While the dawn of the Indian digital broadcasting era has been put off till October, ostensibly due to the slow pace of set-top box installations, a recent study indicates that ‘digital’ penetration is on the rise in the top four metros.
According to the TAM – Digital Addressable System study, Mumbai leads the pack with 33 per cent digital penetration, followed by Kolkata, Delhi and Chennai with 25, 24 and 20 per cent, respectively.
TAM is the research agency which conducts TV audience measurements that is widely used by advertisers. In terms of digital platform choice, direct-to-home services dominated the Delhi and Chennai market with a more-than 60 per cent market share, compared to Mumbai where 60 per cent of the respondents preferred cable set-top box (STB). However, analogue respondents showed an ‘overwhelming intent to buy cable STB’, when they switch to digital. The study, which looks at the penetration of digital TV platforms, took a sample size of 12,000 homes across the four metros.
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It would be conducted as a four-phase survey, with the first being released now, in order to measure digital penetration in the run up to and post-October digitisation deadline.