Around 10-12 lakh subscribers of Hathway, the city’s biggest MSO which serves 65% of cable TV users, had to content without television while 6.8 lakh customers of Digi Cable were affected. Subscribers of Citi Cable and CTV services, the two other operators, were also affected. Rough estimates suggest that more than 25 lakh households in Hyderabad use cable TV.
An MSO receives transmission from channel broadcasters (television networks) and extends it to local cable operators (LCO). The LCOs provide connectivity to homes. Of the total number of cable TV users in the city, nearly 35% have already gone digital before the deadline. The remaining 65% that has failed to install the STB, either owing to lack of awareness or short supply of the device, were left without reception on Monday.
A senior official from Hathway said that their customers in some areas of Medak district like Sangareddy too faced a blackout besides those within Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation limits. Cable operators get frantic calls
“We have acted as per the Centre’s deadline. The connections will not be restored until there is a directive from the authorities or the court on the matter,” said the official adding that they are prepared with sufficient number of STBs to support their customers. So far, only eight lakh Hathway customers (of the total 18 lakh) have gone digital, the official informed.
The number of STB users of Digi Cable too is an abysmal 1.25 lakh. The operator has eight lakh subscribers in the city. “The services of the remaining viewers have been disrupted,” confirmed Imtiaz Ahmed, vice- president, South Operators for Digi Cable. MSOs also told INN that they were forced to comply with the Centre’s directive as some broadcasters (television channel networks) had stopped transmission during morning hours, indicating that the Centre was in no mood to relent.
Predictably, many people were found frantically calling their cable operators all through the day in the hope of getting their connections restored. Their pleas failed to yield any result with the operators insisting on the need for installing STB. “We thought the deadline was not implemented as television signals were available till 11 am. But after that, it was withdrawn. We eventually purchased a box from our cable operator,” said KNaveen.
While the rising demand for the box resulted in a shortage of stocks among cable operators, it saw brisk business in the ‘grey markets’ of Koti. “We sold 400 boxes in the last four days but we are out of stock now. We hope we will be able to replenish it from the service operators” said Narender Goud, a cable operator from Habsiguda.
District joint collector E Sreedhar, nodal officer overseeing the implementation, said “We have repeatedly conveyed to the Centre that there is problem with the implementation. But we are yet to receive a reply.” The JC also wrote to the Centre seeking the extension of deadline by a month though the chief minister’s Sunday missive asking for a similar extension evoked no response from the Union government.
Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam are two cities among the 38 cities in the country with a population of more than 10 lakh that were selected for the second phase implementation of Digital Addressable Cable Systems. March 31 was the deadline set by ministry of information and broadcasting for the STB implementation.
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