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Consumers unaware of content price for digital cable

Indiantelevision.com Team

(30 October 2012 12:50 pm)

NEW DELHI: Consumer organisations are wanting the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to spell out in clear terms what they would have to pay for the content they take after digitisation of cable TV.

VOICE representative Hemant Upadhyaya has pointed out that no agreements are being signed by the local cable operators (LCOs) when they install digital set top boxes (STBs).

At the meeting of the Task Force on Digitisation, it has also been pointed out that LCOs in different areas are not charging the rate of Rs 799 fixed for STBs.

It was stated that under the Interconnect Agreement, the number of subscribers at the beginning and end of the month have to be mentioned clearly, and this will not happen if there is no agreement between the LCO and the consumer.

On behalf of the Ministry, it was stated that since the billing will only come by 30 November, a method would be worked out.

When it was stated that the billing would be manual, Cable Operators Federation of India President Roop Sharma said that this defeated the very objective of transparency.

I&B Joint Secretary (Broadcasting) Supriya Sahu and Yogendra Pal who is the Cable Advisor were present on behalf of the government, it has been learnt.