85 per cent
and goes up to 90 per cent if direct-to-home (DTH) is taken into consideration.
Mumbai, according to the government, has achieved nearly 100 per cent
digitisation. These figures have been hotly contested by the cable operators.
Other stakeholders also find it difficult to believe the government figures,
though they are not open about it.
Thakkar has said that television sets going blank from 1
November may result in a law and order problem and also create a hazard for the
operators.
The petition also says that there is still no clear picture
on the monthly subscription bill of cable TV subscribers after the switch over
to digital reception of cable television.
The government has mandated compulsory switch over to
digital delivery of cable television from 1 November in the four metros of
Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata.
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