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Tag: Trinity Platco

  • Cable frat calls nationwide strike over service tax

    Cable frat calls nationwide strike over service tax

    NEW DELHI: The cable fraternity has threatened that from tomorrow (17 August), TV screens would go on the blink, as all cable services will be stopped, except for news channels.

    The reason for this nationwide strike by cable operators and multi-system operators, under the aegis of All-India Cable TV Forum, is to protest against the imposition of 8 per cent service tax on the cable industry.

    Pointing out that service tax would “cripple” the cable industry as any increase in cable prices is resisted strongly by subscribers, Siti Cable head Jawahar Goel said that under these circumstance, cable operators and MSOs are left with no alternative but to go on an all-India “indefinite strike.”

    All major towns of India will stop the services of cable TV from 17 August morning. However, four news channels will remain operative on cable TV services during the strike period in public interest. The Forum has appealed to all subscribers to bear with it and “support us in our fight to abolish the unjustified service tax.”

    Some of industry bodies and companies that have come together to support this strike include Hathway Datacom (Win cable), Siti Cable, RPG, Trinity Platco (formerly Spectranet), Cable Operators United Front (COUF), CODA (Mumbai), Forum of Cable Operators, Kolkata, Tamizhaga Cable TV Urimaiyalargal Sangam, Chennai, Rajasthan Cable Operators Front, Federation of Punjab Cable Operators, Avishkar and Punjab Cable TV Network Association.

    However, striking a discordant note was Hinduja Group MSO InCableNet. Speaking on behalf of Mumbai’s biggest MSO, Ashok Mansukhani, executive vice-president, corporate services, Hinduja TMT (parent of INCableNet), explained his company’s stand thus: “We would like to carry out further dialogue with the government on the issue of service tax and have requested the authorities to sympathetically consider the memorandum given in this regard to the Central Board of Excise and Customs.”

    “We would prefer to await the final budgetary proposals likely to be moved by the finance minister shortly before taking any such steps as they are not in the interests of the consumer,” Mansukhani added.

    Cable operators in Bangalore also said they were not joining the agitation, saying the strike call had been given with too short a notice.

    Meanwhile, In a letter to the finance and the IT & telecom ministers on the service tax issue, the Forum has urged the government to abolish the tax and stated, “The cable TV operators and MSO are disappointed by the non-supportive attitude of the government regarding our legitimate demand for abolishing the service tax on cable TV services in India.”

    According to Goel, cable operators have been pursuing with the government for withdrawal of service tax for long, but instead of its withdrawal, the tax net has been extended to include MSOs also. Cable operators are being 
    forced by the government to increase the subscription from consumers as at present they are not collecting any tax from public/ subscribers.

    The tax that is being paid comes from the collection of cable operators and this is a reason for poor collection by the State exchequer, Goel said, adding that this tax is not justified at all on the subscribers of the cable TV, which is the general public.

    Why should service tax be abolished on cable services? The Forum in the letter to the finance minister has listed the following reasons:

    1) Cable TV has become a necessity for general public and a very important source of information. The information and news are provided immediately as and when it happens and much earlier than even the latest newspaper reports. Cable TV revolution has helped the nation to integrate (debatable, though). Cable TV advantages warrant tax-free regime for the industry. Entertainment content is carried by newspapers to make reading more interesting. Similarly, cable TV carries entertainment so that information and education can be made available to subscribers at large.

    2) Tax will put extra burden on the public and may make cable TV out of reach of general public.

    3) No other parallel services like DTH or broadband have any service tax levied on them.

    4) Service Tax on Cable TV is not justified as it is part of the entertainment industry and no other sector of the entertainment industry has any service tax levied on it.

    5) Cable operators are self-employed small businessmen and have no infrastructure to collect such taxes. This will encourage inspector raj once again and stop the growth of this industry.

    6) There is no contribution from the government at any level to the cable operators.

  • MSOs to petition finance ministry on service tax

    NEW DELHI: The cable industry, especially the multi-system operators (MSOs) have not taken very well to a budgetary announcement relating to service tax and would be petitioning the finance ministry on the issue.

    What’s more, the MSOs feel that finance minister P. Chidambaram is subjecting them to “double taxation.”

    According to cable industry sources, the MSO Alliance, a newly-formed body of MSOs, is slated to petition the finance ministry on the issue of service tax either tomorrow or early next week.

    In the budgetary proposals announced earlier this month, it has been specifically explained “cable operator service will include MSOs.”

     

    One of the points that would be highlighted in the petition is that since MSOs already pay service tax — increased to 10 per cent from this financial year — for cable service rendered through networks directly controlled and owned by them, bringing them under the tax net would amount to double taxation, which is not justifiable.

