Now it’s pay time folks

KOLKATA: Have “CAS,� willcarry. Get conditional, folks. Very soon, homes across Kolkata will have to getthe Conditional Access System by which one can view cable TV and choose paychannels. The emphasis is on “pay�. Cable rates will gothrough the roof and soon the Set Top Box -the gadget that will bring Zidane andBeckham to your drawing rooms - will be the owner’s envy andneighbour’s pride. Sujoy Bosu surfs this new phenomenon. Thepalm-perspiring excitement is palpable as the countdown begins. With less than afortnight to go before the FIFA World Cup kicks off, the soccer-crazy Kolkatanis realising that the adage popularised by the old Manoj Kumar flick haschanged. Say `TV’, please.Talking about bygones, yesterday’s ricketyantennae don’t work either. Even if they do, you may have to wait forhours on end after a soccer match is played. (There are indications thatDoordarshan might finally bag a ‘six-hour deferred live’ telecastrights from Ten Sports, the channel which has the exclusive rights for World Cup2002.) So, even Bumba, the six-year old kid next-door knows that it takesa very big dish to bring Zidane and Batistuta on a platter. But there’s acatch — CAS, actually — that has suddenly sprung up between theteenager and his platter. CAS stands for conditional access system andbroadly broadly refers to the technical arrangement by which Bumba can pick andhis father will pay for only those channels he wants to watch.And not whathis local cable operator wants him to watch. With Sushma Swaraj keen onimplementing CAS through legislation Bumba’s father will, henceforth, havetwo options. He can either opt for the basic tier which will comprise Rs60 per subscriber point per month for all the free-to-air channels or go in forpay channels and pay for only those channels which he wants to see.So farso good. Or is it? The bottleneck in the second option is that he has to buy aseparate device called a set-top box (STB) in order to view the paychannels.With the STBs costing anywhere between Rs 1000 (local, analogones) to Rs 9000 (imported, state-of-the-art, digital ones), the cost of cabletelevision is likely to go through the roof sooner than expected.Broadestimates show that consumers may have to shell out Rs 450-500 per month on anaverage. And herein lies the rub as most will agree that in a price sensitivecountry like India, it is the pay channels which will have to bear the maximumbrunt when CAS is compulsorily implemented. The situation is worse inKolkata which has a reputation of being the most price-sensitive metropolis inthe country. The city and its suburbs have vastly disparate cable subscriptionrates - people in some areas pay just Rs 90 per month while others are chargedmore than Rs 250 for around 80 channels. Compare this with the scenario in1992, when cable television first made its foray into India and the averagepayment from each household was around Rs 80 for just about seven or eightchannels.Now couple this with the fact that a single MSO (multi systemoperator) — RPG Netcom — enjoys a near-monopoly status in the city,and you will realise why Kolkata’s fragmented cable TV industry is in aCatch 22 situation.Says a cable operator from south Kolkata, “Theproblem is two fold. One, the moment we will ask consumers to buy a STB, theywill back out and prefer to watch only freeto-air channels. On the other hand,since the control over content will lie with the head-ends (areas which arecontrolled by MSOs and from where content is fed to local cable operators), wewill be reduced to being merely bill-collectors on behalf of the MSOs and thebroadcasters.�Concurs Tarak Saha, secretary of the citybasedFederation of Cable Operators.“If the prices (of cable TV) rise,then a vigorous reaction will emanate from the customers. All consumerscan’t accept the hike and viewing satellite television might go beyond thereach of the lower and middle class segments of our society. Only thefree-to-air channels might be seen by most,� he explains. He has apoint. While it is known that pay channels are crying hoarse over the issue, itis the free-to-air broadcasters who are having the last laugh. As aspokesman from Tara Bangla puts it, “We fully support the introduction ofCAS in the city. While the common man will benefit from the system, it willsignal an end to the huge sums of unaccounted cash that the cable operatorsflaunt so brazenly.�Meanwhile, Bumba’s palms have startedperspiring. Only this time he is fervently praying — in the hope that‘CAS’ vanishes temporarily from view till such time the World Cupfinals are over.