Subscribers at mercy of cable operators
By - Meghdoot Sharon

The consumer is king, they say. But obviously, not as far as the cable guys are concerned. They dish out just the sort of treatment they like either you take it or forget that you have a cable connection.

Add to this attitude, the hike effected from April 1 by the 525-odd cable operators of the city and the lot of cable subscribers in the city seems a bad one. Subscribers will now have to pay between Rs 150 and 200 per month and even then may not get to see the channels that they want. For all that depends on the cable operators and their service providers.

Among the major cable service providers in the city are Siti Cable, In Cable Net, Skynet, Hathway Cable, Syndicate Cable and the latest entrant Gujarat Samachar Network GSN).

According to the Ahmedabad Cable Operators Association, while In Cable shows around 52 channels, Siti shows between 55 and 57 channels. Skynet and GSN show about 48 channels and there are around 50 channels shown by Syndicate Cable.

However, that is where the catch lies. Now suppose you want to watch Zee Alpha, you can’t do it unless your cable service provider is Siti Cable. Pramod Pandya, president of the Ahmedabad Cable Operators’ Association (ACOA), explains, "All Siti Cable subscribers can view Alpha Gujarati. a channel owned by the Zee Network, and which is quite popular in Gujarat. But subscribers of another cable serve provider cannot do that."

So, if you get a particular package, you tend to miss out on other channels. "Cable operators are slowly but surely being into mere collection agents. These providers are ensuring that no operator is allowed to expand further," Pandya says. He adds that with the January 22 agreement, major players have become even stronger.

They are now in a position to bargain more strongly with channel owners and increase prices whenever they feel," Pandya told. The dish antennae issue involving Skynet and GSN in the first week of March also put subscribers at the receiving end. With the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) removing the antennae of both cable serve providers, subscribers were left high and dry for no fault of theirs.

Among the providers, Siti Cable has four control rooms —at Navrangpura Sabarmati, Bapunagar and Maninagar while In Cable Net has two control rooms at C G Road and Maninagar. Skynet (Skywaves Electronics ) has spread in Paldi and Vasna areas of the it’ while Syndicate Cable has a hold in Navarangpura and Sola areas of the city. GSN is attempting to spread in Paldi area of the city and has also set up a control room at Sahjanand Building in Bhattha area of Paldi recently.

Republished from Indian Express