If poverty is the only reason for four million television sets going blank in 38 cities after the new March 31 deadline for broadcasting going digital expired, the government can try to remedy the situation by offering instalment schemes.
The fear, however, is that the biggest culprit is lethargy: the feeling across the country that no law is truly enforceable within stated deadlines may have spurred people into not acting in time. The Centre can hardly be blamed if some states and cities lag behind. Distribution of signals direct to homes via set-top boxes has many advantages. Besides ridding cities of ugly cables that deface all roads and buildings, it will also ensure better picture quality and services, a choice of channels and other interactive services making television sets in our homes a multimedia gateway.
Not only is transparency ensured by knowing who uses these services and at what cost in the more modern regime; but also the old cable industry cannot hold disseminators of television programmes to ransom by quoting random prices to boost their profitability. While the large numbers involved in the switchover may force a further extension by a few days of the deadline to stop distributing the old analog signals, the government can’t but insist that the last four million-odd television owners in these cities also fall in line. In showing the will to enforce the decision by switching off all signals except through set-top boxes, the government has acted firmly in the national interest.