The Hindu : Subscriber-friendly cable TV from July

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 20, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

Subscriber-friendly cable TV from July

By Feroze Ahmed

CHENNAI FEB. 19 . Haggling with cable TV operators (CTOs) over increasing cost should soon be a hobby of the past. Come July, the cable TV set-up in Chennai and the three other metros will move from the pay channel regime to a subscriber-friendly, options-driven one. The rest of Tamil Nadu is likely to follow suit in six months hence.

The Union Government has set a July 14 deadline for implementation of the conditional access system (CAS) in Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi, which will virtually hand over the remote control to subscribers in the form of set-top boxes (STBs).

Using these, they can pick pay channels, or opt against buying STBs and settle for the `basic service tier' of free channels available to all. Subscribers opting only for free channels would pay the operators an all-inclusive price fixed by the Union Government. Those accessing pay channels would have to pay an additional cost as specified by broadcasters.

A Chennai-based member of the CAS task force team said the system would be tested in the metros initially and extended to all major towns and cities by year-end. Until then, the subscribers in Chennai would likely be paying less for pay channels than those in rural areas.

The CAS, or addressability as it is also known, offers a host of advantages. For starters, it is expected to break the stranglehold of the CTOs and multisystem operators (MSOs) such as Sumangali Cable Vision and Hathway Cable over the subscribers. The operators would still be the chief mediums between the subscribers and the broadcasters, but only as couriers. The Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Act, 2002, also sets the stage for destroying the current system of pay channel bouquets, a method used by the broadcasters to bundle not-in-demand channels with popular ones.

But there still are a host of issues to be sorted out. The main concern before the CAS task force, which met in Delhi on Tuesday, was whether the Centre would make STBs affordable by announcing import duty cuts. The devices would cost about Rs. 10,000, while subsidies could bring down the cost to about Rs. 4,000, operators here said. There is also the issue of who would sell STBs and whether the Government should opt for a more-affordable analogue system or a futuristic, applications-rich digital network. In Tamil Nadu, MSOs are already stocking the devices, it is reported, and operators hint that they might insist on the subscribers buying from them, though they would offer the options of instalments and co-sharing. Technicalities aside, the real interest for the subscribers is in how many free channels they would get and at what cost. The State now has about 30 free channels and the operators say the number is likely to increase once the CAS comes into effect. The ambiguities will be sorted out after the Union budget and a final structure is expected in early March, say the CAS task force members.

But will the CAS end the operators cartel? Areas would still be demarcated among the operators, and the subscribers, though they can choose among channels, will not be able choose among operators.

Besides, though the Act requires them to do so, it is unlikely that the CTOs will declare their complete list of subscribers to the State for payment of taxes, unless the Government steps in. Those opting for pay channels would be on the list automatically, but a good number of free-channel subscribers are still likely to be out of it.

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