Trai recommends shutting down of analog transmission by 2023

New Delhi, Jan 31 () The broadcast regulator Trai today recommended introduction of digital terrestrial transmission for broadcast services in a phased manner and complete shut down of analog transmission by end of 2023. "Digital terrestrial transmission may be implemented in the country in three phases with complete migration and analog switch off by December 2023," the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said in its recommendations on the "Issues related to Digital Terrestrial Broadcasting in India". At present, terrestrial TV broadcasting in India is under the exclusive domain of Doordarshan (Prasar Bharati), the Public Service Broadcaster and it is predominantly analog. While a large number of TV channels are available to theconsumers through various delivery platforms such as DTH,Cable TV, IPTV, HITS etc, Trai said, the existing terrestrialTV platform provides only a few channels which do not offer avalue proposition to the viewers."This is a move that may lead a combination of multiple DTT transmitters at a location, which can provide a rich bouquet of SDTV, HDTV, UHTV, mobile TV channels, radio service and other value added services," Trai Chairman RS Sharma said. Trai has said that private players should be permitted toprovide DTT services along with the public servicebroadcaster.Public broadcaster may be permitted to operate maximumthree transmitters at a given location out of which onemay be exclusively used for provision of mobile TV services,the regulator said."Private broadcasters may be permitted to operate maximumfour transmitters ( with spectrum capacity of 8 MHz each) at agiven location subject to availability of spectrum," Traisaid.The regulator has also suggested that maximum number ofDTT providers may be capped at five (one public broadcasterand four private broadcasters) as per availability ofspectrum.Sharma said that in the digital era, consumers prefer tohave access to number of TV channels on various devices suchas mobile phones and other handheld devices."...terrestrial viewers are deprived of such benefits dueto non-availability of digital terrestrial broadcastingservices. Terrestrial television broadcasting is the preferredmethod for providing free-to-air TV services to the people inmost of the countries," he added.Trai has recommended that DTT should be deployed in metrosby December 2019 in phase 1, cities having more than 10 lakhpopulation as per Census 2011 should be covered by December2021 and rest of India by December 2023."In order to create a supportive eco-system, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting along with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology may devise policy framework to make available DTT compliant devices," Trai said. PRS BAL