subject: Transformation From Analog To Digital Cable Television [print this page] Television in India is on the threshold of a major transformation as the country embarks on an ambitious project to completely replace the current analog cable networks with a digital addressable system.The Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Actof 2011 made it mandatory for analog Cable TV networks in India to switch over to a newDigital Addressable System(DAS) by December 2014. As per theconsultation paperissued by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India(TRAI)in 2011, the shift to DAS will take place in a phased manner across the country. The four major metro areas of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai were expected to switch over by 30th June 2012 but it is supposed to be covered this November.
Digitization and digital libraries are the present buzz words in the LIS profession in India. It is the in thing of today just as thirty years ago all librarians only spoke of automating the library activities. This paper will describe some major digital library initiatives in India in different LIS sectors. The Digital divide within the LIS scenario due to diverse situations will be highlighted in the paper. Most of the present initiatives are in the area of Science and Technology, in the Government sector, and in Institutions
of advanced research. Since there is no holistic policy regarding digital content generation, management of digital libraries, standards and services, most of these efforts are isolated ventures generally restricted only to the needs of a special group of users? As most of them are started by getting a one-time grant without a follow up plan, sustainability is always in doubt. Also preservation of digital data is often not focused with the seriousness that it deserves.
However,advocates of digitizationsee it as revolutionary change that is long overdue in Indian television. They argue that the shift to DAS however expensive, confusing and cumbersome is not only essential but inevitable because what constitutes television today is very different from what it was when Doordarshan, the government-sponsored network, was the only broadcasting service in India till the 1990s. Although Doordarshan is still the only terrestrial broadcaster in the country, since the early 1990s several commercial television channels like CNN, MTV, BBC and later Indian language channels such as ZEE TV,SUN TVandETV became available on local cable networks in India. Television viewers in many cities, towns and villages were willing to pay a local cable operator known as the cable-wallah anything from 40-100 rupees per month for a variety of programming in English, Hindi and other Indian languages. For much of the paying audiences in India, cable television and not broadcasting soon became the dominant mode for the delivery of programming content. The local cable-wallah not only controlled the supply of television content into the viewers homes but also dictated which channel were part of the bundle and where each channel would be located in the programming line-up.
As the many limitations of the cable model have led consumers to look for alternative television delivery systems, DTH has emerged as a very successful alternative to cable in many rural and urban areas in India. In recent months, DTH providers likeDISH,VideoconandTata Skyhave also been quick to capitalize on the seemingly chaotic transformation to digital in the cable industry, and have been running ads in newspapers inviting cable subscribers to switch to DTH, and providing incentives to owners of LCO in the cable industry to switch their allegiance to a more stable DTH industry. Only time will tell if the shift to the new digital addressable system will be a revolutionary transformation in Indian television as its proponents claim, or a fantasy that critics argue the cable industry will be chasing in futility for years to come.
