TV channels to switch off analogue in India in November

Broadcasters in India are gearing up to migrating to complete digital output in November, with analogue signal in some parts of India being phased out.

Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai will be the first four metros to switch off the analogue beams of Indian TV channels under the government’s digitisation plans. There are talks of removing analogue channels from set top boxes in genre order.

A source told IndianTelevision, “We discussed about how to make digitisation a reality this time. One of the ideas discussed was removing channels genre-wise before 1 November.”

“This will push consumers to buy STBs. The start would be in some genre, followed by others in succession. This way the broadcaster will also not feel that it is being punished unfairly,” the source said.

I&B Ministry officials held a meeting earlier this week with representatives of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) and stressed that digital STBs must be in place in every cable home by 31st October.