Penblunt & Hogwash

CAS(H) Trouble
PENBLUNT

An interesting battle is evolving after the rollout of Conditional Access System, or CAS, which has been implemented by the government in certain limited parts of the three megapolises or Calcutta, Bombay and Delhi.

Local cable operators (LCOs) and Mutli-System Operators (MSOs) have aligned to fight for the implementation of CAS and make it a success, but then, some humpty dumpties have now started falling from the high wall they have been sitting pretty on.

The idiot box has started foxing every wise guy on the entertainment block, and the mighty broadcasters are scurrying to hide their clay feet.

For those newer than me on this issue, here’s a short primer

The cable network industry operates from ground, with which the LCO hooks homes in his neighbourhood to signals sent by the MSOs

The MSOs receive these programme signals from the broadcasters, say Sony, BBC or Zee

The broadcasters receive subscription fees from the MSOs for each home that the MSO is linking the broadcaster through the LCOs

The big issue that the broadcasters have been making over the years is that the LCOs and MSOs hugely under-declare the actual number of homes they are hooking to and keep most of the money, So, the broadcasters wanted an ‘addressable system’ through which these ‘crooks’ would not be able to under-declare and the broadcasters would get their genuine dues.

The government did just that: it has finally introduced CAS, in which, homes would get only those channels they pay for.

As part of the conditional access system, the government’s regulatory body, Telecom Authority of India, or TRAI, ruled that the price of pay channels in the declared CAS areas of southern parts of Calcutta, Bombay and Delhi would be Rs five; out of which the MSO-LCO combine would receive 55 per cent and the broadCASters 45 per cent.

Various people have agitated the courts on each of the issues, including the redoubtable Mr Harish Thawani, which we shall not deal with now. But the broadcasters got what they wanted: an addressable system and in the governed area under-declaration has stopped there.

But they are deeply unhappy. Here’s why.

One of the best known English news channel, declared last week that it would migrate from pay to free-to-air channel (FTA) in the CAS area.

Surprise, surprise, it blamed the CAS system, which it had been demanding along with other broadcasters, by saying that CAS rollout has been slow, there are no Set Top Boxes, and that CAS was reaching only 10 per cent of Calcutta homes and slightly higher in Delhi and Bombay, something like 15 per cent over all.

This is not correct: five lakh out of the 16 lakh cable homes in the CAS areas have received CAS STBs (not DTH, which is separate), which takes the overall CAS reach to 33 per cent or a little less, but surely not 15 per cent.

There is no shortage of STBs, as 1.85 lakh STBs are still readily available.

Then why the lies?

Because the truth is that these channels, who had been claiming so far that they have the highest television rating in terms of number of viewers, and thus claimed the largest share of the advertising pie, have turned into humpty dumpties crashing off the wall.

Because every STB has an embedded technology that records in detail which channels that particular home is watching and for how long. This is called the SMS, or Subscriber Management System.

Besides, the subscribers, under CAS, have to fill up forms indicating their channel choice, and would be receiving those channels alone that they pay for.

The MSOs have been telling me that the data from the forms filled up so far is devastating news for most broadcasters: the customers’ choices do not reflect the high levels of viewership they were claiming for themselves.

So, now?

CAS is bad, and DTH is good.

DTH also uses STBs for de-encrypting the signals that the broadcasters send into the skies and are downloaded through the dish antenna at your home. So these too have the embedded SMS technology and would be able to see (read, record) the actual viewership pattern.

The big difference is that under CAS, the MSOs are bound to feed the regulating authority with, inter alia, actual viewership, on a quarterly basis, so every four months the reality of the actual subscriber choice would be unravelled, demolishing the lies of the channels, if they had been lying.

But the DTH is so far a private operation and not under regulation of the government and would not have to reveal anything.

So DTH zindabad. (Long Live DTH)

The reason the news channel went FTA was not because CAS was a failure, but because it is a success, and the advertisers are finding out the lies about various channels’ claims. Many more holier-than-thou holy cows would soon migrate to FTA, just wait.

I am pitching for the success of CAS because it is the poor man’s entertainment route.

There is a lot more to say on this, but with 834 words on the slate already (my limit is 850 words), I can see Pinaki surreptitiously picking up the bludgeon, so see you next week.

In parting, however, this is part of my campaign for the right to entertainment of the man on the street.