Digitization Phase II

Television sets without set top boxes (STBs) would go blank from Monday in 38 cities which are included in the second phase of digitization warned the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) even as government claimed 67% households had installed STBs in these places.
In a statement IBF said that TV broadcasters would switch off analog signals from midnight on Sunday. At its recent meeting held on March 19, the IBF board stressed that such a move was necessary to `smoothen the transition from analogue to digital cable TV.’’
The 38 cities in 14 states include Agra, Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Amritsar, Aurangabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Howrah, Hyderabad, Indore, Jabalpur, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kalyan-Dombivli, Kanpur, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Meerut, Mysore, Nagpur, Nasik, Navi Mumbai, Patna, PimpriChinchwad, Pune, Rajkot, Ranchi, Sholapur, Srinagar, Surat, Thane, Vadodara, Varanasi and Visakhapatnam.
In a separate statement, the I&B ministry said minister Manish Tewari has been reviewing the progress of phase II on a daily basis and as per the latest data 67% of the target had been achieved in the 38 cities. Direct-to-Home operators and MSOs have installed a total of 108 lakhs STBs in Phase-II cities against the target of 1.60 crore, the ministry said.
Hyderabad, Amritsar, Chandigarh and Allahabad have achieved nearly 100% digitization while 75% digitisation had been achieved in Jodhpur, Thane, Aurangabad, Jaipur, Pune, Faridabad, Nashik, and Ghaziabad. 28 cities had achieved 50% digitization.
IBF president Man Jit Singh said, `IBF and its members are committed to the successful implementation of digitization in India. Our awareness campaign has received a very good response. We are confident that the successful implementation of phase-II will tremendously improve the quality of television content and consequent viewership in the country.’’
The I&B ministry also said it had conducted a second round of meeting with nodal officers of 38 cities on March 8 to ascertain preparedness in these cities.
The ministry has brought out a print advertisement in all 38 cities in the respective regional languages and a SMS campaign and spots on TV channels have also been used to spread awareness.