Dish TV operators trying woo customers on eve of CAS regime

Kolkata, Dec 28 (UNI) It is time to say goodbye to your local cable operator as CAS is knocking on the doors of over 2.5 million Indian homes to arrive from January 2007.

With Conditional Access System (CAS) ready to take off in Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi from January 1, 2007, almost 2.5 million cable television viewers could look forward to have a customised bouquet of channels, and paying for only those channels they would like to watch without having to deal with the cable operators.

These three cities make 15 per cent of an estimated 65 million cable homes in India, the world's third-biggest cable television market. A set-top box (STB) gives the choice to pick and choose channels and vendors from whom you wish to buy entertainment services.

Currently, there is no channel segregation and subscribers pay a blanket rate for the entire cable service, which include channels that are never viewed by an individual subscriber.

Under CAS, subscribers would pay Rs 77 for 32 free-to-air (FTA) channels, in addition to Rs 999 or Rs 250 (refundable security deposit) for the STB which would be leased to the user. The subscribers would be paying a monthly rental of Rs 30-45, along with Rs 5 for every pay channel they opt for.

''The cable operators have a very restricted market to operate in.

DTH, on the other hand, is backed by bigger players who can afford to cut prices and yet stay afloat,'' Dish TV CEO Arun Kapoor told UNI today.

Tata Sky and Dish TV were banking on the fact that customers would eventually demand premium channels, which would include focussed news, entertainment, sports, music channels and even niche channels like nature, health and fashion.

''An international channel freak would want a slew of channels from across the globe or a foreign language learner may ask for Chinese, German or French channels. In that case, we are ready to give customers what they want,'' Mr Kapoor said.

Tata Sky head (consumer marketing) Vikram Mehra said, ''Free subscription for the next six months will include all 103 channels along with interactive services like Actve Wizkids, Active Sports, Active Star News, Active Games, Active Khabar that are being offered by Tata Sky.'' Tata Sky and Dish TV have undertaken the task to educate the consumers with aggressive marketing campaigns, besides slashing the price tags in CAS areas.

For the 20,000 cable operators, who have survived until now by under-declaring their subscriber numbers, charging random tariffs and sometimes giving a cold shoulder to certain broadcasters, it is a wake up call to get their act together.

The DTH players agree that almost 70 per cent of the 2.5 million cable subscribers in the CAS areas are still groping in the dark.

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