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Digitisation: Govt won’t tolerate delay in stakeholder agreements
NEW DELHI: The Government has said broadcasters, multi-system operators (MSOs) and local cable operators should speed up finalisation of agreements if the first phase of digitisation has to be implemented on 1 November.
In the meeting of the Task Force on digitisation on Wednesday, Additional Secretary in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry Rajiv Takru was clear that the government will not tolerate such delay.
The broadcasters informed the Government that talks were still on in about 90 per cent of the cases for signing agreements with multi-system operators (MSOs).
MSOs would need to ink their content agreements so that they can work out channel packages and approach consumers to make the shift to digital cable TV.
On the cable TV front, MSOs and LCOs have to settle their revenue share agreements. The LCOs control the last mile to the consumer homes and form a valuable part of the distribution chain.
Several MSOs are in advanced talks with local cable operators for finalising the revenue-share deals. The LCOs are unhappy with the revenue share mandated by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).
Trai has fixed LCOs‘ revenue share of 45 per cent for free-to-air channels (FTA) and 35 per cent in case of pay channels. The LCOs want their revenue share to be increased as the onset of digital cable will result in their having to disclose the actual number of subscribers. The total subscribers disclosed by the LCOs now is much lower than the actual numbers which helps them in not having to pay to MSOs for all their subscriber connections.
Apart from representatives of the I&B Ministry, ASSOCHAM and Broadcast Engineering Society India Ltd. (BECIL), the meeting was attended by Arun Mohan of Zee on behalf of the broadcasters while Ashok Mansukhani represented the MSO Alliance and Roop Sharma represented the LCOs.
The Task Force comprising all stakeholders was constituted by the Ministry in April 2011 to oversee digitisation.
It was also found that deployment of STBs at cable homes had slowed following the deferment of the sunset date for analogue cable connections. The Ministry wanted STB deployment to be hastened.
The Task Force decided to meet again on 3 September to take stock of the situation with regard to deployment of STBs in the four metros where analogue is scheduled to switch off on 31 October.
The Government – which wants to complete digitisation in the country by December 2014 – had on 20 June postponed the sunset date by four months to 31 October.
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Inshorts Group chief Deepit Purkayastha joins IAB video council for Southeast Asia and India
The co-founder and chief executive of the short-form content platform has been inducted into the IAB SEA+India Video Council, giving India a stronger voice in shaping digital video frameworks
NOIDA: India has long been the world’s most chaotic, multilingual and mobile-first digital market. Now, one of its most prominent short-video executives is getting a seat at the table where the rules are written.
Deepit Purkayastha, co-founder and chief executive of Inshorts Group, has been selected as a member of the IAB SEA+India Video Council for 2026. Run by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the council brings together senior leaders from Southeast Asia and India to shape standards, best practices and measurement frameworks for the fast-evolving video and digital advertising ecosystem.
The timing is pointed. According to the IAMAI-Kantar Internet in India Report 2025, over 588 million Indians are now consuming short-video content, with growth increasingly driven by rural and non-metro audiences. India’s active internet user base has crossed 950 million, with 57 per cent of users now coming from rural markets. Yet the frameworks that govern how video consumption is measured and monetised were largely designed for single-language, Western markets and have struggled to keep pace with the scale, diversity and complexity of India’s digital landscape.
Purkayastha is no stranger to these debates. He already serves on the AI Council at Marketing and Media Alliance India and as co-chair of the Digital Entertainment Committee at the Internet and Mobile Association of India. His induction into the IAB SEA+India Video Council extends that influence into the global video standards arena.
Inshorts Group sits squarely at the intersection of these forces. Its flagship product, Inshorts, India’s highest-rated short news app, reaches 12 million active users with 60-word news summaries. Its sister platform, Public App, reaches 80 million monthly active users across more than 700 districts and 12 languages, serving communities that most global platforms barely register.
Purkayastha said the opportunity was about building something more representative. “India today sits at the centre of the global video ecosystem, but the frameworks that define how value is created and measured have not always kept pace with the realities of our market,” he said. “Being part of the IAB SEA+India Video Council is an opportunity to contribute to a more representative and future-ready approach, one that accounts for diversity in language, context, and user intent.”
As a council member, Purkayastha will contribute to shaping regional standards across video advertising, measurement and platform governance, with a focus on frameworks that are native to India’s multilingual, mobile-first ecosystem rather than imported from global benchmarks designed elsewhere.
For years, India has been content to play by rules written for other markets. Purkayastha’s induction is a signal that it is done waiting to be consulted and ready to start writing them.
