The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) has postponed the deadline for implementation of the digital access system (DAS) by two years to end-December 2016. The target for the completion of Phase III of DAS implementation has been extended to December 31, 2015, while Phase IV (which covers mostly rural India) has been stretched to December 31, 2016. Earlier, the deadlines for Phase III and Phase IV stood at September 30, 2014 December 31, 2014, respectively.

The extension in the deadline has been attributed to the inability of the cable network community and multi-system operators to mobilise the funding required for the project. Further, the cable network companies have been unable to import the volume of the set top boxes (STB) required to record and de-encrypt the signals for Phase III of DAS.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has opposed the extension of the deadline as it is of the view that it will lead to a loss of momentum in the digitisation project. However, the I&B ministry believes that the extension will help the cable fraternity to reorganise their finances and perhaps access cheaper local sources for STBs.

DAS will help the broadcasting networks and TV channels as it would increase the accountability of the cable distributors. In the current analogue system, it is estimated that broadcasters are able to recover only 20 per cent of the optimum subscription revenue from these markets because of underreporting by cable distributors.