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Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Death of the cable operator

In Bombay and some parts of Maharashtra, we are having a facing a blackout on television. We are classified as a cable & Satellite (C&S) enabled home, which gets its feed of 100+ channels (incl. pay channels) delivered by a wide network of cable operators (many of the big cable operators are directly or indirectly owned/controlled by broadcasters).

The reason for the blackout - the local police is conducting raids across operators and sealing the decoders beaming movie channels, as almost all broadcasters are not adhering to a Bombay High court ruling which does not allow them to beam movies rated A (Adult) or U/A (universal/adult) - they are suppose to beam only U rated movies (or get A and U/A movies re-edited and to get a re-certification done by the censor board). So instead of getting relief from the courts, stating that they are just the carriers and that it should be the broadcasters who need to be hauled up, they have taken the easy and a very negative course of action. They have decided to blank out all the cable channels to protest against the move. Today is the second day of the blackout and this the final nail in the coffin for me to get rid of the cable guy.

I have decided to replace the cable guy with the newly launched Tata Sky DTH service. I hope to have the installation complete tomorrow, am keeping my figures crossed as the dish needs to face South or East. So, I hope I am able to catch the satellite signal from my window, as the other option of installing the dish on the terrace is not really available (the housing society does not allow residents to install any equipment on the terrace).

I am sure there are many more in Bombay who will be taking a similar step and this might be the finally provocation to embrace DTH and save ourselves from the clutches of the cable guy.....

2 comments:

Khagen Shah said...

Hi Girish, have you been able to complete installation successfully of tatasky.. If you aware,pls let me know when it will be available in Ahd, i called here at local office as well.

@GirishMallya said...

I would have done that only if my building society had given the permission for installation of the Dish on the terrace. I am now planing to install it on my window. You can buy the set top box in Bombay (if stocks are not available in Ahmedabad), after which you need to call the tata sky helpline (nos available on www.tatasky.com) to do the installation of the dish and activate subscription. The set top box can be purchased from any where in India. The package costs Rs.4500 (Rs.3000 for the DTH box, Rs.1000 prepaid voucher for installation, service tax, AMC for the DTH box and Rs.550 prepaid voucher for advance payment of month subscription @Rs.180). Hope that solves your problem. Let me know if you need additional inputs.