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Cable operators opt out of Arasu Cable TVTuesday - Jul 29, 2008Meher Khanna - Televisionpoint.com | ChennaiLaunched with huge fanfare on July 15, the Arasu Cable TV Corporation control room has flopped as it has been unable to provide popular pay-channels and local channels belonging to the Sun TV group.This has resulted in only 17 local cable TV operators (LCOs) out of 212 LCOs who had given letters of intent (LOI), opting for signals directly from the corporation in Thanjavur town. In the nieghbouring Tiruchy district the situation is even worse with all the 380 LCOs, who had given LOI, continuing to source their signals from private MSOs and not Arasu. A similar situation exists in Triuvarur and Nagpattinam districts as well. Customer demand for popular Tamil channels, especially those from the Sun TV group, and pay channels like sports channels, currently not available on Arasu, has compelled the operators to stick to their existing MSOs. "The Arasu Cable TV Corporation was launched with a view to break the monopoly of some MSOs and redeem the LCOs from their control. But, the corporation has miserably failed in not providing popular Tamil channels. So we have no other choice but to get signals from our MSOs," said a local cable TV operator in Thanjavur. Even those LCOs in Thanjavur who have taken Arasu signals have resorted to piracy to relay Sun TV to keep their customers happy. Customers are also content paying from Rs 130 to Rs 180 to their operators for relaying all channels from private MSOs rather than the Rs 100 charged by Arasu."Money is immaterial for most customers. What they want is transmission of all channels including popular pay-channels and local channels as most housewives are addicted to watching serials and reality programmes," explained an operator. An official of Arasu Cable TV Corporation said things would be set right after August 31. He admitted that only 17 out of the total 212 LCOs in Thanjavur have got signals directly from the corporation probably because the government was yet to announce the share of LCOs from the monthly tariff charged from the customers.
