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The West Bengal Government on Friday said that it will appeal to the Centre for extension of the digitisation deadline in Kolkata from October 31.
According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority’s guidelines, cable TV-enabled households across the four metros – Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai - need to install set-top boxes to enable digital signal streaming and to continue viewing cable television broadcasts after the mandated deadline of October 31.
The decision to re-appeal to the Centre was taken following a meeting between the State Urban Development Minister Firhad (Bobby) Hakim and the multiple system operators (MSOs) of the city.
Law and order trouble
“We have decided to appeal to the Centre to extend the digitisation deadline,” Hakim told reporters at Writers’ Building after the meeting.
According to him, the State Government was anticipating law and order problems if there is a sudden blackout of television sets across the city which are yet to convert from the analogue to the digital network. An earlier appeal by the State to the Centre on September 29 had failed to yield any results.
Kolkata scenario
According to market sources, over 60 per cent of the total households have adhered to the mandatory digitisation norms.
Estimates suggest that there are nearly 3.1 million (30 lakh) households in Kolkata, of which 61 per cent (20 lakh homes) own television sets.
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