Cable Bill passed, pay and choose now

India's 38 million cable homes will finally get to see only the channels they want to see, albeit for a price. Six months after it was passe...

India’s 38 million cable homes will finally get to see only the channels they want to see, albeit for a price. Six months after it was passed by Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha today approved the Cable Television Networks (regulation) Amendment Bill 2002, empowering the Government to fix a minimum number of free-to-air channels at a reasonable price and simultaneously installing addressible systems for those consumers who are not averse to paying for encrypted channels.

Rajya Sabha passed the Bill after Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj assured the House that it did not seek to regulate content on TV. The Congress, which had all along been opposing the Bill, too gave its assent.

Every multi system operator/cable operator will now have to specify the number of subscribers it has and the rates being charged and submit the information to the Government.

‘‘The Government will not decide which channels will be free-to-air and which will be pay. This is for the broadcaster to decide. Also we cannot decide the subscription for any pay channel,’’ I&B Minister Sushma Swaraj said. ‘‘Broadcasters will no longer be able to dupe advertisers by saying that all of their programmes reach over 3.5 crore households.’’

What the amendment means to the consumer:

An investment of Rs 3,500 and upwards for a set-top box which will be programmed to receive the channels of one’s choice. see. Add to this the amount he would have to dish out for watching pay channels, such as Star Plus, CNN, BBC, etc, the price of which has been left to market forces.

This will be besides the Rs 150 he is expected to fork out to receive the free-to-air channels like DD, Eenadu, Aaj Tak, Lashkara etc.

What it means to the cable operator: An investment of nearly Rs 8 lakh in a subscriber management system. Every pay channel requires an encoder for encrypting the channels. He will be required to maintain an account of the subscribers. In the long run, the smaller operators who are not in a position to invest in a system will be eased out of business. Consolidation among cable operators likely.

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What this means to the broadcaster: The broadcasters will expect money from all 38 million cable homes. Currently they claim they are being paid only for 10 million. They can expect viewership of some channels to go down as people switch to what they want to see. For instance, currently they have to watch all the Star and Zee channels.

Once the system is in place, they can choose and eliminate. The advertising revenue of channels is expected to drop as the system throws up real viewership figures.

What it means to the Government: The Government will be able to collect more revenue from entertainment tax and the five per cent service tax. Censorship (though ruled out officially) will become easy as the Government would be in a position to make it obligatory for cable operators to transmit programmes of pay channels through an addressible system.