India ready to pull plug on cheap cable
Come July, about six million families in India's four biggest cities face a stark choice: pay US$155 for a set-top box that would allow them to watch the cable channels they now enjoy for about US$4 a month - or be forced go without.
The government is determined to regulate the unruly cable industry. Consumers are now at the mercy of neighbourhood cable operators who increase their monthly charges for a cable connection arbitrarily, and force them to pay for channels they do not want by packaging them with popular channels.
In an attempt to give consumers more choice and let channels earn their legitimate income, the government is ready to pass a law that will revolutionise television viewing in India by July 14.
It forces Indians with cable television in Mumbai, Madras, New Delhi and Calcutta to buy set-top boxes that will control access to the stations they are used to watching.
Under the Conditional Access Scheme (CAS), monthly bills are likely to double, and then there is the one-off expense of the set-top box - a huge amount for most Indians, even middle-class residents.
As a result, between now and July 14, about six million boxes will have to be sold.
That presents a slight problem. At the moment, there are no set-top boxes in the country and world production is limited, which could mean plenty of blank screens come July.
Columnist Vir Sanghvi points out that nowhere in the world has a scheme been rolled out so quickly. 'A report by a Hong Kong media research company recommends implementing CAS in a phased manner, one city first, and then another. There is no urgent need for CAS, so why rush into it and create chaos?' he asks.
