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Cable operators threaten strike or litigation
Cable operators may go on another strike or take the litigation
route if their demands are not met within three weeks, according
to indications available in the industry.
In all events, there is unrest on several fronts in the cable
industry. While one group of cable operators sounded sceptical
about the government resolving the problems of price undercutting
by broadcasters, another group met representatives of the
Star channel to sort out the same issue, which threatens the
very existence of the cable operators. Said Rakesh Datta,
general secretary, Cable Network Association, "We have
given three weeks to the Information and Broadcasting Minister,
Sushma Swaraj, to resolve our problems." If she doesn’t,
the association will either go on a strike or opt for litigation
against the government.
The first issue at stake, said Datta, is that the comprehensive
Broadcast Bill is still pending. The Bill has not even been
presented in Parliament-which makes the cable industry fear
that the delay is to safeguard the interests of broadcasters.
"The Bill should be presented as early as possible or
at least cable operators should get an assurance that the
Bill will see the light of the day soon," Datta added.
Once passed, the Bill is expected to prevent any monopoly
of channels. For, a clause in that Bill specifically says
that the airwaves cannot be monopolised - and a license can
be granted for only one of the operations, that is, satellite
broadcast, cable network or DTH. Another demand of the Cable
Network Association is that cable TV should be available to
a subscriber on a conditional access system, so that the consumer
has to pay only for the channels that he wants. It’s
a win-win situation for both subscribers and the cable operator
in the case of conditional access system. That’s because
the cable operator will not have to pay from his pocket for
the pay channel that a consumer doesn’t want and the
consumer too won’t have to pay more than he should. He
said that big players are undercutting prices, which is threatening
the very existence of many cable operators.
But, if the comprehensive Broadcast Bill is passed, big players
like Star and Rahejas can be restricted from running channels
and cable networks simultaneously, said Datta. Another association
-- Cable Operators’ United Forum -- met representatives
of Star to discuss the issue of price undercutting by the
big players in the industry. Said Suzail Waris, who heads
Extravision under Spectranet, "Since Star is the largest
provider of pay channels, we decided to talk to them first
to find a common ground."
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