Why is Indian government making set top box compulsory?

Kaustubh Katdare · 2013-02-18T17:41:11+00:00

I might be ignorant, but I've not found a convincing reason the Government of India is making it mandatory for almost everyone to opt out of cable connections for the set top boxes? Earlier, it was only made mandatory in the Metro cities and now all the Tire II cities are being targeted as well. Does anyone know why is set top box being made compulsory in India?

Why is Indian government making set top box compulsory?

Kaustubh Katdare

Administrator

Updated: Oct 26, 2024

Views: 2.4K

I might be ignorant, but I've not found a convincing reason the Government of India is making it mandatory for almost everyone to opt out of cable connections for the set top boxes? Earlier, it was only made mandatory in the Metro cities and now all the Tire II cities are being targeted as well.

Does anyone know why is set top box being made compulsory in India?

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max0077

Member • Feb 18, 2013

The_Big_K
I might be ignorant, but I've not found a convincing reason the Government of India is making it mandatory for almost everyone to opt out of cable connections for the set top boxes? Earlier, it was only made mandatory in the Metro cities and now all the Tire II cities are being targeted as well.

Does anyone know why is set top box being made compulsory in India?
you'll be laughing that my cablewala answered this question to me when i asked him the same. He said previously the cable network persons don't have to pay to broadcasters so broadcasters have to manage this loss through advertisements ,now by digitization cable network must have to share revenues with broadcasters and government too..so the conclusion(mine) is that ,it's the govt. way to make some more money..hehe..😉

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Kaustubh Katdare

Administrator • Feb 18, 2013

Well, maybe he's right. The government must be working to make sure that their pockets are deep enough so that they can win the next election on the basis of money. Expect the economically backward classes to get Rs. 5000 - Rs. 10,000 per vote in 2014. The ruling party might just be rising the prices of everything with elections in mind. They, for sure, know how to fill their own pockets from everything.

I was wondering if there's a technical / economical reason associated with the move. But it doesn't seem so.

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Pensu

Member • Feb 19, 2013

Well, I have always believed the reason behind making "anything" compulsory is because government want to steal money from public. I dont think we need to discuss about how corrupt our politicians are! Think about how many millions of set-top box will be sold if this rule is mandatory throughout India. And who will get the profit? Manufacturers and the people whom they have paid to make this rule!

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rina j. kadam

Member • Mar 2, 2013

i also agree with that as well. but how long we will just discuss about this seviere topics and leave them after some time. government do not make the society , the
society makes the government more powerful to take decisions. so somewhere it is our fault also that we only blame the system but we need to change the system .
i know it is easy to say and so much difficult to apply, but atleast we all should try from ourside not just to talk about it ,regret and ignore problems.

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Abhishek Rawal

Member • Mar 2, 2013

rina j. kadam
government do not make the society , the
society makes the government more powerful to take decisions. so somewhere it is our fault also that we only blame the system but we need to change the system .
i know it is easy to say and so much difficult to apply, but atleast we all should try from ourside not just to talk about it ,regret and ignore problems.
To change the system - You have to be part of the system.
Are you ready to join politics ? -- I don't know, Maybe - Maybe not.
But what I know is, almost all youngsters wanna change this society but don't wanna join politics.
That shit is like : I wanna make it in Forbes magazine but I ain't finna work hard.
Ridiculous 😁

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Kaustubh Katdare

Administrator • Mar 12, 2013

To change the system - you may not be the part of the system. For example : Freedom fighters of India changed the British rule without being a part of it.

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Abhishek Rawal

Member • Mar 12, 2013

The_Big_K
To change the system - you may not be the part of the system. For example : Freedom fighters of India changed the British rule without being a part of it.
By the way, Freedom fighters do tried to give us freedom ...
But let me tell,
During Second world war when British forces lost too much of resources,they had no option other than leaving India.
We didn't earned freedom, they gave us !
Ugly truth 👀

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Anand Tamariya

Member • Mar 15, 2013

During Second world war when British forces lost too much of resources,they had no option other than leaving India.
Makes me wonder how they kept Hong Kong till 1997!!

