Set top box - A gift or A curse?

It has been long time since we watched action pact movies in Star movies, Block busters in HBO, Cricket actions all around the world and Formula one races in various sport channels, dazzling music videos in MTV, even our little one's missing their favorite cartoon heroes in Cartoon Network. Thanks to the Previous central government implementing Conditional access system only in Chennai Metropolitan city (they decided to implement this in four major cities, but stiff agitation in other cities force them to drop it).

When Multi system Operator's introduced Set top Box in Chennai city most of the people confused what it is, as there was no proper explanation from the government. Most people thought it is mandatory to have one their home. Then the MSO's came up with different kind of campaign and advertisement to make clear the doubts in their mind. There are various reasons for implementing a Conditional Access system, such as the need to enforce payment by the end user for consumed services, which means we are going to pay for the channels which we using rather then paying for everything. Most of the consumers happy to pay only for the free channels instead of going for Set top box. This resulted poor subscription of CAS when it was introduced in Chennai. Even misunderstanding between Multi System Operators and Cable operators led the slow sales of Set Top Boxes. Multi System Operators like Sumangali Cable Vision and Hathway bought huge number STB's, which kept in the godown for long time.

Most of the Chennaities not ready to invest huge amount in it. After a poor response, MSO's came up with different plans to build the subscription, even they ready to rent the STB's and Installment payment. After this there was slight increase in STB sales, but not to the mark which they expected. Who actually goes for it? The high class people, few corporate offices, Five star Hotels, luxury bars and Clubs. So it didn't reach the common man yet. One group of STB users happy with the system and another one raising serious allegation about it. For example the Five star hotel not ready to invest huge amount for installing STB's in each room (Le Royal Meridien has 240 rooms). They are getting complaints from the guests who staying in their hotels for not having foreign channels.

Who's suffers a lot? The MSO's or the end users? Definitely the end users. Especially the younger generation who is missing their favorite programs. When I visited my friend's house in a small village just outside Chennai, he was watching NatWest Series match in Star Sports, I was amazed and thinking is this curse for Chennaities. Chennai Cricket lovers are famous for their neutral supporting habit worldwide, When Saeed Anwar thrashed Indian bowling and scored 194 runs in Chepauk the whole crowd gave a standing ovation. The same Cheenai crowd missing The Ashes action, Caribbean classics and South African matches. At the other Hand, they are not able to cheer the Naryan Karthikeyan (first formula one rookie from Chennai) and see his action live. One day me and my friend went to a local bar just to watch football match between Brazil and Argentina.

After seen the CAS failure here still the government not thinking whipping it. I am not blaming it is poor system, but it came in a wrong time. While other cities not adopting it why it still forced in Chennai. Chennaities already showed their agitation in the way not subscribing it. So at least government makes arrangement to remove it and give back our entertainment.

Set Top Box - A gift to Multi System Operators and A curse to End-users!