February 2: The cable TV services of Kathmandu Metropolitan as well as sub-metropolitan cities will be shut down if they do not go for digital technology within three months from now.

The cable TV service providers will not get necessary television signals after the given deadline. The government has amended the National Broadcasting Regulations and has published a notice in this regard in the Nepal Gazette, a month ago.

According to Ram Chandra Dhakal, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC), the cable TV providers which were supposed to go digital by April last year delayed the process due to the earthquake and Terai unrest.

“The failure to import necessary equipment on time also obstructed to go for the digital technology,” he informed. “We have given time to cable TV broadcasters of metropolitan and sub-metropolitan cities of Kathmandu till coming mid-May for the purpose.”

In the given deadline, the cable operators of Kathmandu Metropolis, and Lalitpur, Biratnagar, Birgunj and Pokhara sub-metropolitan cities should go for digital technology. As per the amended regulation, the digital system will be implemented in the remaining sub-metropolises and municipalities by November 1, 2017 and within the whole country till the end of April, 2018.

The government had already stopped giving licenses for operating analog cable TV service since mid-May, 2013 in metropolises and sub-metropolises and within the whole country since mid-May, 2015.

Sudhir Parajuli, President of the Nepal Cable Television Association said that they are ready to shift the cable TV into the digital system. “However, there is a need of awareness among the customers as well,” he added.

Parajuli claims that most of the cable service providers in Kathmandu valley have already shifted to digital system. “Though we have shifted to digital system, only 25 percent of the customers have installed digital cable till now,” he informed.

According to him, if 80 percent of the customers do not go for digital cable before coming mid-May, they will not be able to watch TV channels for a brief period.

The government had decided to change from analog to digital system through the sixth amendment of the regulations in 2012.