New Delhi, Oct 20 (IANS) Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni Tuesday unveiled a plan for complete digitalisation of television in India with a likely approval of a satellite-based cable distribution platform soon.
“There should be a sunset hour for complete digitalization,” Soni said at an interactive discussion on ‘Government Regulation or Self-Regulation’ that was organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry here.

Before the year is out, the cabinet is expected to approve HITS (Headend In the Sky), she said.

“The HITS system will enable cable operators to digitalise their analogue system. It will eliminate carriage fees,” she said. She, however, did not put a deadline to the digitalisation process.

According to sources, Door Darshan will go fully digital by 2017. HITS is a digital platform which can offer more channels than analogue cable. Under HITS, the cable operator downloads the signals and distributes them in cable homes.

Soni also said that Door Darshan is going to project the 2010 Commonwealth Games coverage in high-definition (HD) format, which was cleared by the cabinet recently.