Broadcasting Industry had a number of hopes from the Budget 2007 but it appears the Finance Minister had many more larger problems in his hand to be dealt with rather than the Industry. Nothing much has been done to improve the existing situation. On the personal front, not much damage has been done that could dampen the mood. Major resentment is for the indigenous manufacturers where the custom duty sops given in 2004 to ease implementation of CAS has been withdrawn this year. This means local manufactured products will be costlier. I feel this aspect could have been considered by the FM keeping in mind the larger interest of 114 million TV owners whom the government wants to push towards digitalisation by 2015.
CAS had a slow down in the last month. There was not much rush for the Set-Top-Boxes and there were not many complaints either. Experts attribute this to the examination fever as all parents want their children to keep away from television during this period.
TRAI is now thinking of voluntary CAS in the whole nation. This is not a bad idea as apart from bringing in transparency in the industry it will also act as a catalyst to speed up digitalization. A subgroup in TRAI is already working on the modalities. The only resistance may come from the broadcasters who would tend to lose on viewership if subscribers are enabled to make their choice of content through CAS.
Considering the way IPTV is making its way ahead, I feel sooner CAS is introduced in Cable Networks better it is for the industry because ultimately giving choice to the consumers would rule the television world be it DTH, IPTV, DTT, Mobile or Cable. It is very important to provide a level playing field for all technologies. If not done, cable will always lag behind in quality and service and remain poor man’s entertainment.
The month of March is the busiest with four major events taking place for the industry. The first one is CABSAT in Dubai, then is Convergence India in Delhi followed by FRAMES 2007 (FICCI) in Mumbai and CCBN in China. We are likely to see a number of technological developments showcased in these events. I hope to see IPTV, Mobile and Wimax broadband to make a mark in these events with developments in the field of content aggregation as well as last mile infrastructure. These technologies are going to give sleepless nights to Cable Operators and DTH providers unless they too add value to their existing services. Cable Quest will be there in all these events and like in the past, will provide first hand information of these new developments to its readers in the coming months. Wish you all a Happy Holi. See you in Dubai, Delhi, Mumbai and Beijing folks.
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