ITV

Category: Multi System Operators

  • CAS: MSOs propose a rollout plan to govt.

    CAS: MSOs propose a rollout plan to govt.

    NEW DELHI: The CAS story limps along with an early solution not in sight, as industry stakeholders are yet to find a common ground. This was evident in today’s meting on the issue called by the government.

    Though the MSOs did make a proposal on sequence of CAS implementation and one particular MSO provided some additional data relating to the Chennai market where CAS has been implemented, lack of data from others, notably the broadcasters and local cable operators, didn’t help matters much.

    The government, which is also under pressure due to a Delhi court direction on CAS rollout by the first week of April, could use the data provided by the MSOs to force the pace, a government official said, adding this could include mandating individual prices of TV channels.

    The official did admit that at the two meetings on CAS held till now, there has been a sense of “resistance” from the pay broadcasters to come out with a la carte pricing of channels, which is “complicating the matters a bit.”

    According to information available with Indiantelevision.com, some of the MSOs have proposed a plan, which envisages a phased preparation for CAS with a blackout of TV channels — not going through a set-top box — after 5 July.

    The MSOs today said that for CAS rollout, 5 April should be taken as the zero hour. The preparatory phase should last till 20 May. The time between 21 May and 21 June should be treated as transition phase, while the final implementation of CAS should start from 5 July onward when all TV channels would have to go through boxes on a mandatory basis or face the threat of a blackout.

    The MSOs also suggested that the government should mandate the maximum retail price (MRP) for individual channels as also bouquets — a proposal that did not go down very well with broadcasters — if a consensus is not arrived on this.

    While the MRP issue is being pushed by consumer bodies too, the MSO said that if a consensus on this is elusive, then the sector regulator (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) could be asked to address the issue.

    What is making matters difficult for the government is that some pay broadcasters have raised valid doubts on piracy of signals and the technology that would be used for conditional access. Country’s biggest broadcaster in terms of revenue has raised 16 issues that should be addressed before CAS is rolled out.

    According to some people who attended today’s meeting, a suggestion relating to revenue share for subscription money in the ratio of 50:25:25 (broadcasters: local cable operators: CAS operators and independent ops) was also made.

    A demand that all commercial contracts amongst broadcasters and MSOs and MSOs and cable ops be standardized was echoed today again.

    In the wake of divergent views on CAS still persisting, the information and broadcasting ministry made it clear to industry stakeholders that
    ambiguities would only lead to more confusion and wastage of time.

    With today’s meeting ending relatively inconclusive, the government has scheduled another one on Monday (3 April) to get down to serious sequencing of CAS rollout

  • MSO protests against Maharashtra cable TV tax

    MSO protests against Maharashtra cable TV tax

    The Hinduja-run MSO InCableNet has raised a voice of protest against the Maharashtra state government’s move to double the entertainment tax levied on cable operators. The state finance minister announced the hike in the budget that was presented to the assembly for 2000-2001 yesterday.

    In a press release , InCableNet has stated that the impost will “financially cripple an already burdened cable industry. The need of the hour is to implement the existing entertainment tax system rather than increase tax burdens.”

    Says IndusInd Media – the company that runs InCableNet – CEO Ram T. Hingorani: “The increase will result in a substantial financial burden on MSOs like In CableNet and cable operators who declare 100 per cent connectivity.”

    Last year the cable TV industry had hailed the-then government’s decision to levy a flat rate of Rs 15, Rs 10 and Rs 5 for each urban, semi-urban and rural cable TV homes respectively. This replaced the earlier system of charging a percentage of subscription fees.

    InCableNet says that the governments contention that entertainment tax targets were not being met by it on account of underdeclaration by cable TV operators (hence it was forced to hike rates) was unfair.

    “The system needs correction not a 100% hike to supplement the lacunae in the entertainment tax levy system” points out Hingorani. “The cable TV subscriber is no mood to pay an increased subscription, particularly in view of the burden of rising prices of day-to-day commodities and the new hikes in kerosene and LPG prices. The current budget has also increased the professional tax which is bound to affect the common man in the state. This additional burden that the Cable TV industry will have to bear will stunt its growth further as the Government is doing nothing to promote it.”

    Hingorani also complained about the varying rates of entertainment tax levied by various state governments on cable TV operators. “All the states have approximately the the number of channels with common pay channels,” he says. “Yet each of the governments imposes varying taxes.”

