Watching 2010 C'th Games on TV may remain dream for millions

New Delhi, Feb 15 (PTI) Overzealousness, coupled with
short-sightedness on the part of government officials looking
after 2010 Commonwealth Games preparations may leave millions
of Indian viewers tuning their TV sets for not-yet-available
High Definition (HD) format airing of the much-awaited event.

A simple logic that the country has very few such TV
sets in the country and since they are manufactured abroad, it
is too costly an affair to import them for the Indian middle-
class seems to have skipped the consideration of the policy-
makers for the historic event.

Apart from that, even the government's transmission
infrastructure is completely lacking in supporting HD-enabled
broadcast, as most of Doordarshan's transmitters are analog-
based, thus rendering this type of telecast a near-
impossibility, according to a senior DD official.

"The cost of these sets are in the range of Rs 40,000
to Rs 50,000 and they are not currently available in the
country. Besides, as of now there is no policy to enable
production of HD-enabled TV sets here," the official said.

The Ministry for Information and Broadcasting has,
meanwhile, sought Cabinet's approval for setting up studios
in Chennai and Kolkata, which would produce programmes in the
HD format.

"Currently, we have one such studio each in Delhi and
Mumbai, which are capable of producing programmes in HD
format," the official said.

In order to broadcast Commonwealth Games, signals will
have to be aired in HD format. "Countries like Australia, New
Zealand, the UK and Canada, where HD format is in use, would
be the right holders for the Games.

"HD signals can be converted to standard definition
signals for Indian viewers. But the television sets need to be
HD format-enabled for receiving these signals," the official
added.

Households with cable and satellite facilities can
also receive HD signals through set-top boxes, but HD-enabled
TV sets would still be required for clear and sharp images and
true to life 3-D pictures, he stressed.

As for the production of such TV sets in India, it can
take off in large numbers only if more HD-enabled studios come
up in the four metros and the number of programmes produced in
HD format increases, which at the moment seems long way off.
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