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Nina Varghese

"The greatest challenge for the broadcasters is the cable TV industry. It is the most disorganised sector. That is, the last mile part of it — the distribution. It has to be organised. Nobody knows the subscription numbers.''

As Chairman and Managing Director of Sun Network, Mr Kalanithi Maran, has a close-up view of the broadcasting industry and how it has evolved. The Sun Network has channels in Tamil (Sun TV), Telugu (Gemini and Teja), Kannada (Udaya and Ushe), Malayalam (Surya), two bi-lingual current affairs channels, 24-hour news channels in Tamil, English, Kannada and an entertainment channel, KTV in Tamil. The group is also into FM broadcasting with radio stations in Tamil (Suryan) and Telugu (Visaka). Sun TV, the group's flagship Tamil channel, is available to viewers in the US, Europe, West Asia, Singapore and Malaysia.]

With these channels beaming in all the South Indian languages, Mr Kalanithi Maran aims is to catch the eye of the southern diaspora. Mr Kalanithi Maran spoke to Business Line about the broadcasting industry in the country and the vistas ahead.

Excerpts from the interview:

How has broadcasting evolved in India over the past 10 years?

Actually broadcasting not just evolved but was born 10 years back. Before that it was only state controlled television. It is still a baby though growing very fast; faster than any other industry. Growing at an average of 35-40 per cent per annum.

What are the ups and downs that the industry has faced during these 10 years?

Every year there has been some issue or the other. Last year radio was opened up, the licence fee was a mess. When I say broadcasting I am including radio also. I should not call it a mess. It is evolving and is part of the learning curve. As and when we find something new, we are correcting ourselves. Currently, the confusion over the conditional access system (CAS), whether it is going to be there or not.

What is the size of the industry today?

I can talk about South. North, I am not able to give you the figure offhand. In the South it is around Rs 500-600 crore. The North is a much larger market, no doubt about it. The Hindi channels have the advantage of the spill-over effect, they are viewed in Gujarat as well as in West Bengal. But for South Indian languages you get restricted to pockets, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam or Kannada.

What is the overall cable and satellite (C&S) penetration in India?

Research reports put the figure at 54 per cent, would you agree?

That is more or less correct. Overall cable penetration in the South is higher than the North, except Kerala. This is because of the distance between the two houses. So, the C&S in Kerala is less than in other southern States. The top three States in India are Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.

What are the challenges facing the broadcasting industry?

It is still a baby. We are learning from what is happening. We are not walking. It is hop, step and jump. Suddenly there are so many channels, then there are the pay channels and now we have gone off to CAS. In this leap forward, the road is not laid properly.

For example, the cable industry is the most disorganised sector in our industry.

Nobody knows the exact number of houses that have cable connections, because of declaration problems. The industry also requires an industry body to control everything.

Now we have formed the IBF (Indian Broadcasting Foundation) and it should function more effectively than it is doing now.

All the major broadcasters are members of the IBF. It has teeth, but the implementation capacity is still not fully there.

The greatest challenge for the broadcasters is the cable TV industry. It is the most disorganised sector.

That is, the last mile part of it — the distribution. It has to be organised. Nobody knows the subscription numbers.

Any industry must know the subscription numbers. We don't know how many people are viewing the channel.

Will not CAS take care of that?

Take CAS in Chennai... The local channels never became pay; the number of set top boxes became less. Overall, there are 25,000 boxes in the market. The city has around one million cable TV households. In one million, 25,000 boxes are ridiculous.

If that were the case where would we see the numbers? But CAS is the answer to all these problems — of last mile, the actual declaration...

Will the market support digital DTH satellite services?

The market is not supporting CAS with box price of Rs 4,000. I don't how it will support DTH with a box price of Rs 7,800 — that is the price we have come out with.

But developed countries have supported both. In the US and Europe, the market is there. But India, I have my own doubts.

In the US or Europe, a cable TV connection provides video on demand, broadcast Internet service... The whole works come through the cable TV. That is what is happening worldwide. Cable TV becomes the convergence platform.

Unfortunately in India, we are talking reverse — of the telephone wire being the convergence platform. You cannot pack so much of activity into the telephone wire.

What are your views on Government regulation?

Government guidelines for programming and for news channels are there. All the rates are going to be decided by TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India). So everything is in place.

Here certain pay channels have extracted as much as possible by doubling and tripling the rates.

The Government had no other choice but to step in. Some pay channels tried to sabotage CAS. Personally, I am against a government regulator. There should be an industry body as a regulator.

Worldwide, the market conditions decide the price. So let the market decide the prices here also. Now, TRAI has frozen the rates. I don't know what is going to happen next.

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