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Journalism of Courage
The governments move to ensure that all cable service providers in the four metros shift from analogue to digital signals today has met with severe opposition,most recently from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The West Bengal chief minister,who has called the move high-handed,is joined by local cable operators,the Tamil Nadu government and several political parties,including the Shiv Sena,in protesting digitisation. The Madras high court has extended the digitisation deadline till November 5. But digitisation will benefit the very consumers that Banerjee and others claim to speak for.
While it is true that the set-top boxes that customers are required to instal for the switch will impose a cost on them,the fact is that broadcast analogue technology is outdated. Digital signals will mean better transmission and will provide customers more choice. An analogue system limits the number of channels cable operators are able to provide to about 100. With better technology,cable operators will be able to offer up to 1,000 channels at least 500 in the short term. The government also argues that customers will be able to pay for only what they want to watch,instead of being saddled with content they do not intend to consume. Viewers will get a minimum of 100 free-to-air channels at a maximum price of Rs 100 and Trai has also mandated that broadcasters make their channels available a la carte,rather than the packages broadcasters currently prefer. So while the overall costs for consumers may not come down,they will have more control over the content they pay for.
Digitisation also means greater transparency,both operators and broadcasters can get more accurate figures of just how many people watch what on TV. Broadcasters will be able to better track consumer numbers as local cable operators are said to under-report households accessing cable services to avoid passing on fees and paying taxes. A shift to digital technology for Indias 150 million households with TVs is inevitable. After numerous postponements,digitisation should continue as planned in the four metros.
