Press Information Bureau

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

08-October-2012 15:05 IST

Recently, it has been reported in some sections of the press that Digitisation of cable TV would result in huge power consumption by the Set Top Boxes (STBs). It has been wrongly informed that the cable STBs consumes 20 watts of power. STBs of a number of makes and models are supplied by Multi System and Local Cable Operators. Power consumption of various types of cable STBs in use are indicated in Table 1 below. As may be seen from the table a cable STB consumes only about 8 watts of power. This power consumption by an STB is even less than that of CFL light.

Table 1: Power rating of cable Set Top Boxes of different makes

¹ Source: Product leaflets of manufacturers

Power consumption of different electrical household items is indicated in Table 2 below.

Table 2: Power consumption by different household appliances

² Source: Product leaflets of manufacturers and NPCL website

As may be seen from the above table TVs, fans and tube lights each consume about 60 watts of power against the power of 8 watts consumed by a STB. Therefore if a person is watching TV for one hour by keeping on a fan and a tube light in the room, then electricity consumed by these three items in one hour would be more than the power consumed by a STB even if it is kept on for 24 hours. In other words, a STB would consume about only one-fifth of a unit of electricity in a day against 1.5 units consumed by a fan, a TV or a tube light. Similarly a household fridge consumes on an average 4-5 units of electricity per day which is more than 20 times of the power consumed by a STB in a day. Thus cable STBs consume very nominal electricity to the tune of 5-6 units in a month which is insignificant in comparison with the electricity consumed by other electric appliances in a house.

Digitisation will offer huge benefits to consumers in terms of providing superior quality of picture and sound, choice of channels from a large bouquet, movies and games on-demand etc. These benefits will be available to consumers at nominal electricity consumption. 

In most homes STBs are generally not switched off. They are kept on standby mode even when the TV is not being watched so as to avoid the time taken by the STB to reboot and to bring the telecast back on the screen from switch-off mode. Power consumption in standby mode is even lesser.

The above information is issued in public interest by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

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CP/ST

Power consumption of cable STBs remains lower than common household lights and is nominal compared to other appliances. Cable STBs typically consume about 8 watts in active mode and less in standby, a lower level than a CFL. Manufacturer data for multiple models show most STBs cluster around this consumption. Comparative household device figures indicate TVs, fans and tube lights each use substantially more power, so an STB uses roughly one fifth of a unit per day (about 5-6 units monthly), a nominal addition relative to other appliances. Standby mode reduces consumption further; digitisation benefits are available at this low electricity cost.