Digital Switch Over in India is progressing well

Phase III cable TV analogue-to-digital conversion process is going well. According to the Indian Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) , 90.44 per cent of homes are now converted.

The Ministry says up to now cable MSOs and local distributors have supplied more than 20 million addressable set-top boxes.

However, there are some regions having obtained local government permissions to delay the switchover. Some 685 such areas are involved in delays although 450 of these are villages with fewer than 1000 homes. 226 areas are, in essence, small towns and have between 1000-5000 homes.

The Ministry is also getting tough with the local and some regional governments and is applying for High Court and Supreme Court actions to transfer all these local permissions to the higher Court for hearing, and to cancel the delaying permissions.