If you don’t install a set top box at your house by March 31, you will have to forgo watching your favourite TV programmes. The Information and Broadcasting Department has made installation of set top boxes mandatory.
At a seminar on ‘Digital Addressable Cable TV System-A New Era’ organised by the Broadcast Engineers Society of India on Monday, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Technical Adviser Yogendra Pal said, “Digitisation is necessary for regulation and advisability of problems that are plaguing the cable TV sector.”
Pal said the number of cable TV subscribers has been increasing by 40 per cent every year in the last 17 years and satellite television channels have increased from 136 in 2005 to 550 till date. The distribution sector now comprises 6,000 multi system operators, 60,000 local cable operators, seven DTH/satellite TV operators and several IPTV service providers.
Digitisation, which is being implemented across the country, will be mandatory in Bangalore and Mysore from April 1.