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Lukewarm response to CAS (conditional access system) so far, but no worries at review meetBy Mrs Gupta, Section News
In Kolkata, it has to be in place in nine areas -- Behala, Alipur, New Alipur, Chetla, Kidderpore, Garden Reach, Maheshtala, Budge Budge and Keorapukur
The figures say it all: of the 2,25,000 cable and satellite households in Kolkata who are supposed to be watching pay channels only via set-top boxes (STBs) from January 1, just about 10,000-12,000 have welcomed the gadgets that will allow broadcasters to track exactly how many watch their channels. But multi-system operators (MSOs) like SitiCables, Manthan Broadband and CableComm on Tuesday told the state government that they had done all that is required of them to ensure that viewers in the four areas of Kolkata get the pay channels only via the STBs or decoders. Officially, the last-mile cable TV operators report a subscriber base of only 25,000 for these areas, against 2.25 lakh. By this count, half have opted for the STBs. The government, on its part, seemed to be satisfied with the report card. Three years after the Centre failed to enforce the conditional access system (CAS), the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) notified in August this year that MSOs would have to implement the CAS from January 1 in select areas of Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai. In Chennai, the fourth metro, the CAS regime failed since the most popular channels, which are all regional ones, are free to air. The CAS regime will enable MSOs to collect the actual subscriptions that now taken by the last-mile operators. In turn, broadcasters like STAR or Zee will be able to get the full benefit of their pay channels. At present, last-mile operators are known to suppress actual numbers of cable TV homes.
In Kolkata, CAS has to be in place in nine areas -- Behala, Alipur, New Alipur, Chetla, Kidderpore, Garden Reach, Maheshtala, Budge Budge and Keorapukur -- that have a total of 2,25,000 cable TV homes. The city has around 2,200,000 cable TV homes.
MSO officials said that, so far, 10,000 subscribers have already received or have asked for STBs. Siti and Siti-owned Indian Cable Net Co (formerly RPG Netcom) have already installed 7,000 STBs, with bookings from 1,500 end-users. Manthan, the second largest MSO in Kolkata as well as in the notified area, has sent out over 1,500 STBs and has an equal number in hand. CableComm, the third out of three MSOs, has only 200 orders. Abhijit Sanyal, the nodal officer for CAS as also the joint secretary and ex-officio director of films, in the department of information and cultural affairs, said: "It was review meeting. We needed to know the enquires and the level of preparedness. We are very much in favour of implementing CAS." According to Sudip Ghosh, director of Manthan Broadband, initially the customers are not expected to be keen of CAS. It is only when they realise that they cannot watch their favourite pay channels without the STBs that they will opt for the system. "Over 65% of entire notified area will be under CAS by the first quarter of the next year," Ghosh said. According to him, Alipur and New Alipur will have 95% each, Behala-Chetla 75% each, Maheshtala-Budge Budge 70% each, Kidderpore and Garden Reach 60%. Some MSOs, like Manthan, are offering 21 pay channels free for a year if the subscriber buys the STB outright for Rs 2,999. Source- http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=214821
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