Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) Director-General Arvind Kumar has urged India’s cable TV fraternity to take advantage of the government’s initiatives related to start-ups and go in for innovations to sustain their businesses and grow even as the pace of growth of the cabsat industry slows down with the arrival of new digital techs for video distribution.

Pointing out that STPI can be of assistance to the cable operators in helping them in innovating and creating new IPs, Kumar at the recently-concluded SatCab Symposium 2023 said, “The government has many schemes for promoting startups in this country. I have seen cable operators, especially as they are technicians too, are innovative and can do a lot.”

Delivering the valedictory address at the SatCab Symposium in New Delhi, Kumar, who also spent a few years at broadcast regulatory authority TRAI as an advisor, stressed, “Cable operators can do a lot of innovations and at STPI we welcome  such initiatives.”

Software Technology Parks of India is an organization under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology engaged in promoting IT/ IT-enabled services, innovation, R&D, start-ups, products and IP creation.

Kumar’s invitation to the cable fraternity to innovate-for-survival resonates as the audience at this year’s SatCab Symposium in New Delhi, organized by the Aavishkar Media Group, was primarily made up of distributors of content, including senior representatives from MSO companies and independent LCOs.

This year’s conference, aptly themed ‘Is the Future of Indian Broadcasting Sector at Stake Now?’, saw a jam-packed hall of delegates and speakers listen and discuss the various issues impacting India’s media and entertainment (M&E) sector, which currently is going through recessionary pangs owing to several reasons.

Kumar, who had been part of the team at TRAI that conceptualised NTO 2.0, also lauded the cable operators for doing a good job. To back his statement, he cited the example of high standard maintenance of cable TV lines or optic fibres by the cable fraternity all these years even when some bigger organisations were not able to do so adequately despite receiving huge funding.

He said that cable operators were more than just business people or a business category as they are more connected to the people and consumers and know the ground realities better.