The Hindu : Choose your channels

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 18, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

Choose your channels

AMENDMENTS TO THE Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act of 1995, passed by Parliament, while arming the Government with enhanced powers to regulate paid channels in order to enforce transparency and accountability, will leave viewership and patronage to be determined largely by market forces. The provision incorporated in the new law for the introduction of the Conditional Access System (CAS) device will soon make it mandatory for cable operators to route all pay channels through an addressable system. Subscribers will, however, not be required to install any additional device as far as viewing free-to-air channels is concerned. Once the new system is in place, it would be possible for the Government to keep a tab on the total number of subscribers under each cable operator and their subscription rates, besides obtaining a break-up in terms of viewers receiving basic services as well as pay channels. This has been an important area of concern from the point of view of revenue flows because the absence of reliable viewership records in the past has led to under-reporting of the number of subscribers by cable service providers. Another provision also empowers the Government to stipulate the maximum fee that operators may demand from subscribers against free-to-air channels. This is indeed timely in view of the highly arbitrary manner in which subscriptions are fixed and the erratic manner in which channels are transmitted by cable operators; not to mention the low quality of transmission itself. In sum, the new law equips the Government to effectively monitor the expanding cable industry, keeping in view also the interests of the viewing public.

An important feature of the CAS is that, unlike in the past, viewers would be able to subscribe to only those pay channels they want to watch. To be sure, its implications would be far-reaching; cutting across broadcasters, cable operators and advertisers. To begin with, considering the pervasive dissatisfaction with the present quality of television soap opera and excessive depiction of violence, the power to determine the pay channels one would receive on television sets would be valued in many Indian homes as a critical choice; albeit only a negative one. On the positive side, the audience profiles that television networks would be able to generate — thanks to the new technology — should contribute to improvement in the overall quality of programmes; whether these are in the areas of news and current affairs, education or pure entertainment. Similarly, the advertisement industry can hope to target a predetermined segment of the market, much in the same manner as witnessed in the print media in recent years. The average viewer will very likely experience enormous relief from the neighbourhood cable operator and his cartels as a consequence of increased Government control. As of now, the experience with cable services uniformly is one of subscribers remaining hostage to the monopoly of operators, lack of consistent and quality service and unilateralism in pricing. Thus, although viewership in the paid channel segment may have offered greater access to variety than in the free-to-air counterpart, this has meant little in terms of quality both in programmes and reception.

It would indeed be premature to predict the impact of the switchover to the new technology on any of the above areas. But the transition itself is not likely to be stalled on any count, since additional input cost to individual subscribers is gradually bound to diminish over the long term. What is certain though is that the new law signals market diversification, expansion and segmentation in the cable television networks industry.

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