Cable TV
Slow pace of court cases, MSO registration may delay DAS deadline
NEW DELHI: Between the analog sunset and a digital morning are court cases and cumbersome and slow MSO registration processes. And, the deadline of 31 December 2016 appears to be becoming a distant possibility despite assertions to the contrary in the stakeholder-government meetings.
A mere 26 MSOs got provisional registration in November 2016, taking the total to 1,059 and the number of permanent MSOs (with ten-year licences) remaining static at 229.
With the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) directive about doing away with security clearances for MSOs not being communicated in writing to the MIB, confusion prevails slowing down the registration processes of MSOs for delivering services in DAS areas.
Junior minister in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) Rajyavardhan Rathore had admitted in response to a question in Parliament recently that legal cases, filed mostly by cable operators relating to some phases of digital rollout, may delay the year-end sunset date for analog services in the country.
Though MIB officials and regulator TRAI in public insist that final digitisation deadline won’t be extended, in private government officials do admit that in Phase IV areas, comprising approximately 100,000 villages, small towns and hamlets, seeding of STBs is far from the desired level. An MIB official pointed out after the last DAS Task Force Meeting late last month that cash crunch due to demonetisation of high-value currency notes has only added to the problem on the ground slowing down the entire digital rollout process.
Further impeding STB seeding is the slowing registration of MSOs who’d actually do the work on the ground.
MIB List of Cancelled Registrations
Meanwhile, MIB yesterday released a list of 44 MSOs whose registrations have been cancelled or their proposal for licences closed – as against 42 in October and 29 at the end of September 2016.These cancellations exclude four cases – Kal Cables of Chennai, Godfather Communication Pvt. Ltd of Amritsar, Digi Cable Network (India) Pvt Ltd of Mumbai, and Intermedia Cable Communication Pvt. Ltd of Delhi — in which provisional or permanent registrations were issued after high courts stayed the cancellation orders in petitions filed by these MSOs.
Most of the other cases in the list of cancelled registrations had failed to get security clearance from the MHA. However, there are cases of many MSOs holding provisional licences not completing certain formalities relating to shareholders and so on.
According to the latest list up to 30 November 2016, the areas of operation of two MSOs (one each in the permanent and provisional lists) have been revised or corrected after 31 October 2016.Of the new licensees, three (UCS Broadband Private Limited of Lucknow, Elxire IT Services Pvt. Ltd of Haryana and Microsense Wireless Pvt. Ltd of Chennai) have got pan-India licences. Maury Diginet Pvt. Ltd of Bihar has got pan-India licence for Phase II, III and IV.
The other new registrations after October 2016 include state-wide licences or for specific districts in Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telengana, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, Odisha, Punjab, Delhi and Tripura.In one of the meetings of stakeholders at MIB it was revealed that though there were a reported 6,000 MSOs in the country, but only a handful of them had come forward to register.
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Cable TV
Hathway Cable appoints Gurjeev Singh Kapoor as CEO
Leadership change comes as cable TV faces shrinking subscriber base and modest earnings pressure
MUMBAI: Hathway Cable and Datacom has tapped industry veteran Gurjeev Singh Kapoor as chief executive officer, marking a leadership pivot at a time when India’s cable television business is under mounting strain.
Kapoor will take over from Tavinderjit Singh Panesar, who is set to retire in August after a long innings with the company. Panesar, chief executive since 2023, has held multiple leadership roles at Hathway, including his latest stint beginning in 2022.
Kapoor brings more than three decades of experience in media and entertainment. He most recently led distribution at The Walt Disney Company’s Star India business, now part of JioStar. His career spans television distribution and affiliate partnerships, with stints at Sony Pictures Networks India, Discovery Communications and Zee Entertainment.
Panesar, with over three decades in the industry, has worked across strategic planning, distribution and business development in media, broadcasting and manufacturing. His past associations include ESPN Star Sports, Star India, Apollo Tyres and JK Industries.
The transition lands as the cable sector grapples with structural disruption. Traditional operators are losing ground to streaming platforms, while telecom and broadband players tighten the squeeze with bundled offerings.
An EY report estimates India’s pay-TV base could shrink by a further 30 to 40 million households by 2030, taking the total down to 71 to 81 million. The slide follows a loss of nearly 40 million homes between 2018 and 2024, a contraction that has already wiped out more than 37,000 jobs in the local cable operator ecosystem.
Hathway’s numbers reflect the strain. The company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 93 crore for FY25, down from Rs 99 crore a year earlier. Revenue inched up to Rs 2,040 crore from Rs 1,981 crore. As of December 2025, it had about 4.7 million cable TV subscribers and roughly 1.02 million broadband users.
Kapoor steps in with a familiar brief but a shrinking playbook. In a market where viewers are cutting cords faster than companies can reinvent them, the new chief executive inherits a business fighting to stay plugged in.
