Cable TV digital conversion passes 90% in India

India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has released minutes of the 14th Meeting of the country’s Task Force on Implementation of Digital Addressable System In Cable TV Network In Phase III and IV. The meeting was held on February 16th, 2016.

At the meeting, the Joint secretary gave an overview of progress on cable TV digitisation.

The percentage of homes converted has increased from 76.45% at the end of 2015 to 90.44% on February 15th. Over the same period, the number of deployed set-top boxes increased from 6.91 million to 12.43 million.

Nineteen cases have been filed in various courts in the country for the extension of the cut-off date for phase III. The Ministry is contesting all cases.

An Indian Conditional access system has been developed by DeitY. The CA sytem will be initially available to indigenous set-top box (STB) manufacturers for 3 years at a nominal fee of $0.5 per STB. Twelve MSOs have reportedly deployed it in their headends.

The minutes also contain reports on the availability and production of STBs across India.