Cable TV to be digitized in 221 Odisha towns by year-end

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Oct 1:

Digital cable TV would be made mandatory in 221 Odisha towns spread across the 30 districts in the state in the third phase of the cable TV digitization process.

Roughly a million customers from Odisha stand to benefit from the third phase digitization.

“Cable Television Network (Regulation) Amendment Act, 2011 makes it mandatory for all cable TV operators to go for digitization. We intend to include 221 Odisha towns from all the districts of Odisha under the digitization process and plan to complete the task by December 31, 2015,” said R Jaya, Joint Secretary in Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) addressing a workshop in the city yesterday.

As per the act, cable TV digitization is being carried out in four phases across India. While the four metro cities were covered under the first phase, 38 important Tier-2 cities were covered in the second phase. The third phase intends to cover all the urban areas of the country.

Addressing the conference, adviser of the ministry Yogendra Pal briefed the audience on the Indian Television industry and the digitization process.

“Digitization would offer the customer the choice to watch channels as per their preference. This would also provide better quality audio and video. Besides, it would facilitate broadband connectivity and bring transparency in service tax collection,” said Pal.