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CASBAA India Forum 2012: TVCs to educate consumers on digital deadline ready

To meet the deadline of June 30 to go digital, the India Broadcasting Foundation and Ministry of I&B are rolling out their campaigns from today

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CASBAA India Forum 2012: TVCs to educate consumers on digital deadline ready

TVCs to educate consumers on digital deadline ready

To meet the deadline of June 30 to go digital, the India Broadcasting Foundation and Ministry of I&B are rolling out their campaigns from today

Ananya Saha | Delhi | March 21, 2012

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The fifth edition of CASBAA India Forum, held in New Delhi yesterday, saw stakeholders – multi-system operators (MSOs), DTH operators, set-top box manufacturers, broadcasters, cable operators – debating the government mandate to digitise India's fragmented cable TV networks in four metros by June 30, 2012. Titled 'Beyond Digital', the forum discussed topics ranging from the impending digitisation deadline to bandwidth supply, the regulatory environment, content creation and advertising opportunities.

While some called it a 'mirage in Siberian desert', other stakeholders were of the view digitisation by June 30, 2012, is an achievable task if all stakeholders pull up their socks and work towards meeting the deadline. Uday Kumar Varma, Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB), dispelled hopes of an extension of the deadline. “All of us are irrevocably and incessantly moving towards meeting the deadline,” he asserted.

The question that was consistently raised by the panelists was: even as industry tries to digitise Indian television sets, how would one educate the consumer to switch to digital bandwidth? When fingers were raised that neither broadcasters nor the government was doing anything to inform TV viewers about the deadline, the India Broadcasting Foundation quickly informed that it was planning to break a television campaign staring today (March 21).

Sunil Lulla, Vice-President, IBF and MD & CEO, Times TV Network, said, “To sensitise the audience and subscribers about the need to change to digital platform, IBF has created a campaign. About 3,000 spots will be played out every day.”

The TVC, devised by McCann Erickson, is set to go on-air today. The TVC will be rolled out in English, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and Marathi.

MIB's campaign is also going on-air from March 21. Supriya Sahu, Joint Secretary (Broadcasting & Policies), MIB, informed, “MIB has also devised a campaign with DAVP that will break across channels for consumer awareness. We have also developed an exclusive website towards this aim.” She further said that the campaign will see a multi-media approach to educate the consumer.

Speaking at length about Amendment Act 20 (11), Sahu assured the industry of a level-playing field for all the stakeholders to ensure a smooth roll-out of the first phase of digitisation. She cautioned, “Transmitting analog signals after June 30 becomes punishable.”

Ananya@BestMediaInfo.com

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