Cable TV
Cable guy weathers the storm
As Ganpat Gaikwad stands in front of the slums in Kalyan, a town on the outskirts of Mumbai, he shakes his head in disbelief at the damage caused by the worst-ever rainfall the belt witnessed in a century.
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A devastated Kalyan
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“Almost 70 per cent of my network is damaged. The repair work will be over Rs 1.5 million. This is the worst situation I have ever faced,” he says, recollecting the 10 years since he has been running his cable network, Tisai Satellite Service, as an independent operator.
That has not stopped Gaikwad to fight against all odds to get his cable TV service up and running within three days in an area that was struggling to get its basic necessities like electricity and telephone connections in place. “We have managed to restore 80 per cent of our network,” he says.
Gaikwad will leave untouched the slums where his cable network used to run but now stands completely ruined. “It is no use investing in these areas now as people have lost almost everything here, including their television sets. We will do the work later,” he says.
Gaikwad is just one example of how the cable TV operators withstood the fury of the rains to quickly restore services so that consumers could get the latest news on the telly. Even as Mumbai was reduced to a standstill, cable TV largely remained uninterrupted.
Says Hathway Cable & Datacom chief executive officer K Jayaraman, “We could offer cable TV to 99 per cent of the areas where we operate. In case of broadband Internet, we covered 90 per cent of the belt. Our technicians were very supportive and I was monitoring from office for two continuous days. We coped up with the situation.”
Hathway‘s services were, however, disrupted for a day in Mira Road and Kandivili, located in the western suburbs of Mumbai. Water gushed into the headends, affecting the equipment, and cable TV could be restored only the next day.
There was no such issue by and large in the central and eastern suburbs of Mumbai serviced by Hathway Bhawani Cabletel & Datacom. The control room is on the third floor and there was enough fuel to put the generator on as power supply failed in the area.
The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) township in Navi Mumbai also received cable TV services. “We have a full power pass system. We had a stock of diesel. We could offer our services without any major problem,” says Hathway Bhawani director Kulbhushan Puri.
As for Hathway‘s services in South Mumbai, where the city‘s powerbrokers reside, there were of course no major complaints. The south was after all spared the fury of Mumbai‘s Great Deluge.
Incablenet also had no major disruptions except in a few pockets. The Hinduja-promoted multi system operator (MSO) has a centralised headend, giving it a distinct advantage. “We were not affected as we have one headend supplying to the local operators,” says Incablenet president Manoj Motwani.
Seven Star, which offers services in the western suburbs of Mumbai like Andheri, also withstood the havoc played by the rain. The control room was protected and there was no major breakdown. “Our people were working, trying to repair minor damages. It was an unusual time and people wanted to watch news channels. Besides, most of them were at home after the first heavy downpour last Tuesday. Our workers even slept in our offices. But wherever there was an electricity problem, we couldn‘t help,” says Seven Star director Atul Saraf.
Siticable‘s headend in Ghatkopar, a north-eastern suburb in Mumbai, was badly damaged. The other two control rooms at Dharavi and Mulund, however, were protected.
Admits Ravi Singh, a joint venture partner in Siticable who operates from Ghatkopar: “Water went into the control room as it is in the ground floor. We couldn‘t offer service for two days. The 3-km fibre connecting Nahar to Hiranandani in Powai was also damaged. Now it is being serviced from the second route through Vikhroli. We have to replace that with new fibre.”
The three transmitters in Kurla (north-eastern suburb) have also gone, adds Singh. “We have not been able to fully restore the signals in the Kurla-Kalina belt. It will take us another couple of days. The total damage is above Rs 500,000.”
The other MSOs are assessing the damage their equipment has suffered. Says Jayaraman, “Amplifiers and headend equipments have suffered damage.” Adds Incablenet chief operating officer Srinivas Palakodeti: “There has been damage. We are currently evaluating the losses.”
Cable TV
Hathway Cable appoints Gurjeev Singh Kapoor as CEO
Leadership change comes as cable TV faces shrinking subscriber base and modest earnings pressure
MUMBAI: Hathway Cable and Datacom has tapped industry veteran Gurjeev Singh Kapoor as chief executive officer, marking a leadership pivot at a time when India’s cable television business is under mounting strain.
Kapoor will take over from Tavinderjit Singh Panesar, who is set to retire in August after a long innings with the company. Panesar, chief executive since 2023, has held multiple leadership roles at Hathway, including his latest stint beginning in 2022.
Kapoor brings more than three decades of experience in media and entertainment. He most recently led distribution at The Walt Disney Company’s Star India business, now part of JioStar. His career spans television distribution and affiliate partnerships, with stints at Sony Pictures Networks India, Discovery Communications and Zee Entertainment.
Panesar, with over three decades in the industry, has worked across strategic planning, distribution and business development in media, broadcasting and manufacturing. His past associations include ESPN Star Sports, Star India, Apollo Tyres and JK Industries.
The transition lands as the cable sector grapples with structural disruption. Traditional operators are losing ground to streaming platforms, while telecom and broadband players tighten the squeeze with bundled offerings.
An EY report estimates India’s pay-TV base could shrink by a further 30 to 40 million households by 2030, taking the total down to 71 to 81 million. The slide follows a loss of nearly 40 million homes between 2018 and 2024, a contraction that has already wiped out more than 37,000 jobs in the local cable operator ecosystem.
Hathway’s numbers reflect the strain. The company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 93 crore for FY25, down from Rs 99 crore a year earlier. Revenue inched up to Rs 2,040 crore from Rs 1,981 crore. As of December 2025, it had about 4.7 million cable TV subscribers and roughly 1.02 million broadband users.
Kapoor steps in with a familiar brief but a shrinking playbook. In a market where viewers are cutting cords faster than companies can reinvent them, the new chief executive inherits a business fighting to stay plugged in.
