Mumbai Cable TV Companies seek digital delay

Cable operators in Mumbai are seeking court intervention in hope of an extension to the impending deadline for the migration to digital TV for all cable networks in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai.

The Bombay High Court has called on the Ministry for Information and Broadcasting and the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to reply to the petition by 5 June.

“The broadcasters will file their RIOs (reference interconnect offer). The operators need at least 60 days to work out their deals with the broadcasters. They will also have to obtain licence for running their own operations,” an unnamed source is quoted as saying in Indiantelevision.com.

The mandatory deadline for cable digitisation in the four metros is 30 June 2012, ahead of the digitisation of India’s entire cable network infrastructure by the end of 2014.