The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Friday issued the final guidelines for restructuring the cable TV industry, in order to provide digital signals to viewers, aimed at providing planned and better services and growth.

Recently, TRAI had issued draft recommendations on the same, and had sought industry inputs.

In its final recommendations, the regulator asked the government to set a five-year timeframe for all cable TV operators to upgrade their analogue network to digital mode to compete with new distribution platforms, such as IPTV, HITS, besides improving their revenue earning prospects.

Further TRAI said that new cable TV players must be mandated to have digital format and provide signal strengths as prescribed by the Bureau of Indian Standards within a three-year timeframe, while existing operators will be given a five-year window. The regulator has recommended a fixed entry fee of Rs 10000 and Rs 1 lakh respectively for Cable TV operators, those providing services locally at the state and national levels.

TRAI has also recommended to the information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry that all cable TV operators in India, must be brought under the licensing regime, which will be valid for a five-year period.

The latest move is aimed at bringing greater transparency into the cable TV network business, spread network digitalization, increase addressability and encourage voluntary conditional access system (CAS) and ensure the service provider pays his taxes.

Once implemented, the recommendations would enable broadband internet services to be accessible to all subscribers in the country. The digitalization would enable consumers to receive up to 300 channel feeds, up from 40 or 80 under the current analog format.