In some relief for cable TV households in Chennai, which is in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the Madras High Court has ordered a deadline extension for digital cable TV. Digitalization of cable TV was made compulsory by the Indian government in the country’s metro cities. Cable TV operators have said that due to a shortage of set-top boxes, they need an extension of the deadline in Chennai.
The government has extended the date to implement the Digital Addressable System in Chennai to November 5, 2012 . The interim order was passed by Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar, based on a written petition by the president of the Chennai Metro Cable TV Operators’ Association, Johnson D Kennedy.
November 5, 2012, has been set as the date to get the Centre’s reply, and for them to produce relevant records. Earlier the implementation of DAS was fixed for October 31, 2012. The petitioner said that after the regulation directed the implementation of DAS, the deadline has been extended twice, and one of the major reasons for this was the absence of set-top boxes.
In the month of January, 2012, a Bill was passed by the Parliament stating that Indian metros had to have digital cable TV. In response the TV Operators association had written to the centre saying that there was just 25 percent penetration of digital set top boxes in Chennai. This means that about 75 percent of the households in the city still need set top boxes. This percent amount to 20 lakh households.
