Move over gang war, cable war is here

MUMBAI, September 16: The killing of In CableNet executive director, Ram Punjabi, last week was the beginning of a long war which, police...

MUMBAI, September 16: The killing of In CableNet executive director, Ram Punjabi, last week was the beginning of a long war which, police believe, is only going to get bloodier. They call it “the cable war”. The stakes, they point out, are high: over 75 lakh connections, Rs 675 crore in subscriber fee and several hundred crores in advertising revenue. Big money, big clout, big risks.

And it was probably this unrelenting pursuit for size that cost Punjabi his life. At the helm of one of the fastest growing cable networks in the city, in the last five years he had embarked upon an ambitious expansion drive. Backed by the financial clout of the house of Hindujas, Punjabi had brought under the IN Cable umbrella over 60 per cent of total cable operators in the city and over 40 lakh subscribers. A man of many means, Punjabi had used both fair and foul means in his endeavour to make IN Cable the biggest network in Mumbai, police say.

The phenomenal growth of In Cable naturally gave jitters to small-timeoperators and from this insecurity were born smaller cable networks – United Cable Networks (USN), Seven Star cables, Five Star, Bhavani Cables and Spacevision. But Punjabi had another ace up his sleeves – technology. Technology that would need massive investments and which, as such, was beyond the reach of smaller operators. The aim was to replace conventional cables with optic fibres giving IN Cable transmission unmatched clarity and speed. Optical fibres would also make possible for IN Cable to control its transmission from one centre. Currently it has several control rooms spread across the city which are supplied with pre-recorded programme cassettes. In Cable had already invested Rs 200 crore in the new technology when Punjabi was killed.

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Punjabi is dead. But, the cable war rages on. The deputy commissioner of police (zone-VI) Dalbir Bharti said, “We have registered several complaints against In Cable and Siticable in various police stations including Vikhroli Parksite, Bhandup and Ghatkopar.” Also,on several occasions Siticable has dragged In Cable to court for usurping the former’s decoders. After Punjabi’s killing the crime branch has provided security to the other three directors of In CableNet, Yogesh Shah, Yogesh Radhakishan and Jagdish Singh Kohli.

Behind the scenes, takeover and mergers continue. While In Cable managed to takeover over 2 lakh cable connections of Anil Nath of Grant Road, Siticable recently bought Arvind Prabhu’s Franknet.

Use of force too is common in this business. “Goons are being employed by networks just like builders used to do in late seventies,” said a senior crime branch officer. And just like in the construction industry, there is big money involved here. Currently, Mumbai has over 75 lakh connections. Every subscriber, on an average, pays a monthly fee of Rs 100. Out of this, Rs 25 is deducted by the cable operator as maintenance fee and the rest is handed over to the network. Most of the time, subscribers do not get any receipts for the fee they pay. The othersource of revenue – advertisments – is equally lucrative. The cable distributors charge anything between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000, depending on their subscriber base, for superimposed ads. For other advertisements for which transmission needs to be interrupted the price is much higher.

So with profits increasing as fast as the competition, there is no possibility of this war ending in the near future. Move over gang war, cable war is here.