SESSION
ONE
'Let
CAS happen' - urge MSO's, Broadcasters and Media agencies
In
the second leg of exchange4media's Symposium on CAS
- The Road Ahead held in New Delhi, individuals representing
the Cable Industry, Media Servicing agencies and the
free to air channels said in one voice - CAS will
happen and it should happen for the betterment of
consumers and the Cable TV industry.
Representing
the power packed panel were G Krishnan, CEO TV Today,
Sanjay Gupta, Editor and CEO Dainik Jagran, Bashab
Sarkar, MD Maximize, Tamali Sen Gupta, Media Lawyer,
Jawahar Goel, Director Zee TV and Rakesh Dutta, Director
Globescan. The session discussed the topic 'CAS -
Issues, Impact and Implementation which was moderated
by Tony Joseph, Consulting Editor Businessworld.
The
discussion got initiated in the backdrop of the developments
in last evening's meeting between the Broadcasters
and Cable operators. Rakesh Dutta of Gloescan said,
"We had initiated the proposal on CAS was back
in 1998 and we had mentioned to the then I&B minister
Sushma Swaraj that the declaration of pricing of Individual
Pay channels would hold the key to the success or
failure of CAS." The prices proposed by the pay
channels yesterday are not acceptable to Cable operators
and the Government.
Jawahar
Goel took the point further and announced, "Tiering
will not be able to work in India." He further
added "Had all the parties worked in close co-ordination
on CAS, then it would have got implemented with 75-80
percent of penetration of Set top boxes in C&S
homes."
On
the question of government's role in bringing about
an apt solution to the 'CAS confusion', G Krishnan
of TV Today said, "In order to bring out some
amount of order in the cable industry, 18 months ago
all parties had together approached the government
- Now they will have to listen to the government's
decision in this matter." He further added that
the prices in any industry are always decided by the
industry itself and so should be the case in media
and entertainment industry too.
The
cable representatives showed grave concerns on the
distribution margins and citied the examples of western
markets where the margins are 60-65 percent. Sanjay
Gupta of Dainik Jagran was apprehensive about the
complete roll out of CAS on a national level. He said,
"While the markets in Metros are fast in adapting
to changing technologies, I have my doubts on it when
it comes to smaller cities. Since broadcasting involves
high costs and investments, I believe free to air
channels would gain a lot in smaller cities."
Gazing
into the future, the panelists showed optimism post
CAS. Krishnan said, "CAS will lead to an increase
in C&S homes. Three years ago we had 20 million
C&S homes, today it stands at 40 million and three
years hence it will touch 150 million C&S homes."
Tamali
Sen Gupta was very optimistic. She opined, "
I am very optimistic about CAS as it would lead to
more money coming into the entertainment and TV Industry."
Bashab Sarkar while sharing the sentiments added,
"Its very evident that when anything new is introduced
in the market - the consumer over reacts but later
settles down. Overall CAS will have a positive outcome."
Jawahar
Goel sharing his thoughts on the future of industry
said, " Today our Industry is worth Rs 15000
Crores and in three years time it will touch Rs 25,000
crores." While future is very far from present
day's scenario, according to industry sources, the
government of India has made it clear that either
the pay channels would have to come up with a realistic
individual pricing or face ban post CAS. While cable
operators and free to air broadcasters are all for
the implementation of CAS - its not very clear as
to why pay channels are not coming out with a realistic
individual pricing. Commenting on the pricing Krishnan
said, "I fail to understand these pricing. According
to me the prices can go down as less as Two or Three
rupees and it will help the channels in penetrating
more numbers of C&S homes.
