Few takers for CAS in Mumbai

MUMBAI: This is one cheap, technological gain no one's still willing to believe or put their money into. Out of the nearly 6-7 lakh households falling in the areas notified by the government for the Conditional Access System in south Mumbai, a mere 40,000 homes have got the set top box installed.
This, when only 10 days are left for the deadline set by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to expire.On Tuesday, TRAI put aside all the cases connected with CAS implementation, reiterating there could be no more postponement of CAS. However, the government has agreed to take up all the pending disputes related to CAS on January 10.
In the city, industry experts, multi-system operators as well as the local cable operators are worried the poor demand could lead to a complete panic when the pay channels will be yanked off from the current cable system from January 1, 2007 onwards. "Only when their favourite channels will move into the pay mode, will people begin to make frantic calls to their local cable guys," says Sudeep Malhotra, chairman, SCAT Media & Consulting Pvt Ltd. Until then, it's left to cable operators to do the ground work. Here again, there's not much advance.
According to Suresh Singh, a cable operator who provides services to consumers in Fort, Fountain and Victoria Terminus area, the biggest hurdle facing CAS is customer attitude. "Each house visit our men make is turning out to be a really long-drawn one, stretching up to couple of hours. People are not willing to invest in the set top box right away. Most of the times, they are confused about whether to invest in DTH or in CAS."
So, at the average rate of 10 STBs per day, CAS is surely not making a great leap. Dharavi alone would have more than 1.5 lakh homes, says Jagjit Singh Kohli of Zee's WWIL. "Even the revised schemes of Rs 250 per box and a monthly rental of Rs 45 is not motivating consumers," he says.
Initially, the MSOs had drawn up schemes with a deposit of Rs 999 but have now added new ones to ramp up the demand. Says Malhotra, an analyst in the cable and satellite industry of India, "In the initial days, one should not expect a penetration of more than 20%, but within a year's time, 50% penetration is quite possible to achieve." Kohli too believes consumers will start rushing in once the popular entertainment channels go into the pay mode.
Meanwhile, reports of some cable operators cajoling and convincing consumers into buying boxes for free, are giving an interesting spin to the CAS vs DTH war.