(28 July 2007 8:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Cable TV has stood firm ground against competition from the direct-to-home (DTH) operators in the Cas (conditional access system) pockets of Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata.

Digital cable has penetrated the highest in the Cas zone of Mumbai with 44 per cent of the C&S homes opting for set-top boxes (STBs) till 15 June, according to Tam estimates. Out of the total 572,000 homes, cable has pocketed 249,985 households who have gone in for STBs.

DTH, in contrast, has seen just 3 per cent penetration with 16,852 homes flocking to it. Despite aggressive marketing, DTH players have seen a 1 per cent rise in penetration over a five-month period.

DTH has performed better in the South Delhi Cas market, having a 6 per cent penetration with 43,332 out of 723,000 total homes migrating to the platform. Digital cable, however, has a 29.4 per cent penetration with 212,384 households buying STBs.

Under the Cas zone in Kolkata, there has been a low offtake for digital services with cable seeing a 18.1 per cent penetration (94,162 homes) comparable with 1.8 per cent (9,167 homes) DTH households.

The Tam study shows that the upper segment of the socio-economic strata are the leading consumers of digital cable. In the Cas market of Mumbai, the highest purchase for STBs is from SEC A and B (31 per cent each). This is followed by SEC C (20 per cent of the total STB population in Mumbai), SEC D (11 per cent) and SEC E (8 per cent).

Delhi has a higher SEC A STB ownership skew with 57 per cent of STB ownership in the city coming from this segment, followed by SEC B (24 per cent). The other strata account for just 19 per cent, according to Tam estimates.

Kolkata is seeing a similar trend with SEC A and B accounting for 74 per cent of the STB population while the remaining 26 per cent is distributed among the other socio-economic strata.

Source : TAM 2007 study on CAS penetration in 3 cities of Mumbai, Delhi and Calcutta.
Wave 1 - January 15th 2007.
Wave 2 - June 15th 2007.