What We Buy
Clearer picture on the small screen….Shuchi Bansal
An analogue cable cannot offer more than 100-120 channels while digitalization enables it to carry up to 900-1,000 channels depending on the quality of the service providers network
Clearer picture on the small screen….Shuchi Bansal
An analogue cable cannot offer more than 100-120 channels while digitalization enables it to carry up to 900-1,000 channels depending on the quality of the service providers network
As a viewer of television you must be hearing and reading a lot on the governments move to shift the entire country to digital cable from analogue which is currently the popular way to deliver channels to your homes. If you are already a direct-to-home (DTH) customer of companies such as Dish TV, Tata Sky or others, your life will not change much. But for the remaining 126 million cable and satellite homes, a transformation is in the offing.
By and large, the change will be good even though you may end up paying slightly more for your entertainment. For starters, cable TV customers in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai will have to install a set-top box to ensure an uninterrupted supply of television channels once analogue signals are turned off on 30 June. Though the government reiterated its intention to meet the sunset date, hectic lobbying is currently on in New Delhi to push the deadline by a couple of months over some unresolved issues including shortage of set top boxes.
The set-top boxwhich your cable operator will either offer on rent or sellis coming to you at a huge subsidy. Some large cable networks are offering the Rs. 1,500 box for Rs. 500 only. The box instantly guarantees better picture quality and more channels.
An analogue cable cannot offer more than 100-120 channels while digitalization enables it to carry up to 900-1,000 channels depending on the quality of the service providers network. There are over 831 registered channels in India today. Since digitalization has been planned in phases beginning with the four metros, audiences in these cities will have access to 200 channels beginning 1 July. By 1 April 2013, this number has to go up to 500.
From these bouquets you can pick and choose and pay only for channels you want to see. It is your legal right. The ministry of information and broadcasting has made it mandatory for operators to offer a la carte menu. Any digital platform that denies this right will risk losing his licence.
The government had asked DTH companies and digital cable operators back in 2010 to offer a la carte menu or channels on a stand-alone basis but few of them complied. Now you will have a complaint mechanism at your disposal which your service provider has to put in place.
There are other benefits too. In case you are shifting out of your current premises and moving to a new area, you can surrender the set top box and get a refund. This will be based on the terms you and your service provide had agreed to at the time of rentingbuying the set-top box.
The range of services offered will also improve over a period of time. Your cablewallah will be able to offer you video on demand (VoD), that is, content that you may ask for or even digital video recorders that allow you to record television shows for viewing at leisure. Ultimately, digital cable is capable of delivering broadband and, hence, any service that you can associate with it.
Broadcasters insist that digitalization will help them improve their programmes and indirectly benefit the viewers. Here is how: Set-top boxes work with encrypted signals and ensure transparency in the number of homes they reach. So under-declaration of subscriber numbers is expected to fade out, making sure that channel owners make more money. They promise to plough this revenue back in their shows. Currently, channels are driven by advertising and therefore focus mostly on popular shows for wider appeal. Digitalization is expected to drive niche, differentiated programming as the broadcasters are confident of asking you to pay for it.
However, monthly bills may go up only for those who want lots of pay-TV channels. A basic tier of free-to-air channels will be available for Rs. 100 a month. But no pay channel like Star Plus, Zee, Sony and Colors, will be part of this bouquet unless they wish to become free-to-air.
Some cable industry veterans believe that the cost of the free-to-air bouquet of 100 channels could even drop to Rs. 90 a month owing to intense competition among service providers. Add five pay channels to this tier and you could end up paying Rs. 150 a month. But this may not be the norm as the price of pay channels have not been fixed by the government. So a broadcaster could ask for a higher price for a channel he thinks is popular. Price of sports channels are expected to go up during the cricket season.
To be sure, television entertainment in India is hugely subsidized. In the US, the average subscription a month is $80 (compared to, say, $4 in India) while in the UK, it is close to £50.
While experts in the television industry view it as a welcome correction, few are expecting any major increase in monthly payouts because the market is crowded with suppliers of cable services.
Shuchi Bansal is marketing and media editor with Mint. Comment at whatwebuy@livemint.com