Lakhs of people are still enjoying IPL matches beamed through analogue signals as multi-system operators (MSOs) and government agencies are yet to fix the cable television digitisation deadline in the city.

Following the first deadline of March 31, local cable operators approached state government officials concerned for a 45-day extension. The ultimate onus for stopping transmission of analogue signals lies with the MSOs but they claimed that they were waiting for a response from the government.

The government, which would get a good amount of tax if the cable digitisation took place in time, is still undecided when to implement the digitisation deadline.

Arvind Kumar Tiwari, the nodal officer for digitisation in Patna, claimed that the state government would wait till April 30 for a reply from the Centre. “Since a recommendation for extension of digitisation deadline by 45 days is pending with the central government, we are allowing transmission of analogue signals for the time being. However, we are going to wait only till April 30 after which no TV set will get analogue signals. We will also meet the MSOs and local cable operators after April 20 to discuss further modalities,” said Tiwari.

Most of the 38 cities where the deadline was set on March 31 have already switched over to digital signal.

Till Tuesday, digital set-top boxes have been installed in around 1.10 lakh TV sets against a target of 4 lakh. The supply of the set-top boxes to Patna is mainly being done by two MSOs — SITI Maurya Cablenet Pvt. Ltd. and Darsh Digital Network Pvt. Ltd — each having around 30-40 per cent of the market share.

SITI Maurya Cablenet Pvt. Ltd director Rajnish Dikshit claimed that the MSOs could not stop transmission of analogue signals because of public pressure. “Not even 40 per cent of the television sets in the city have been installed with digital set-top boxes. Thus, if we stop transmitting analogue signals, people would start panicking and law and order issues might arise. Moreover, our request for the 45-day extension is still pending with the government. We will continue beaming analogue signals till further notice,” said Dixit.

Residents are also following the “chalta hai (let it be)” in not installing the digital set-top boxes. “I am not installing set-top box as regular (analogue) channels are working fine. I would install one the day these analogue channels are blocked,” said Kundan Kumar, resident of Rajeev Nagar.

However, a section of cable operators felt that digitisation should be enforced strictly. “As the analogue signals are being transmitted despite the end of digitisation deadline, people are no more serious about installing set-top boxes. Not even 10 set-top boxes are being installed by a cable operator in a day. The government should enforce its mandate forcefully so thatpeople start installing the boxes,” said Sushil Kumar, the Darsh Digital Network Pvt. Ltd director.