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Last mile upgradation will protect turf of cable operators
NEW DELHI: Local cable operators need not fear the entry of DTH, IPTV or Headend-In-The-Sky (HITS) if there is ‘necessary last mile upgradation,’ industry experts said.
The speakers at the one-day SATCAB Symposium, organised by the All India Dish Antennae Aavishkaar Sangh, felt that HITS was, in fact, the cheapest way of digitisation and should, thus, be welcomed. But it was necessary for the local cable operators and MSOs to improve coordination among them.
The speakers also wanted the government to intervene to help the cable operators and ensure that they were given a fair deal. It was pointed out that though the Chandigarh High Court had stayed the attempt by the Haryana Government‘s proposal on licensing only one cable operator per city, it was necessary for the Centre to intervene in the case since the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act 1995 was a central legislation.
Sangh founder and president A K Rastogi regretted that no government had so far succeeded in bringing forward the Broadcast Services Regulation Bill in Parliament, though it was drafted several years earlier. He said that the FDI of 74 per cent in HITS may not be good for the country as it could go into foreign control.
Rastogi suggested that cable operators should have a united committee to interact with the government on all policy issues.
Colonel V C Khare, who has been involved with the cable industry for several years, said that most cable operators unfortunately did not bother to understand their industry and improve the last mile systems by making it two-way. This was the reason for their fear of new technologies.
Khare regretted that though the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had drafted a restructuring of the cable sector and put a questionnaire on its website for eliciting the opinions of cable operators, not even 60 of the 60,000 cable operators in the country had bothered to respond. The operators, therefore, will have no reason to complain if the government passes any law in the absence of their responses.
Khare said that the empowered authorities at present did not have any penal powers under the Cable TV Network Rules 1994, and Trai’s recommendations in this regard were under consideration of the government.
Subhash Grover of Siti Satellite said HITS should be accepted by cable operators as it would protect them from IPTV and DTH since it wouldl lead to digitisation.
Amit Kharbhanda of MyBox said digitisation was inevitable and it would be good if the cable operators accepted this as early as possible. He also felt that local set top boxes had a greater chance of success in the market than imported ones.
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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.
