New Delhi: Claiming that it would be tough to achieve complete migration of broadcast services from analogue to digital system by 2013 as recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the government today said the needs of stakeholders must be protected, reports PTI.
“This migration will be a complex exercise. It also requires huge amount of investment from various stakeholders.
All their needs must be protected. Issues like procuring set-top boxes on a huge scale will also have to be considered,” information & broadcasting secretary Raghu Menon said.
He was addressing a seminar ‘Digital visions at addressable India’ organised by the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA).
On the recommendations of TRAI concerning complete digitisation by 2013, he said based on the ministry's interaction with the industry the sunset date of achieving this migration by 2013 seems tough.
“Attempting to achieving this (switch over from analogue to digital) seems tough by 2013 and it should be aligned with the government road map... in which the target is 2017”, Mr Menon said.
He added that national broadcaster Prasar Bharti was on the path of digitising its operations and that the 2013 dateline set for the 1st phase also seemed tough.
“The government is spending Rs152 crore for the 1st phase of digitisation of Prasar Bharti's broadcast services.
However the dateline for this also seems tough to achieve,” Mr Menon said.
Commenting on direct-to-home services, he said it was on a “high growth path” and that it had many miles to go as it had only touched 23 million households of the 230 million TV viewers in the country.
Mr Menon also said that media and TV entertainment industry had witnessed a robust growth despite the global financial meltdown.
“This sector was unaffected by the financial meltdown as it witnessed a growth of 11.8% during this period,” the I&B secretary said.
Mr Menon said the government was keen to take the policy on introduction of mobile TV services forward.
“A committee was formed to look into this issue and give its recommendations. It has done so and we want to take this ahead. Several issues including its spectrum will also have to be looked into,” Mr Menon said.
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