The switch-over to all digital, and mandated, addressable set-top boxes have been something of a struggle for India. Almost all of the nation’s cable MSOs will have made the change by December 31st, and the country’s DTH players are already all-digital.
The worry now is that India’s Doordarshan public broadcaster will badly miss the deadline. Reports now suggest that Doordarshan will only start converting its terrestrial analogue transmitters next year. Digitisation is expected to ensure better broadcast quality and higher number of channel availability to viewers throughout India.
Doordarshan uses 1416 terrestrial towers and repeaters throughout the country, and retransmitting programming from 67 separate studios and cities.