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Tag: Incablenet

  • Zee Sports back on Hathway; Incable blackout stays

    Zee Sports back on Hathway; Incable blackout stays

    MUMBAI: Zee Sports is back on Hathway Cable & Datacom in Mumbai, but has reached no agreement yet with Incablenet.

    The case with Incablenet comes up for hearing in the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) tomorrow. Incablenet had moved the TDSAT, seeking restoration of signals as “Zee Sports had not served a 21-day notice before blacking out the signals.”

    Sources say signals, however, were restored to Hathway today as the multi-system operator (MSO) had agreed to enter into a commercial agreement.

    Zee Sports was put back on cable networks in Pune after the Pune District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum directed Zee Sports to restore the signals till further hearings on 21 September. Zee had restored the signals in Pune following the order, but moved the Commission.

    Zee Sports has the exclusive telecast rights for the DLF Cup between India, Australia and West Indies. The tri-series will last till 24 September.

  • CAS rollout: Delhi HC ‘no’ to government plea for more time

    CAS rollout: Delhi HC ‘no’ to government plea for more time

    NEW DELHI: The Indian government yet again pleaded for more time to roll out CAS — six months to be exact — but a Delhi court has refused to accede to the request asking for a final stand by the next date of hearing.

    According to early information available with Indiantelevision.com, even the broadcast regulator pleaded for four to five months time to sort out CAS-related issues like pricing of TV channels.

    The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) submitted to the Delhi High Court today that it has initiated a dialogue with the industry stakeholders on issues related to CAS and which would take few months time to complete and arrive at some consensus.

    However, the court was in no mood to listen to such pleas and fixed the next date of hearing for 19 July.

    The court observed that if the government is unable to sort out CAS matters, then it could also explore the possibility of going ahead with the rollout based on the Chennai model.

    It also said that the government has already used up three month’s time from 10 March when the first directive came to roll out CAS in Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai within a month’s time.

    Chennai is the only city in India where CAS has been rolled out and running smoothly since 2003.

    Reference to do away with government mandated CAS was also mentioned in the court today during a hearing and reference was made of the relevant section from a draft Broadcast Bill 2006, which is being circulated amongst government organizations for feedback.

    A clutch of MSOs, including Hathway and INCablenet, had filed a case against the government on CAS in the Delhi High Court late 2004, alleging that keeping addressability in abeyance had resulted in financial losses to the petitioners.

  • HC raps government on CAS delay; next hearing 5 July

    HC raps government on CAS delay; next hearing 5 July

    NEW DELHI: The government today got some reprieve and the stick on the issue of CAS from the Delhi High Court.

    While fixing 5 July as the next date for hearing in a case pertaining to implementation of CAS in three cities, the court questioned the government’s rationale for seeking 265 days for rollout of addressability.

    On 10 March, the Delhi High Court had directed the government through the information and broadcasting ministry to implement CAS in four weeks.

    The order had come on a petition filed by some MSOs, including Hathway and INCablenet.

    A few days after the 30-day deadline got over in April, the government and sector regulator had filed an appeal in the court seeking more time to facilitate rollout of CAS.

    The government’s contention was that a consensus needed to be evolved for implementing CAS for which eight to nine months time was needed.

    However, the court today reiterated that it would like to see the rollout happen during this calendar year and directed the government to deposit a fine of Rs 100,000.

  • I&B minister to take CAS review meeting

    I&B minister to take CAS review meeting

    NEW DELHI: Information and broadcasting minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi will review developments on CAS vis-a-vis court cases.

    The meeting was scheduled to happen either today or early next week. Pointing out that the government is committed to implementing CAS, Dasmunsi told indiantelevision.com on Friday, “I’ll review CAS in a meeting and try to understand the issues that have beset it.”

    The minister however, refused to spell out in detail his agenda on CAS. “The ministry’s broad stand on CAS has been conveyed to the (Delhi) high court.”

    In a reply filed before the Delhi HC some days back, the government sought eight to nine months’ time to implement the court’s order on rolling out addressability in Indian cable homes in select cities.

    Dasmunsi also hinted that a big roadblock in the way of smooth implementation of CAS are the different voices in which the various industry stakeholders are speaking.

    “There hardly seems to be a consensus amongst them,” the minister said on the sidelines of a book release function in the capital.

    On 10 March 2006, the Delhi HC had directed the government to roll out CAS in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata within 30 days time.

    The directive came on a petition filed by a bunch of MSOs, including Hathway and INCablenet, alleging that a delay in implementing CAS since 2004 has resulted in huge financial losses to them.

    The I&B ministry held a series of meeting with the industry, NGOs and consumer bodies soon after the court order, but said in view of inconsistency in the approach of the stakeholders, more time would be needed to iron the differences.

    The next date of hearing of the CAS case is 24 May.

  • 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.

  • Cable war erupts in Mumbai

    Cable war erupts in Mumbai

    Mumbai is facing a round of cable rivalry and war. Reportedly, underworld kingpin Chhota Rajan has reportedly being threatening the former minister of state Ramdas Kadam and his brother Sadanand Kadam who run a cable network, Sai Cable Network, affiliated with the InCable breakaway, Win Cable, in the Dahisar-Borivali-Kandivli area in northern Mumbai, which almost has a monopoly in the locality. They have reportedly been asked to forego their stake in Sai Cable Network and merge it with Seven Star Cable network which is said to be run by Rajan front man Kashi-Pashi.