    He would like the government to tax pay TV channels instead of cable TV operators. “Pay TV channels earn huge sums by way of subscription and ad revenues. The government should examine whether levying a 5 to 10 per cent tax on the channel managements is more feasible. Th tax can be collected at source and evasion will be eliminated in a structure where the onus for paying the tax is absolutely clear,” he says.

    Hingorani suggests that the government should work on schemes such as voluntary disclosure to encourage declaration of larger subscriber bases by cable TV operators.

  • IN CableNet says it is no bully

    IN CableNet says it is no bully

    The Hinduja-run cable TV service IN CableNet today denied allegations about the pressure tactics used by them in the Sion-Matunga-King Circle area in Mumbai that made 32 of its operators shift loyalties to the rival SitiCable. Mr Hingorani, CEO of IndusInd Media and Communications said “The allegation is baseless and malicious. We don’t use any force or pressure tactics and would never do so.”

    Company officials said that IN CableNet had set up a state-of-the-art control room in King’s Circle in Mumbai and six small time cable ops who were unable to match the level of service decided to part ways.The company claimed that the allegations of browbeating and bullying and were made by a couple of ops who had defrauded the company of Rs 5 million and that police cases had been filed against them.

    The cable war will spread in the country and such incidents will be frequent. Every MSO claims to be non-political and non-goon based. If that was the scenario why do the skirmishes keep popping up every now and then?

  • MSOs moot Re 1 a day rent scheme on STBs

    MSOs moot Re 1 a day rent scheme on STBs

    MUMBAI: The digital set-top box (STB) that will sit in consumer homes to receive pay channels will come cheap. Facing the threat of competition from direct-to-home (DTH) service providers, cable TV operators are preparing to enter the conditional access system (CAS) regime with an aggressive price plan.

    Multi-system operator Hathway Cable & Datacom has decided to introduce a rental scheme on its STBs with a fee as low as Re 1 a day. Incablenet is likely to follow suit but will be finalising its pricing on Monday, sources say.

    “We will be charging a rent of Re 1 per day on our boxes. Consumers will have to pay upfront Rs 999 as a refundable deposit,” Hathway Cable & Datacom CEO K Jayaraman tells Indiantelevision.com. Currently, the boxes are available for purchase at Rs 3,000 with no rental schemes.

    Even in Kolkata, Manthan Cable Network is considering a rental scheme of Rs 50 per month on an initial deposit of Rs 800-1,000. Competition can further drag down prices. “We are planning to charge a rent of Rs 50 per month on our STBs,” says Manthan director Gurmeet Singh.

    Cablecomm Services Pvt Ltd, another big operator in Kolkata, is also planning to structure its tariff plans for the CAS era.

    Siticable, which is the only MSO that has operations in the three metros of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata where CAS is going to be initially launched, could not be contacted for its comments. Chennai is the other city where CAS is already in place, but has seen slow uptake in demand.

    While broadcasters have expressed concern on the supply of boxes to seed the market at such short notice, cable networks have dismissed such fears as “being fictitious.” A phase-wise rollout of CAS in the three metros and an existing stockpile of STBs will make the transition smooth, operators say.

    “The industry has a stockpile of 800,000 boxes while estimates put the number of cable TV households in the notified areas of south Delhi and Mumbai for the first phase of rollout at over 600,000. Based on the demand, the boxes can be quickly replenished to keep the supply line flowing. It will take around one month to import the boxes,” says Jayaraman.

    Kolkata, where Hathway has no operations, has an estimated total of around 250,000 cable TV homes to be covered in the first zone CAS rollout. “We have a stock of 100,000 boxes and are offering 195 TV channels on our digital cable,” says Indian Cable Net CEO Amit Nag. Last year, Siticable acquired Indian Cable Net from the RPG Group to become the dominant MSO in Kolkata.

    Manthan, the largest operator in south Kolkata, has installed a digital headend and is in the process of putting its encryption system in place. “Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority has around 1.8 million cable TV homes. The logistic cycles will be worked out,” says Singh.

    Mumbai and Delhi together have around seven million cable homes. “With CAS, we expect to give healthy competition to DTH. The ground will also get more organised and volumes, as they pick up, will drive down the cost of boxes,” says Atul Saraf, one of the founder-promoters of 7 Star.