( 27 October 2007 3:30 pm)

MUMBAI: The cable TV sector is expected to grow at around 30-40 per cent per annum but there is need to get it more organised in order to speed up the digitisation process and attract investments from abroad, speakers at the IBE 2007 conference said.

Another point mentioned was that Cas (conditional access system) penetration has been as low as 26 per cent. This was not due to any failure of implementation on the cable operator front, but because viewers did not want to pay for most of the channels.

The speakers at the event included Cable Operators Federation of India president Roop Sharma, Indiantelevision.com founder and CEO Anil Wanvari, Home Cable Network founder Vikki Choudhry and 7 Star promoter Atul Saraf.

For the cable industry to grow and attract investments, the operators need to put up a corporatised structure.

Said Wanvari, "At the moment you have 60,000 cable operators. Many of them are small and have 3000 subscribers and Arpus (average revenue per user) of around $ four, making it difficult for them to scale up. Leakage is even happening in Cas areas. It is important that the cable industry becomes more transparent with their balance sheets. If the sector is able to attract investments, then cable networks can even create or acquire content - like movies and sports."

Sharma did not agree that the sector needed to be more organisation. According to her, the industry has grown to Rs 500 billion at the grassroots level without investments from outside. "It is important that the regulators provide a level playing field for all platforms. It is also important that competition grows so that consumers can get what they want at a reasonable cost."

On the digitisation front, Sharma and Choudhry opined that had the whole of Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata been under Cas, some pay broadcasters would have gone free to air. Nonetheless, a lot of cable operators are gearing up for digitsation and offering voluntary Cas to consumers.

Sharma called for cross media restrictions. "Now you have a situation where broadcasters like TV18 are entering the cable business which could lead to the creation of monopolies," she pointed out.

The government should create a digital services fund which could come from licensing fees and service tax, Sharma added. The proceeds could then be used to speed up the digitisation process. A committee of industry experts could be formed to decide on how the funds were to be used and disbursed.

Another point made is that new channels should come in through digital decoders and not through the analogue route as there is already a bandwith crunch.

Choudhry feels that Cas should have been implemented in a better way.