    Another incident was reported from the Sion-King Circle area in north Mumbai. The Hinduja run cable network, InCableNet,set up a head-end in the area and roped in a Chhota Rajan frontman to operate from there. This apparently has ruffled the feathers of sub operators affiliated with InCableNet in the locality who have switched over to InCable arch rival Siticable. These operators – about 32 of them – used to take a signal feed from another Hinduja headend located in the suburb of Mahim.

    A Hinduja spokesperson agreed that InCable had set up a new headend but it was done to improve the signal available to suboperators and also to be in a position to offer them southern Indian language channels on the prime band which cable TV subscribers had been demanding. Siticable officials, however, dismissed the report of any shifting loyalties saying that everything was normal in the locality.

    The lucrative cable trade which commands a lot of revenues and huge profits has always been plagued by disputes and wars. It has since the beginning of cable TV in India been influenced by politicians and the underworld. It however had appeared united when all the cable TV networks in Mumbai blacked out ESPN-Star Sports a couple of months ago. The unity has since fractured and the bickering amongst the cable TV operators is once again become public.

    The trade will become more lucrative with the introduction of broadband internet access. Everyone wants to grab their share of the pie which is worth around Rs 45 billion as of now.

  • Three big MSOs work towards common pricing

    Three big MSOs work towards common pricing

    MUMBAI: The three big multi-system operators (MSOs) – Siticable, Hathway Cable & Datacom and Incablenet – are working on a common pricing on their digital cable TV service to make their offerings consumer friendly.

    On the digital set-top boxes (STBs), they are planning to offer a rental scheme of Re 1 a day at a refundable security deposit of Rs 999 once conditional access system (CAS) comes into place. Even without buying STBs, consumers can, thus, shift to digital cable by paying a nominal monthly rent.

    “The understanding among the three MSOs is to offer a common pricing to our subscribers so that there is no confusion in the market. We will be offering a rental plan of Re 1 a day. We also plan to extend this to our service packages as well,” says IndusInd Media & Communications Ltd (IMCL) director Ravi Mansukhani.

    Admits Hathway Cable & Datacom CEO K Jayaraman, “We have decided to work together. Unless we cooperate, the roll out of CAS won’t be smooth as there are forces working against it.”

    The three MSOs will focus on servicing their respective customers rather than be engaged in competition amongst themselves. Though Hathway and Siticable operators are in fight over certain territories in Delhi, these issues are expected to be sorted out.

    The MSOs will also try to unite their distributors and last mile operators (LMOs), but margins across the value chain will be decided only after broadcasters work out commercial agreements with them. They have already written to broadcasters and are awaiting their responses.

    The MSOs are making concerted efforts to clear out certain common perceptions on CAS like it not being consumer friendly. “The Bill was not enacted for the MSOs but for the consumers. The boxes will be available on rental schemes and the monthly subscription fees will fall as consumers can select the channels they want to pay for. Under the current system, the prices are artificially controlled and the consumer is subsidised,” Siticable CEO Jagjit Kohli said, while addressing a press conference today in Mumbai.

    Commenting on the competition from direct-to-home (DTH), Kohli said cable had the advantage of packaging channels according to local demand. “DTH has the constraint of transponder space while cable can offer more channels,” he said.

    Meanwhile, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has called for a meeting at Delhi on Monday with the MSOs and the distributors to discuss on issues over CAS.

  • Maharashtra government doubles cable TV tax rate

    Maharashtra government doubles cable TV tax rate

    The government in the western Indian state of Maharashtra has doubled the entertainment taxes that cable TV operators have to fork out to its coffers. Taxes were levied at the rate of Rs 5,10, and 15 per subscriber, depending on the subscriber’s location. These have been doubled. The purpose to enhance the state’s revenues. The government made these announcements in the state budget for 2000-2001 announced yesterday.

    Maharashtra is amongst the leading cable TV viewing states in India. And there is alarm that other state governments may also make similar moves in their budgets.

    Fears have also risen that the imposition will actually lead to a rise in subscriber fees because cable TV operators will not be interested in forking out the higher duty from their pockets. Currently, cable TV subscriber rates in Maharashtra range between Rs 75 and Rs 125 a month. These are expected to go up by about 25 per cent at least with the average cable TV fees rising to Rs 125, unlike Rs 100 that is the average currently.

    Says Siticable western region head D.K. Pandey: “We do not have to pay entertainment tax, it’s the cable TV operator who has to do so. We are not really impacted by the hike.”

    The other MSO in Maharashtra InCableNet is expected to voice a protest against the government’s impost later today. It has been lobbying with the government on this issue. But will the higher entertainment tax result in substantially higher revenues to the exchequer?

    Marginally, probably. Normally, cable TV operators tend to under-declare their subscriber base to the tune of 70 per cent to subscription channels and to government as they want to stem the outflow of money from their end. Since there are no audits or subscriber declaration compulsions to a cable TV authority, they fudge their numbers to reduce their burden. That will likely continue here too. If the tax authorities insist on tax payments based on last year’s entertainment tax disclosures, the cable operator can easily turn around and say that he has lost subscribers to rival or smaller operators or they have not renewed their subscription.