{"id":85684,"date":"2010-12-13T22:33:31","date_gmt":"2010-12-13T14:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/broadcast-sector-leaders-urge-india-to-speed-up-digitalization-adopt-trai-investment-strategy\/"},"modified":"2010-12-13T22:33:31","modified_gmt":"2010-12-13T14:33:31","slug":"broadcast-sector-leaders-urge-india-to-speed-up-digitalization-adopt-trai-investment-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/broadcast-sector-leaders-urge-india-to-speed-up-digitalization-adopt-trai-investment-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Broadcast Sector Leaders Urge India to Speed Up Digitalization, Adopt TRAI Investment Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"

[12-13-10] Asian broadcast industry leaders have agreed on proposals to urge India\u2019s government to speed up the process of digitalizing the country\u2019s pay-TV industry, the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia <\/strong>(CASBAA) announced Dec. 10.
\n    The proposal, issued by a joint coalition comprised of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation <\/strong>(IBF), MSO Alliance, News Broadcasters Association<\/strong>, DTH Association of India, IPTV India Forum, Cable Operators Federation of India<\/strong> (COFI) and CASBAA, suggests that the Indian government address digitalization, including broadband deployments in order to enhance transparency, ensure revenue flows, provide a basis for expanded consumer choice, increase the attractiveness of television to advertisers, and enhance the government\u2019s ability to collect taxes.
\n    Speaking at the Addressable India 2010 convention in New Dehli, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India<\/strong> (TRAI) Chairman J.S. Sarma agreed with the coalition\u2019s proposal and said that TRAI itself was \u201cin a hurry\u201d to shorten the digitalization timeframe. However, Sarma said the TRAI feels that regional industry leaders have pronounced differences in views in particular about revenue flows.  \u201cWe notice that each level of the industry \u2014 content suppliers, MSOs, last-mile operators \u2014 believes it is being robbed of its fair share. The transparency brought by digitalization would help reconcile competition and conflicting interests,\u201d said Sarma. 
\n    Sarma also announced a proposed $13.3 billion investment by the Indian government to establish a nationwide fiber-optic network which could provide a backbone for digitalization by 2013. \u201cThe private sector should continue to provide last-mile consumer service. Tax incentives will help the industry make the huge investments necessary,\u201d he said. 
\n    Also speaking at the event, Indian Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Raghu Menon, suggested a more cautious approach, with 2017 possibly a more reasonable timeframe for full cable digitalization in India. \u201cThis is a complex exercise, and we need to be practical. The ministry will consider other reforms, including pressing for changes in foreign investment caps, as proposed by TRAI,\u201d he said. 
\n    The coalition of industry associations also proposed that the Indian government reduce its regulatory controls and let consumers decide how to develop India\u2019s DTH growth. \u201cThere is a broad consensus among broadcasters. All sectors concur that full digitalization needs to come to India \u2014 and quickly. Where there is a real divergence of views is on the role of government, whether it needs to provide a guiding hand or just reduce controls and get out of the way,\u201d CASBAA CEO Simon Twiston-Davies said in a statement.<\/p>\n

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[12-13-10] Asian broadcast industry leaders have agreed on proposals to urge India\u2019s government to speed up the process of digitalizing the country\u2019s pay-TV industry, the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) announced Dec. 10.     The proposal, issued by a joint coalition comprised of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), MSO Alliance, News Broadcasters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85684"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85684\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}