The estimated investment is over Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion). Large cable distribution firms like Digital Entertainment Network (DEN), Digicable, Hathways, WWIL and InCable are planning to introduce conditional access system (CAS) across cities like Lucknow, Kanpur, Gurgaon, Jaipur, Faridabad, Indore, Baroda even before the CAS rollout in these cities is made mandatory.
The move is aimed at slowing the penetration of DTH players like Tata Sky and Dish TV, who between them are adding at least 120,000 DTH subscribers per month from tier-II cities. The two DTH players add about 200,000 subscribers per month overall.
CAS technology allows consumers to pay for only the channels they subscribe to and was mooted to bring standardisation in cable quality, transparency in billing and lower the bills.
Currently, over 70 million cable homes in the country receive poor quality cable television and pay monthly cable bills ranging from Rs 50 to Rs 400. With an initial investment of Rs 500 crore, cable firms like DEN, Digicable, Hathways and InCable, among others, have already lined up over 20,000 independent cable operators across these towns.
"Our digital cable services will soon begin in cities like Lucknow, Kanpur and Agra where we will offer cable subscribers our digital set-top boxes and various monthly schemes. We will also explain to them the benefits of digital cable," said Vikas Bali, president, digital, DEN.
Experts say fully-functional CAS has several advantages over DTH technology. "In CAS, value-added services like movies-on-demand, pay-per-view and local channels can be added according to local demand. But DTH companies can only club regional channels as bouquets as they have fixed transponder space," said an industry expert.
The current phase of CAS rollout, spread over the next 10-12 months, is aimed at converting about 1.2 million existing cable and satellite homes. Digital set-top boxes are on offer along with a choice of 150-170 digital cable channels at monthly rentals as low as Rs 30 and an option to buy set-top boxes.
There are also plans to allow consumers to choose their own bouquet for a monthly fee of Rs 150-300. DEN is actively forming alliances with local cable operators and investing in upgrading transmission facilities and set-top boxes. Of the total 76 million cable homes in the country, new cable players like DEN and Digicable are eyeing at least 20 per cent market within the next 12-18 months, before new DTH players like Big TV (Reliance ADAG) and Bharti join the existing players.
"We will soon announce our network of cable operators. Several hundred crores of investments have already been made across the country so that we are ready with the digital cable infrastructure when CAS is rolled out," said JS Kohli, chief executive, Digicable.
Currently, of the 76 million cable homes, the subscription revenue comes from only 15-18 per cent homes due to under-declaration of subscriber numbers. "When a large chunk of cable homes are digital and accounted for, the subscription revenue collection will shoot up, benefiting all stakeholders, including consumers, cable operators and broadcasters," said an industry analyst.
