The Tamil Nadu Government has urged the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry to expedite the issue of ‘Digital Addressable System’ licence to the state-run Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation Ltd.

In the letter to Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting (Independent Charge), the Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa said Arasu Cable has applied for the licence to operate in the Chennai metro area on July 5, 2012, and for the rest of the area on November 11, 2012. But the licence is pending with the Ministry while nine other Multi System Operators in Tamil Nadu, including those who applied after Arasu Cable have been granted DAS licence.

The State Government has repeatedly represented its case to the then Government at the Centre.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had constituted an Inter Ministerial Committee on January 3, 2013 to look into the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on the licensing issue but the Committee is yet to submit its final report.

Arasu Cable is fully qualified for the licence under the provisions of the Cable TV Network (Regulations) Act, 1995.

Origin Its services started in all the 31 districts of Tamil Nadu on September 2, 2011, barring Chennai, which was a Conditional Access System area at that point of time. Arasu Cable provides 100 channels to subscribers at a cost of ₹70 a month. Over 24,000 local cable TV operators with a subscriber base of 65 lakh make it the single largest multi system operator in India. The Union Government had issued a conditional addressable system licence to the state government enterprise for Chennai on April 2, 2008, and it is now transmitting signals in the digital mode.

Digitisation After the Centre amended the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, and modified the ‘conditional access system’ area to ‘digital addressable system’ (DAS) area, Arasu Cable has taken steps to commence operations in the digital mode in Chennai City and has placed orders for the supply of set top boxes, conditional access system and subscriber management system and erection of Head End at a cost of about ₹50 crore.

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