By the end of the year, the Indian cabinet is likely to approve of a Headend In The Sky (HITS) which will allow Cable TV operators to downlink more signals from the satellite and distribute them through their networks more effectively. The Information and Broadcasting minister Ambika Soni announced this and other critical changes to the Indian television and distribution arena in an interactive session on government regulation of electronic and print media organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, reports Samay Live. Soni said that analogue cable TV operators must convert their network entirely to digital, calling for a "sunset hour" for complete digitisation but did not offer a deadline. Whereas in 2007, as some may remember, the secretary for I&B then, Asha Swarup, announced (via ContentSutra) that there would be no such fixed date and that national digitization had to be voluntary. A look at some of the issues Soni has to look into: Technology Investment, Churn, Upgrade Or Die The arrival of HITS would mean cable networks would be able to carry more channels (compared to the 60-100 currently offered) to homes across the country. How it would work is that the cable operators invest in equipment that downlinks the signals to their centres, and then transmit them to homes where the signals will be received by a set top box, again an investment that the operator needs to incur; the subscriber has to pay around Rs. 600-1000. This is similar to the price of the set top box…
