The Hindu : Brickbats for the bouquets

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Sep 21, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

Brickbats for the bouquets

Chennai subscribers continue to be troubled by the local cable operators' reluctance to play by the rules, says Ramya Kannan.

THREE WEEKS might be too soon to decide, but the trends in Chennai show that there are two sides to the CAS coin.

"If CAS is about protecting the cable TV viewer from the vagaries in pricing of channels, then the benefits of the scheme are yet to trickle down to the customer in Chennai. But, if CAS is about giving the customer the option of rejecting the set-top boxes (STB) and remaining with the free to air channels (FTA), then we must admit it is a resounding success in Chennai," says the representative of a civic organisation based in the metro.

With merely 9000 set-top boxes being acquired in a city of 10 lakh cable subscribers, perhaps, there is a measure of truth in what he says. Market leader SCV says it has sold over 4000 boxes since the scheme was launched in September 1, while the other Multi-System Operator in the city, Hathway, claims to have sold as many as 5000 boxes till early this week.

"It is clear that the average cable TV viewer in Chennai is happy with the FTA package," points out the CEO of SCV, Dayanidhi Maran. Primarily because of the cost of the STBs and, secondly, the Tamil channels come as part of the FTA bunch. "About 85 per cent of Chennai viewers speak Tamil. The second largest linguistic group in the city is the Telugu speaking population. So far, all the Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam channels come for merely Rs. 72 plus taxes. When this is the case, what is the need for viewers to acquire STBs at additional expense," he asks.

The local cable TV operators agree. "The cost of the STBs is higher than what the customer would like to invest, at the moment. Inclusive of taxes, the price comes to over Rs. 4000 for outright sales. Who wants to pay that kind of money," asks TN Cable TV Urimayalargal Sangam president, Kayal R.S. Elavarasu. Indeed, both MSOs have made provisions to offer STBs on a rental scheme (Hathway) or through hire-purchase (SCV) to reduce the burden on the customer.

However, even these schemes have failed to increase the demand for the boxes. "Awareness about these alternate schemes is still low among subscribers. Unless information reaches them about the different easy payment possibilities, it is unlikely that they will come forward to buy the boxes," Mr. Elavarasu says. Other cable TV operators add that it requires much more to convince the customer to buy the STB. "Unless we have an international cricket match that will be relayed only through a pay channel, people will still not feel the urge to buy the product. But in three months' time, we are hoping for a rush in the demand for STBs when India tours Australia in December," says a cable TV operator in T. Nagar.

The two MSOs have also offered their `special' packages for the pay channels, in addition to the Rs.72 plus taxes FTA cluster. Hathway's range of prices for pay channels is between Rs. 189 and Rs. 85, falling under different schemes: Prime Time (Entertainment and Education), Movie Plus (Movies, Sports and Kids), View Max-1, View Max-2 and Best Buy. Best Buy, at the top of the pyramid, provides 32 pay channels at a price of Rs.189. Separate `channel bouquets' have also been announced: STAR for Rs.50; One Alliance-Sony for Rs.55, ESPN-STAR Sports for Rs.32, and Zee for Rs.55.

SCV, which offered 107 channels free of cost for September if subscribers bought STBs, has announced its new tariff from October 1. It has listed the Platinum, Diamond, Gold, Silver, Bronze, Gold Plus, Emerald and Ruby schemes for pay channels. A maximum of 32 pay channels are available in the top price bracket of Rs. 185 and a minimum of six channels can be bought for the lowest price in the range, Rs. 85.

Post-CAS, Chennai subscribers might not be troubled over MSO spats and cable cutting wars, but they continue to be troubled by local cable operators' reluctance to play by the rules. Though a sum of Rs. 72 plus eight per cent tax should be charged for the FTA package, most subscribers have to pay Rs. 98 or Rs. 100 every month, without a receipt for payment. New connections come with an initial refundable deposit costing anywhere between Rs.500 and Rs.1000, again without any receipt for the amount. Complaints have come in from several areas in the city about how local operators refuse to return the deposit whenever a connection is surrendered.

"At the moment there is no means by which a customer can take these complaints to a competent authority and seek redress. A State level body must be constituted under the Cable TV Act which will take action for violations. Now, CAS is no man's baby and the last mile operator continues to dictate the terms," says Exnora International founder, M.B. Nirmal.

Meanwhile, Chennai's residents continue to wonder if investing in an STB is worth it. They ask: "Will more channels go free, like Raj and STAR Vijay?" "Will DTH replace CAS?" "Why can't we have open technology STBs to work across the MSOs?" For some of the questions, there are answers and for others, none.

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