     

    But most MSOs also don’t have direct presence in many cities and even in a city too. While work through franchisees (like Hathway and INCablenet), others like Siti Cable have joint venture partners in a majority of places.

    Another point that is likely to be brought up is that there is a “basic difficulty” in getting the service tax from the local cable operators, especially those who are franchisees and joint venture partners (as in the case of Siti Cable), as the LCOs don’t declare their entire subscriber base.

    MSO Alliance is a body of some of the big companies operating in this sector and comprises Rajan Raheja-controlled Hathway Datacom, Hindujas-controlled IndusInd Media (INCablenet), Sun group’s parent company Sumangali (SCV), RPG Network, Trinity Platco and Zee Telefilms cable subsidiary Siti Cable.

    However, if the MSOs admit in their petition to the government that LCOs under-declare, it may just go about strengthening the case of another section of the broadcast and cable industry that feels that gross under-reporting by the cable industry is resulting in huge losses to it.

     

  • Siti Cable, Trinity Platco tie up for distribution and content

    Siti Cable, Trinity Platco tie up for distribution and content

    NEW DELHI: Siti Cable and Trinity Platco (formerly known as Spectranet) have announced a strategic marketing alliance in ground distribution and content management for the Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi.
     

    According to an official statement, with this alliance, Siti Cable and Trinity Platco would bring together their combined experience in ground distribution and content management, respectively. “This alliance will make the Siti Trinity combine the largest network in Delhi and the NCR,” said Siti Cable executive vice-president Rajiv Khattar in the statement.

    The alliance proposes to optimise its services by providing both digital and analogue services to the consumers in an attractive packaging of their joint services. Technically, it would be one service with ground distribution being retained in the manner that the two would not have to carry out any major changes in their existing distribution system, the statement added.

    This alliance would allow the customer free choice of service with different genre of content. In addition to the choice of boxes, the two are also planning to offer, in the very near future, value-added services which would enhance the consumer’s viewing experience.

  • Star ex-distribution head’s company Trinity Platco stitches deal with MSO Spectranet

    NEW DELHI: Former Star India distribution head Arun Mohan is back in business after keeping a low profile for over a year. And he is doing what he knows best — distribution.
    Mohan’s company, AM Trinity Platco Pvt. Ltd. (where, probably AM stands for Arun Mohan), has stitched a 10-year lease management deal with Delhi’s Punj family-controlled Spectranet, a multi-system operator (MSO) that also has laid fiber optics in certain parts of the city with plans to offer broadband services too.
    Confirming the deal to indiantelevision.com, Mohan today said, “The total video business of Spectranet has been hived off to Trinity in a deal that envisages a long term relationship.”
    The deal signed entails Trinity paying a flat monthly to Spectranet fee for usage of its infrastructure. Mohan, however, did not divulge the financial details saying, “It’s confidential, but we are here to do business on a long term basis.”
    Spectranet, which started off at a time when the dotcom boom was on and talks of broadband services were being bandied around, though is not a dominant player in Delhi’s cable TV scenario. But it has a sizable number of subscribers, including a large chunk in South Delhi where CAS is being sought to be rolled out by the cable industry from 15 December, subsequent to a Delhi high court order earlier this month quashion denotification of Delhi from the CAS rollout map.
    Spectranet would continue to own the network and the fibre optic network even as Trinity expands the business and uses the infrastructure. Mohan, however, did not specify whether this was a precursor to a takeover of Spectranet as the branding has already changed over to Trinity Network.
    Spectranet has been open to acquisition and/or merger for some years now with the owners, the Punj family, having held several rounds of negotiations with some corporate houses (including the Tata group), which are also active in related fields like telecom and value added services in an era where convergence (of services like cable TV, fixed line telephony, data transfer, video-on-demand, etc.) is likely to take place sooner or later.
    According to Mohan, the network of Trinity is getting ready to implement CAS in Delhi’s south zone along with other MSOs.
    Broadcast and cable industry sources indicated that if Mohan’s company manages to do a successful job in Delhi, then the company and the services can expand to cities like Mumbai and position itself as an alternative option for broadcasters, especially the pay ones, having problems with the MSO having the biggest market share, the Hinduja-owned INCablenet.
    But this scenario is easier said than done. The cable business in India is not any Ram, Shyam and Krishna’s cup of tea. With muscle power, coupled with financial capabilities, having crept into this business a few years back (murders and threats by goons are common), getting the present franchisees of INCableNet to switch loyalty to somebody else would be a difficult task.