As a result of the regulation requiring all the Multiple System Operators (MSOs) or otherwise called as “large” cable operators to go digital by 2014, major players from metropolitan cities like Hathaway and DEN are planning to launch HD channels on their platform. As per the new regulation, the cable systems in the metro cities are to go digital by March 2012 and rest of India by the end of 2014.
This could be the biggest competition to DTH operators in India which are currently the only platforms to offer HD services in India. However, owing to a steep entry cost (an HDTV and a HD STB) and high subscription prices of HD channels, the DTH operators have not been able to rope in many subscribers yet. A healthy competition in this field will help in bringing some of these prices down (at least those specific to the operator) and should result in more HD subscribers in the near future.
In addition to HD services, the digitization of the cable system in the country will mean that the MSOs will also be able to offer other value added services like high speed broadband, telephone and on demand video streaming. Digital cable usually has much more bandwidth than DTH platform which is limited by the transponder space in the satellites in space.
[via ET]
