Hinduja Group eyes digital cable biz in Punjab

Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 24

To explore investment opportunities in Punjab, Hinduja Media Group MD & CEO and whole-time Director of Hinduja Ventures Ltd. (formerly Hinduja TMT Ltd.), Ashok Mansukhani will meet Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh tomorrow.

According to sources, the group has evinced interest in Headend in the Sky (HITS) cable broadcast in the state. It facilitates digitally compressed programming via satellite using a single headend. The television channels are down-linked by the HITS operator at a central facility and then uploaded by it to a satellite after encryption. These signals are then down- linked by the local cable operators and delivered to consumer homes via cable.

Having acquired government approvals for its HITS business in 2015, the Hinduja Group plans to roll out its digital television distribution business under the brand name NXT Digital across India.

Capt Amarinder Singh had recently met Hinduja Group Director Shom Ashok Hinduja on his three-day Mumbai visit to woo investors, as part of the state government’s ‘Invest Punjab’ initiative.

According to industry sources, in 2015 there were around 50 lakh TV households in the state with cable network having a share of over 24 lakh households while 15 lakh households were under DTH network. 

The NXT Digital Broadcast Centre is a state-of-the-art next-generation technology that has been designed and purpose-built to provide a variety of services to the cable distribution fraternity and their customers across the country.