With speculations rife that the Government could look at extending the deadline for the first phase of digitalisation to kick in, the News Broadcasters Association's Board swung into action on Wednesday.
The NBA issued a statement saying it believed the Government would remain firm and usher in Digital Addressable System (DAS) as planned from July 1.
“It has been brought to the NBA Board's notice about certain rumours that seemed to suggest that there may be an extension of the implementation date of DAS.
The NBA, however, believes that the Government would continue with its determination and assurance that the date will be adhered to,” the association of new broadcasters said, even as it urged the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to stick to the schedule.
Early this week Essel Group Chairman, Mr Subhash Chandra, had written to the I&B Ministry stating that extending DAS deadline could be detrimental to the sector. In his letter he said, “It would send a wrong signal to the stakeholders as well as investors as far as the policy implementation is concerned.”
Mr Chandra's contention was that extending the deadline would act as a disincentive for service providers that have committed their investments in digital infrastructure and the momentum of deployment of set-top boxes would be severely impacted.