With more than 30 per cent cable households in the city possessing set top boxes, the change-over to digital mode of transmission in Bangalore will not be an onerous task compared to the difficulties faced by Chennai and Kolkata where the completion of digitalization process has been mandated by October 31st.
Meanwhile, the cable TV industry in the city is gearing up to meet the requirements of digitalization in rest of the 16 lakh households fearing revocation of their licenses due to non-compliance of the TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) ruling.
With the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting carrying out day-to-day monitoring of switch over from Analog mode to Digital Addressable Cable TV System (DAS) in a phased-manner all over the country, the Multi-System Operators (MSOs) are in the hotseat for ensuring the purchase and installation of set top boxes in all the cable households. In fact, the MSOs will have to invest Rs 300-350 crore for importing this equipment but it is your Local Cable Operator (LCO) who will do the door-to-door installation. All MSOs have to install a consumer redressal system, complete with a complaint centre with toll free consumer care number, web based complaint monitoring system, while also designating one or more nodal officers and publishing the consumer’s charter.
“With the digital era commencing, the LCOs will just be the interface between the MSOs and the consumers, tackling all technical problems and maintaining the entire database of the viewers which hitherto was unknown,” says R Ganesh, CEO, Vyapak Consultancy. While R Narasimha Swamy, BECIL GM adds, “The local cable fellow who till today ruled this sector will now have no control and just be a facilitator to install the boxes. The mafia element in this sector will also slowly disappear as the entire operations will be controlled by the MSOs. With computer billing and complaints addressed to a call centre by the viewers, the LCO’s role will be minimized in the days to come.”
Presently, the city has 9 MSOs like DEN, Atria, Kaizen, City Cable, Incable, Hathway, HCN, Mplex and Amogha while there are 1500 registered LCOs. However, with the implementation of the DAS, MSOs will now be in the driver’s seat. Vinod Gangal, Product Manager, Rohde & Schwarz says, “People are not comfortable with the cable TV people as they have no etiquitte or customer relations and lack proper knowledge with the result, they are unable to deal either with the cable or broadcasting problems when they visit households. They not only need technical training but also a course in customer care.”
With only 1000 cable TV technicians in Bangalore who are hardly educated and highly untrained, the industry is sending their personnel for a four-day-training course organised by Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd to address the issues of digital installation.
One batch this month has successfully completed the training course. Shashi Kantu, CEO, Kaizen Cable Services says, “The cable industry in Bangalore needs another 5000 technicians by January, next year and so, we will be hiring a lot in the coming days as well as get them trained.”
Miffed with the TRAI order, the cable industry is up in arms as they say with DAS, they have to meet the challenges of capital investment, technology, supply of necessary equipment and training of engineers in a very short period of time. “The government has meted out a step motherly treatment to the industry what with mandating a date for digitalization. Although excise duty has been waived off to 5 per cent for importing the set top boxes, now each MSO will have to invest Rs 45 crore to implement this ruling.
It takes time to import the boxes, test run and deliver them to the viewers and a bigger challenge to convince the masses to invest Rs 1500 for a box, “ says A K Sekhar, CTO, Mplex Networks.
If one recollects, cable TV services in India began in an unorganised way in the 1990s and over the years, all kinds of people including criminals entered this sector with the prevalence of ‘mafia element’ in many cities of the country.
There has been a gradual deterioration in the quality of cable service as well as quantity of channels provided by the provider with many of them even switching channels from primary to secondary band and vice versa depending on the dealings with the concerned broadcaster.
For that matter, many broadcasters too were at the mercy of the local cable operators who charged a high carriage fee for a long time now but with digitalization of services by March 31st, next year in Bangalore, Mysore and 36 other cities in the country, the scenario is definitely going to change for the better not only for the broadcaster but also for the television viewers with better picture quality, a selection of more than 500 channels, video on demand and internet services too.