'You have to sell CAS, not force it'

MUMBAI: As television becomes unmanageable in terms of size and controversy, people in the entertainment circus have brought in a skilled toughie to handle the beast.
FICCI, which has turned its energies to the entertainment sector in the last three years or so, has appointed Sony TV head Kunal Dasgupta as co-chairman of its entertainment committee.
While film-maker Yash Chopra has chaired the panel since its inception, Mr Dasgupta''s appointment is seen as a focus shift from the big to the small screen. In ten years, the TV industry is estimated to grow into a Rs 30,000-Rs 40,000 crore industry.
More immediately, there are controversies around technologies like conditional access system (CAS) and direct to home (DTH) to address. However, Mr Dasgupta refuses to narrow-base issues.
"CAS is just one of the things," he said. "A lot is happening in the TV industry. There are issues relating to DTH, advertising share, work in a converged environment and ownership of TV media."
But he said, "CAS has not been done well." He cites the instance of Chennai, where the technology has already been implemented, to point out that people are not happy and the credibility of CAS has suffered because of rash and premature implementation.
"The biggest lesson from Chennai is that people are not going to pay for what is already available," he said.
"No technology can be thrust on them. Abroad, the cost of the set-top box is borne by the multiservice providers (MSO). That is how the technology makes a painless entry into people''s lives."
He quickly adds that he is "not anti-CAS at all" because CAS is in the interest of the industry. "However, you have to sell it, not force it," he said.
He says a tussle is on between home entertainment and ''goingout-of-home entertainment''. "All over the world, only one out of three films are released in theatres," he said. "The rest get released through pay models like TV."
Mr Dasgupta dismisses the common perception that FICCI operates from one big annual event to the other and is not much more than a talk shop. "FICCI is a facilitator," he said.