December 2012

3/12/12 -- News Corp-owned publishing company Harper Collins has ended its almost 10 year joint-venture with Aroon Poorie-promoted Living Media India to go solo in the growing Indian market.

Digitalisation Commences in Phase II Cities

I&B Ministry reached the finish line of Phase I of digitalisation on 31 October 2012 with a great result that would put countries like the US and UK to shame where they could not finish the process in seven years. Ministry announced that its achievement in Mumbai was more than 100%, Delhi 97% and Kolkata 85%, Chennai is still waiting for the High Court verdict for its deadline extension and Arasu, the state owned Cable TV network is still waiting for its supply of STBs from China.

Sad part is that all this digitalisation is on papers only. No KYC forms have been filled for SMS & Billing, A-La-Carte rates and in some cases even the package rates were not announced by 01 November, consumers are still in dark about the subscription and ownership of the STBs they have been forced to install. It is a very strange way of implementing digitalisation highly unlike in a democracy.