[mmadhankumar]

In an effort to win the battle over MSOs in the digital era, direct-to-home operator Dish TV has held out a unique offer: local cable operators (LCOs) get to earn around Rs.1000 for each consumer that switches from cable to DTH and also get a pie from the carriage fee.

Dish TV will share 25 per cent of the total carriage fee with the LCOs under the new scheme for each set-top box that is seeded by 30 June, and the cable operator gets to keep and lose any of his subscribers.

The controversial move is set to anger the multi-system operators (MSOs) who have been saying that the tariff order for digital addressable system (DAS) laid out by sector regulator Trai is unfair as it does not address the cross-media ownership while not fixing a uniform rate for content from broadcasters. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has said that broadcasters can charge a maximum of 42 per cent of the analogue rates of their channels under the DAS regime.

Earlier this month, Wire and Wireless (India) Ltd, a Zee Group company, had announced a similar scheme where it was willing to share 25 per cent of its carriage income from DAS markets with LCOs.

Interestingly, the meeting with the LCOs was addressed by Dish TV and later by WWIL, both promoted by Subhash Chandra's Essel Group.

Dish TV chief operating officer Salil Kapoor told indiantelevision.com that the offer only applies to the subscriber base that any cable operator has and not to those customers who are approached directly by the direct selling agents of the platform.

Kapoor said when any subscriber approaches his cable operator for installation of a digital STB, the latter can suggest a switch-over to Dish TV. In return, Dish TV will give Rs.400 for each STB and Rs.600 for each STBs providing HD television channels that is sold by the cable operator. In addition, the cable operator will also get Rs 200 as installation charges for each box.

Apart from this, the cable operator earns a commission of Rs.100 per consumer per month on the super platinum bouquet and Rs.125 per customer per month for the HD Super Platinum Bouquet. This fee will vary according to the bouquet.

The local cable operator will also get to earn Rs.150 for every visit to the consumer’s venue for any repairs or solving other problems.

In a presentation held earlier, Dish TV COO (IT) V K Gupta told LCOs that Dish TV will not interact with the customers in any way and, therefore, there was no fear of any customers being taken away. The cable operators will only have to provide the ID number, the SAF number and the VC number on the software developed for the purpose, which can be used from a tablet or even an android phone.

However, the cable operator will have to keep a security deposit of Rs.400 for the standard STB and Rs.1000 for the HD STB with Dish TV.

Kapoor said the standard STB will cost around Rs.740 while the HD STB will cost Rs.1340. Customers will have to pay an advance of only 20 per cent for booking the boxes.

WWIL COO Anil Malhotra said Siticable was presently offering 400 standards and 30 HD TV channels and the number would go up as directed by Trai. In addition, the STBs would be able to provide facilities like 4G, VoIP etc.

Malhotra also claimed that WWIL and Siticable had set up state-of-the-art Headend-In-The-Sky (HITS), which could compete with the best in the world.

He told indiantelevision.com that it was wrong to say that DTH players were trying to scuttle the growth of the cable operators.

Kapoor said that at present, Dish TV was leading in the DTH segment with a market share of 41 per cent. He said Dish TV was using three satellites: NSS6, Asiasat 5, and Insat-4B. Dish TV was also leading in more than 15 genres of programming.

He said that around 30 per cent of the cable TV market may move to DTH with digitisation, particularly because of HD channels and homes having more than one connection.

Source

[mystic]

Future looks bright to me.... There is chance that, in future subscription rates goes down & we may get free STB with new purchase too... Just my assumption.....

[nskaran]

i wish may your assumption come true very quickly.