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Abhishek Rawal

Member • Mar 15, 2013

Anand Tamariya
Makes me wonder how they kept Hong Kong till 1997!!
Comparing Hong kong with India is certainly not smart ! 😀

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Anand Tamariya

Member • Mar 15, 2013

Comparing Hong kong with India is certainly not smart !
My comment wasn't supposed to be smart, just logical!

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Anand Tamariya

Member • Mar 15, 2013

Does anyone know why is set top box being made compulsory in India?
The whole digitization process is a brainchild of media industry. The idea is to prevent revenue leakage. This includes Full HD as well. Whole world knows Full HD is 1080p resolution. But what is less known is that the specs also include HDCP which makes content copying impossible on an HD compatible device.

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Abhishek Rawal

Member • Mar 15, 2013

Anand Tamariya
what is less known is that the specs also include HDCP which makes content copying impossible on an HD compatible device.
Correct! But Master key for HDCP was leaked & Intel was like "Whoa what the fuck!"

The Master key was easily available for hours in a website & almost all pirates & private torrent tracker owners/uploaders are using it for All 1080p episodes & Movies.

By the way,You should have HDCP Compliant monitor/TV for such kinda Anti-piracy act.
If TV is not HDCP compliant,you won't be able to bypass HDCP & thus there won't be any output.

By the way I wonder,How many Indians have HDCP compliant TV ?

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Anand Tamariya

Member • Mar 16, 2013

By the way I wonder,How many Indians have HDCP compliant TV ?
If you have any Full HD compliant device, it's already HDCP compliant - that's part of the specs.

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Prasad Ajinkya

Member • Mar 17, 2013
Multiple reasons -
- Stopping of revenue leaks
- Regulating the licensing of content
- Regulating what gets aired (remember Sushma Swaraj and her campaign against FTV? Well now all she needs is one mandate!)
Media is monitored heavily these days 😀 ... even the internet!
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AbhinavS

Member • May 5, 2013

The basic reason being extracting money from each and every user of television who otherwise would steal a connection from the neighbor and never paid for the services. Moreover to destroy completely the hill of corruption piled up by the cable operators by not collecting money from their loved ones and also allowing many television cable connections in one house at the cost of only one connection.

P.S: I am not a cable operator. This post express my opinions. 😛

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oprime

Member • May 14, 2013

Since the cable networks are being digitized now, we need a decoder to decode the digital signals. The set top box houses that decoder.

Also most of the cable operators were under reporting the number of subscribers in their area. With a set top box, they cannot do that anymore.

Digital transmission improves the signal quality. So the consumers get much better picture quality. Even when the signal is not digital, the set top boxes used to clean the analog signal and the output on screen was much better than when the analog signal was fed directly to TV.
I could make this comparison since my area had CAS from 2006. So we had to buy set top boxes then. The picture quality without set top box was horrible. And with set top box, it was crystal clear and I could access around 200-300 channels. Without set top box, your TV can show max 70-80 channels if the signal quality is very good in your area.

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Anil Jain

Member • May 14, 2013

Benefit and reason of forcing digitization are money related but a little different than explained above.

Analogue systems have few limitations.
One big limitation is, it is almost impossible to ascertain how many household consumers are using cable services. The actual number were known only to the local cable operators.

Per TRAI it is mandated that revenues gathered for cable services should be split 45:30:25 among broadcasters, MSOs(Multiple System operator) and LCOs(Local Cable Operator); In last few years if surveys are believed, only around 20 per cent of the generated revenue was declared by cable operators.

So digital system was mandated so that TRAI can generate the revenue as agreed upon.

