The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has stated that 85% of Cable TV digitization has been achieved in four metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, up from 77% last month. This announcement was made after a review of the digitization progress by the ministry in the four metros, where digitization of cable TV has been made mandatory by October 31, 2012. Methodology: The ministry stated that the review was done based on the 2011 Census data, released by Office of Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India and the data received from DTH operators regarding the number of DTH subscribers present in these four metros as well as data data received from Multi System Operators (MSO). Citing Census 2011 data, I&B ministry states that there are 83 lakh TV households in these metros. Note that the ministry hasn’t taken DTH subscribers into account during this calculation. It noted that if DTH subscribers, which currently accounts to 27.52 lakh subscribers in these four metros, are taken into account, the percentage of digitization goes up to 90%. This is a 6% increase from 84% digitization achieved last month. The ministry noted that in the last few days, the average number of STBs installed has jumped to almost 50,000 boxes per day, and as per the data provided by DTH operators, daily installation of DTH connections in the 4 metro cities has gone up to 8,000 Boxes per day from an average of about 2,000 Boxes a few weeks back, with just two days remaining for the Oct 31 deadline. Metro-wise Breakdown: Among the four metros, Mumbai has…
