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Journalism of Courage
The lowly cable industry might just get the fillip it was looking for. After the corporatisation of the film industry it is time for banks to take a fresh look at the lowly cable industry to give it the status of an industry.
With the soon-to-be baptised conditional access system (CAS) in place on July 14, and with Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad assuring there will no rollback on the date, banks are looking at the potential that cable has to offer.
Executive vice president and director, Hinduja TMT Ltd/IN, Ashok Mansukhani said the ICICI Bank was interested in getting into the media business. ‘‘As first step, they have shown willingness to extend credit to the set-top boxes, that will be made mandatory to receive encrypted channels from July 14,’’ Mansukhani said, adding ICICI see in it an excellent opportunity for retail finance.
With nearly six million cable homes in four metros where CAS is being implemented in the first phase, cable operators estimate at least two million viewers to place their demand for the set-top box. Banks such as the ICICI will help in the penetration of boxes once it is mandated in the entire country, say cable operators.
In the meantime, multi-system operators (MSOs) called upon the minister to seek assurances on the CAS system. While it is learnt that the minister was willing to let the ministry mediate between the cable operators and the broadcasters to sort out glitches in the implementation of CAS, some MSOs complained bitterly about broadcasters sabotaging the system even before it can take off.
Said Rajiv Vyas of IN cable, ‘‘we are willing to implement but we want the broadcasters to come out with the price of their channels. In the absence of the declaration, we do not know how many boxes need to be put in place.’’
IN cable has been fighting a pitch battle with Star and Sony over declaration of viewership figures, so much so that in some parts of Mumbai, Star and Sony have not made their feed available to IN. Others like Jawahar Goel of Siti cable said, they were ready to implement the boxes once the deadline was implemented.
But operators were confused on the implementation of the system. With the Government indicating its willingness for variable pricing and dual feeds (both free to air and pay) so that viewers do not lose out in the long run, operators are not sure about the availability of channels post the deadline. Some issues remain unresolved.
With CAS being a proprietary technology (the same box cannot be used if the user shifts his house), different boxes will be required for multi-TV households. And with the price of the boxes varying between Rs 3,500 and above, it is anybody’s guess whether the boxes will be subsidised.
