Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy has requested the Centre to extend the deadline by a month from March 31 to facilitate television viewers in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam to go for the set-top boxes (STBs). In a letter to the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, he said an estimated 50 lakh viewers in these two cities were yet to install these boxes though they were supposed to do it by Sunday midnight.
Only those using Hathway, SitiCable and DigiCable set-up boxes would be able to watch all their favourite programmes without interruption as also those already on the digital broadcast framework.
According to industry estimates, about 25 to 30 lakh are yet convert to digital reception mode in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam.