Siti Plans Digital Rollout, Public Float

Indiantelevision.com: Siti Cable, the cable services operator from Zee group, is looking to migrate to a digital set-up, says Jawahar Goel, its head of operations. Digitization offers scope for various valued added services such as Video on Demand, EPG, pay per view etc.
In phase one of digitization, which is expected to be in place by end 2005-early 2006, cities like Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Varanasi, Kanpur, Haryana and Mumbai are likely to boast of digital networks of Siti Cable, paving the way for improving the quality of service and making some additional value additions too. It was in 2004 that MSOs like Siti Cable, Hathway and InCablenet began to aggressively market STB-enabled digital services, firming up plans to invest in programmes for pay per view services and secure more agreements with niche channels. Additionally, MSOs intend to develop new revenue streams from broadband Internet services and VOIP telephony.
“Digitisation is the mantra. In an analog mode, which is what our services are presently on, channel offerings and other services would not grow beyond a point and the lack of this growth would also hamper the overall growth of the cable industry,” Goel points out.
But the company does not have plans to offer broadband in a big way. “We do offer broadband and Net services in Bangalore (subscriber base: 6,700) through our own gateway, but I don’t see that happening in other cities very soon,” Goel adds.

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