Thakur
Banned
- Joined
- 30 Aug 2013
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A lot of ink has been spilt in your paper
discussing the use of foreign set top boxes to
view TV content. This reportage however seems
to cover only one side of the story. It might be
beneficial for operators in Bahrain to
understand why people from the subcontinent
choose to use alternative means.
Why hasn't anyone chosen to ask the real
questions here? Why are satellite TV services in
Bahrain so ridiculously overpriced yet so
underwhelmingly substandard? Options such as
Tata Sky, Sun, DishTV etc are all legitimate
services based out of India. They are not the
same as Dreambox. How is it that these
companies are able to provide superior
services for less money? The most obvious
answer would be the abject lack of regulation
in this sector.
The most obvious example of this would be
letting three major operators merge (Orbit,
Showtime, Pehla) create a lumbering leviathan,
a monopoly. The only true casualty from this
development is the consumer. Competition
ensures that the end user gets the best service
and isn't cheated of his hard earned money.
For past few years we have been subject to
unethical market practices. Operators now
suddenly charge extra and hold major sporting
events to ransom. Lack of competition also
reduces the need to provide quality content as
can be evidenced by channels in this region
showing C grade content compared with the
subcontinent. The cherry on the cake would be
operators introducing their own advertising
over Indian news broadcasts, at times over the
actual news programme. This is public
knowledge and I have read about these things
within the pages of the GDN before. Market
practices like this would result in stringent
fines in most countries.
Even in Bahrain we have authorities and
safeguards to ensure competition in certain
sectors such as telecom. As a result consumers
in the telecom sector get reliable and cost
effective services. It is high time we introduce
similar safeguards in satellite TV. At the end of
the day, the customer should be treated well,
not like a cash cow to be beaten with a stick
during major sports events and sucked dry.
NRK Gulf Daily News » News Details » Letters
discussing the use of foreign set top boxes to
view TV content. This reportage however seems
to cover only one side of the story. It might be
beneficial for operators in Bahrain to
understand why people from the subcontinent
choose to use alternative means.
Why hasn't anyone chosen to ask the real
questions here? Why are satellite TV services in
Bahrain so ridiculously overpriced yet so
underwhelmingly substandard? Options such as
Tata Sky, Sun, DishTV etc are all legitimate
services based out of India. They are not the
same as Dreambox. How is it that these
companies are able to provide superior
services for less money? The most obvious
answer would be the abject lack of regulation
in this sector.
The most obvious example of this would be
letting three major operators merge (Orbit,
Showtime, Pehla) create a lumbering leviathan,
a monopoly. The only true casualty from this
development is the consumer. Competition
ensures that the end user gets the best service
and isn't cheated of his hard earned money.
For past few years we have been subject to
unethical market practices. Operators now
suddenly charge extra and hold major sporting
events to ransom. Lack of competition also
reduces the need to provide quality content as
can be evidenced by channels in this region
showing C grade content compared with the
subcontinent. The cherry on the cake would be
operators introducing their own advertising
over Indian news broadcasts, at times over the
actual news programme. This is public
knowledge and I have read about these things
within the pages of the GDN before. Market
practices like this would result in stringent
fines in most countries.
Even in Bahrain we have authorities and
safeguards to ensure competition in certain
sectors such as telecom. As a result consumers
in the telecom sector get reliable and cost
effective services. It is high time we introduce
similar safeguards in satellite TV. At the end of
the day, the customer should be treated well,
not like a cash cow to be beaten with a stick
during major sports events and sucked dry.
NRK Gulf Daily News » News Details » Letters
