Consumer is the king in air CAStles

As for broadcasters — all of them are talking only about reaching out to consumers when they reel out prices of channels in their bouquet. They are bunching into groups, meeting officials individually with their price lists, often bundling channels to woo consumers, (as is the norm but against the wishes of the government which wants them to offer channels individually to help the consumer) — at rates that range from Rs 50 per month (Star bouquet) to Rs 1.80 paise per day (Zee). Even as this is being written, ESPN’s Manu Sawhney, Discovery’s Deepak Shourie have met with officials. Tomorrow, it is Star’s Peter Mukherjea’s turn.

They have even stopped beaming advertisements which asked consumers to shell out at least Rs 7,000 for a set-top box required to access some channels. So now all they are asking is for consumers to get in touch with their cable operators to place their orders for a box.

While Star, it is learnt, is readying for offering discounts to viewers valid for a period of time, as well as offering to re-run hugely popular programmes for consumers who cannot afford to pay up, Sony too is thinking on the same lines. Zee has asked for some more time to confabulate with cable operators before announcing the price of their 11-odd channels. This Zee did after offering to give all their channels for the price of Rs 1.80 per day — an offer promptly rejected by the ministry.

As for the MSOs, the stakeholders in the chain who really have to invest in the acquisition and maintenance of elaborate subscriber management systems after the boxes arrive, they are not declaring the number of orders placed for boxes, but are assuring ministry officials all the while that the boxes will be in place on D-day. Officials are not complaining.

The last guy in the chain, the cable operator, has no clue but has sensed a sudden victory. In CAS, he thinks he can finally have his say and his money too.

As for the consumer, he too is seeking appointments with the Minister and everyone else. No one has knocked at his doors yet. But they are fighting for his cause.