September 15, the birth anniversary of former CM Annadurai, would bring a bonanza for TV viewers in the city.
The Tamil Nadu Arasu cable TV corporation (TACTV) is to launch its digitised cable service in Chennai with a bang, as it would air over 500 channels even at the time of launch.
And, the corporation has expedited the process for procuring one lakh set-top boxes (STBs) and identifying the service provider to set up a digital cable TV end in Chennai.
Though the corporation could not meet the Trai deadline of July 1 to launch digitised cable TV services in the city, it is determined to make up for the delay by launching the service with state-of-the-art facilities, whose projected customer base would be 20 lakh during the first year and is expected to scale up to 1 crore when expanded to other parts of the state, sources in the corporation told DC on Wednesday.
We have asked Trai, which has directed to introduce digitised cable services in four metros, including Chennai, to relax the time limit, they said. We have decided to launch it on September 15, they informed.
While private MSOs, including SCV, have pipped TACTV by already announcing attractive packages for STBs, the operators in Chennai were confused about whether to go with the ‘sluggish’ TACTV or private operators who have been ruling the roost till now in Chennai.
However, TACTV woke up and summoned the operators in the city last month and detailed them about its plans.
TACTV floated bids, a few days ago, to finalise the service provider who would set up the digital end in Chennai and maintain it for five years, besides providing STBs to consumers. They will provide high-quality digital signals through the local cable operators.