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It was a piece of news that did not escape Hathway Cable & Datacom MD and CEO Jagdish Kumar’s notice. For the first time, America’s largest cable company had more broadband than cable TV subscribers.
When Comcast reported this shift in its second quarter results this year, it was signalling to the world that the future ruler would be the internet. In India, the dethroning process would take longer. Even in case of the bigger national multi-system operators (MSOs), the build-up has not started.
The chase is for video subscribers, more investments are flowing into cable TV digitisation, and the broadband troops are not large enough to carry out a massive invasion. Hathway Cable & Datacom, India’s largest MSO, has a broadband subscriber base of 0.43 million, as of 31 December 2014. In comparison, Hathway’s cable TV universe of 11.70 million subscribers dwarfs its broadband footprint. The other national MSOs are almost crawling.
DEN Networks, the second-largest MSO in the country, counted just 23,000 broadband subscribers at the end of FY15. Siti Cable’s broadband subscribers were higher in comparison and totalled 54,000, as of 31 December 2014.
So, why are Indian MSOs not getting their foot in the door with broadband customers? Why is the cable TV landscape in India so dramatically different from the US or other developed markets of the world?
For the MSOs in India, the top priority at this stage is digitisation of their cable networks. An estimated 70 million households will be digitised in Phases III and IV of digital addressable system (DAS).
The sunset date for analogue cable in Phase III cities is 31 December 2015, while the deadline for Phase IV towns is a year thereafter.
With such a mammoth exercise on their time schedule, the MSOs are putting their energies and monies in setting up digital infrastructure and deploying set-top boxes (STBs). Naturally, broadband has taken a back seat.
Another immediate task is to get moving on consumer billing and packaging of TV channels in Phase I and II cities. In this home affair, the tussle between MSOs and local cable operators (LCOs) on revenue share has been a roadblock. “We have a long way to go and are caught up with our home issues. While we are building on broadband, video will continue to be our top product for some length of time,” said Kumar.
For the rest of 2015 and full of 2016, the MSOs are going to be busy digitising their networks.
As of 31 December 2014, Hathway has a digital subscriber base of 8.5 million out of its cable TV universe comprising 11.70 million customers. DEN, which has digitised seven million homes, boasts a 13-million universe.
Read more at
http://www.televisionpost.com/cable/will-indian-msos-go-the-comcast-way/
When Comcast reported this shift in its second quarter results this year, it was signalling to the world that the future ruler would be the internet. In India, the dethroning process would take longer. Even in case of the bigger national multi-system operators (MSOs), the build-up has not started.
The chase is for video subscribers, more investments are flowing into cable TV digitisation, and the broadband troops are not large enough to carry out a massive invasion. Hathway Cable & Datacom, India’s largest MSO, has a broadband subscriber base of 0.43 million, as of 31 December 2014. In comparison, Hathway’s cable TV universe of 11.70 million subscribers dwarfs its broadband footprint. The other national MSOs are almost crawling.
DEN Networks, the second-largest MSO in the country, counted just 23,000 broadband subscribers at the end of FY15. Siti Cable’s broadband subscribers were higher in comparison and totalled 54,000, as of 31 December 2014.
So, why are Indian MSOs not getting their foot in the door with broadband customers? Why is the cable TV landscape in India so dramatically different from the US or other developed markets of the world?
For the MSOs in India, the top priority at this stage is digitisation of their cable networks. An estimated 70 million households will be digitised in Phases III and IV of digital addressable system (DAS).
The sunset date for analogue cable in Phase III cities is 31 December 2015, while the deadline for Phase IV towns is a year thereafter.
With such a mammoth exercise on their time schedule, the MSOs are putting their energies and monies in setting up digital infrastructure and deploying set-top boxes (STBs). Naturally, broadband has taken a back seat.
Another immediate task is to get moving on consumer billing and packaging of TV channels in Phase I and II cities. In this home affair, the tussle between MSOs and local cable operators (LCOs) on revenue share has been a roadblock. “We have a long way to go and are caught up with our home issues. While we are building on broadband, video will continue to be our top product for some length of time,” said Kumar.
For the rest of 2015 and full of 2016, the MSOs are going to be busy digitising their networks.
As of 31 December 2014, Hathway has a digital subscriber base of 8.5 million out of its cable TV universe comprising 11.70 million customers. DEN, which has digitised seven million homes, boasts a 13-million universe.
Read more at
http://www.televisionpost.com/cable/will-indian-msos-go-the-comcast-way/
