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Zee Telefilms‘ effort to migrate the free to air (FTA) analogue Zee TV to pay TV digital mode is facing teething problems. At the time of writing, rivals and some cable ops alleged that the channel is not available in almost 70 per cent of Indian cable and satellite TV homes ever since the analogue FTA beam was switched off on Sunday, 10 June. Zee, however, strongly denied this.
"They have not been able to distribute enough of the digital IRDs nationally," alleged an official from a rival channel. "The result is that the channel is not available in most of interior India."
Zee Telefilms CEO RK Singh denied this was true. "The figure is actually the reverse. Zee TV is available in almost 70 per cent of Indian cable and satellite homes," he says.
According to him, a distribution team of 80 is beating the streets in order to reach the IRDs to cable TV operators. "So far, 4,500 digital boxes have been distributed. Another 2,000 should be rolled out in the next eight to 10 days and all the problems will be sorted out," he reveals. "Viewers have nothing to worry about. Ditto cable TV operators."
