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Govt says STBs consume very less electricity
MUMBAI: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) has sought to allay fears that the set-top boxes (STBs) required for digital cable service will drastically increase power consumption and result in increase in electricity bills.
The I&B Ministry has denied that the STBs critical for switching to digital cable service consume 20 watts of power each. It claimed that the STB consumes only eight watts of power, which is less than what a CFL light consumes.
The ministry was responding to reports in the media suggesting power consumption by STBs is much higher than claimed by the manufacturers. The reports have come at a time when the government is pushing the industry to move at a rapid pace to meet the deadline for the first phase of digitisation in the four metro cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai.
Power rating of cable Set Top Boxes of different makes
| STBs Make & Model | Power consumption (Watts)1 | |
| Active mode | Standby mode | |
Den Entertainment Networks | ||
| Skyworth 7000 | 8 | 7 |
| Skyworth 7600 | 8 | 7 |
| Skyworth 7631 | 8 | 7 |
DigiCable | ||
| Indieon LDCA 1000 | 5.4 | 4.5 |
| Changhong C8899C0 | 7.5 | 6.9 |
| Skyworth C371N EN | 10 | 8 |
IMCL | ||
| SD STB | 12 | 10 |
| MyBox | 7.5 | 6.9 |
Hathway Datacom | ||
| Skyworth 9000 | 8 | 7 |
| HUMA ND-1200C | 15 | 5 |
WWIL | ||
| Handon 1002C | 6.5 | 5.8 |
| Handon 1041C | 6.5 | 5.8 |
| Arion 5012S | 7.5 | 6.9 |
| Changhong C8899C0 | 7.5 | 6.9 |
| MyBox | 7.5 | 6.9 |
“Recently, it has been reported in some sections of the press that digitisation of cable TV would result in huge power consumption by the Set Top Boxes (STBs). It has been wrongly informed that the cable STBs consume 20 watts of power,” MIB said in a statement on Monday.
“STBs of a number of makes and models are supplied by multi-system operators (MSOs) and local cable operators (LCOs). A cable STB consumes only about 8 watts of power. This power consumption by an STB is even less than that of CFL light.”
As per government estimates, around 72 per cent of cable homes have switched to digital cable in the four metros, a figure disputed by cable operators in Kolkata and Chennai. The government has mandated that the entire country should shift to digital cable by 2014.
Incidentally, a Delhi resident Rupinder Singh Sodhi has filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court against the government‘s decision to compulsorily make consumers switch to digital cable. The petitioner has made the Union of India and I&B Ministry respondents in the case along with the Ministry of Power, Bureau of Energy Efficiency and industry regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).
The petitioner‘s central argument is that the government‘s decision is in violation of the Indian constitution since it takes away the right of consumers to decide which mode of service they want to opt.
It also claims that the installation of STBs will have immense implications for power consumption in India. The petitioner has said that a normal STB requires 17 watts of power and with add-on services, the electricity requirement goes up to 28 watts. The High Definition STBs with several features will consume even more power.
The petition also claims that the MSOs have asked subscribers to keep the STBs switched on at all times and to keep it connected to the network, which is necessary for upgrading the software and data in the box. This upgradation will be done at odd hours and if the STB is not on, it will not receive this upgrade/data.
The petitioner says India will have 250 million TV sets by 2015 as per the government projections and if the digitisation is successfully implemented there would be an equal number of STBs.
The petition contended that even if one STB consumes 200 units of electricity a year, it would result in an annual consumption of 50 billion units per annum and would burden consumers with an extra payout of Rs 300 billion annually towards electricity cost which would jump to Rs 425 billion per year taking into account normal inflation rate.
It also alleged that the STBs would put strain on government resources to produce extra energy.
The MIB on its part says that an STB consumes less power than other household appliances like television, fans and tube lights. TVs, fans and tube lights each consume about 60 watts of power against 8 watts consumed by an STB.
To make it easy to understand, the ministry gave an example: If a person watches TV for one hour by keeping on a fan and a tube light in the room, then the electricity consumed by these three items in one hour would be more than the power consumed by an STB kept on for 24 hours.
“In other words, an STB would consume about only one-fifth of a unit of electricity in a day against 1.5 units consumed by a fan, a TV or a tube light. Similarly a household fridge consumes on an average 4-5 units of electricity per day which is more than 20 times the power consumed by an STB in a day. Cable STBs consume very nominal electricity to the tune of 5-6 units in a month which is insignificant in comparison with the electricity consumed by other electric appliances in a house.”
The ministry also harped on the benefits of digitisation. It says that digital cable will provide “superior quality of picture and sound, choice of channels from a larger bouquet, movies and games on-demand, etc”.
According to a study by the United States National Resources Development Council (NRDC), STBs in the US had consumed approximately 27 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, which is equivalent to the annual output of nine average (500 MW) coal-fired power plants.
The NRDC has also noted that the electricity required to operate all US boxes is equal to the annual household electricity consumption of the entire state of Maryland, which results in 16 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and costs households more than $3 billion each year.
However, the council has stated that there is great potential for improving the efficiency and reducing the cost of operating these electronics equipment.
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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.