-CB

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Sahithi Pallavi

Member • Jun 4, 2013

Kaustubh Katdare
Well, maybe he's right. The government must be working to make sure that their pockets are deep enough so that they can win the next election on the basis of money. Expect the economically backward classes to get Rs. 5000 - Rs. 10,000 per vote in 2014. The ruling party might just be rising the prices of everything with elections in mind. They, for sure, know how to fill their own pockets from everything.

I was wondering if there's a technical / economical reason associated with the move. But it doesn't seem so.
Set up boxes are for providing high quality television services.
See, If the no of middlemen and cable operators increases - the strength of the signal may decreases. Avoiding them with DTH services will increase the strength of the signal. And it also increases the no of channels and high definition services.

The move is welcome. But before implementing something we have to make the requirements get ready, and we've to foresee the needs, consequences, requirements etc. But Government is not worried about such.
Government is not worried about -
1. How many Televisions are not capable to accommodate set up boxes first.
2. How many transponders we have to provide services to all over the country? Why to depend on foreign transponders? Don't we have enough time to prepare our transponders first and then to go for DTH? Is DTH a need of hour right now?
3. How many indigenous companies are manufacturing setup boxes? What's the need of encouraging damn chinese set up boxes? (We have already seen blasting of chinese mobiles, why the risk to burn people's televisions)
4. How many poor can spend money again? And plan for subsidy?

Kaustubh Katdare
To change the system - you may not be the part of the system. For example : Freedom fighters of India changed the British rule without being a part of it.
Freedom fighters tried to be the part of the system and they became the part of the system. Many political parties participated in the elections and won seats and been a part of assembly. They helped in not passing many Anti-Indian laws 👍.

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narayana murthy

Member • Aug 27, 2013

in my view it is because all the cables are connected through wires these wires are making lot of mess and lose of signals due to interuption. I think this is the reason why govt came with that rule

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Anshul_007saxena

Member • Dec 7, 2013

1. to have 100 o/o taxes from cable operators
2. to keep an eye on trp ratings & charge advertisement company & channels according to the ratings
3. prevent anlouge radiation pollution
4. prevent anlouge radiation pollution conflicting milltery & defince services
5. preparing market for competition for digital & technological war
6. effecting on share market
7. giving opportunities for private companies & foreign invistors for set top box manufacturing, distributing, importing, & service providers also.
May b more reasons!
yane governmet k paacho ungaliyan ghee mein

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SK NAIR

Member • Jan 21, 2016

What is the Digitalisation of Analogue Cable System Ordinance?

The ordinance, passed by the Cabinet last week, makes mandatory the digitisation of the distribution of TV signals by cable operators. TV signals are distributed to households through various platforms such as cable, direct-to-home (DTH), internet protocol TV (IPTV) and headend-in-the-sky (HITS). Cable is the largest platform, followed by DTH.

Cable TV distribution broadly involves three phases: broadcasters encrypt their signals and transmit them to a satellite; multi-system operators (MSOs) download these signals and pass them on to local cable operators; these LCOs then carry them to consumers through co-axial cables or optical fibres.

DTH eliminates the need of an intermediary between the MSO and the consumer. The consumers have to install a small satellite on their rooftop and can download the signals transmitted by MSOs. A set-top box decrypts the signals and viewers can watch channels of their choice.

DTH signals are transmitted through a wireless technology and the system is digital. IPTV uses broadband and is also digital.

The ordinance mandates that all cable TV households in metros will have to be digitalised by March 2012 and in the rest of the country by December 2014. This will necessitate conversion of analogue systems into digital systems; consumers will have to install a set-top box.

Why digitise everything?

Analogue systems have several limitations. For one thing, it is difficult to ascertain how many households are using cable services. The actual number is known only to the local cable operators who also work as bill collection agents. Telecom regulator TRAI had mandated that revenues gathered by cable operators should be split 45:30:25 among broadcasters, MSOs and LCOs. According to a report by industry lobby FICCI and management consultancy KPMG, in 2010, a total of Rs 19,400 crore was generated through subscription fee paid by consumers but only around 20 per cent of this was declared by cable operators.

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