The Hindu Business Line : Demand for set-top boxes on the rise

With the New Year, people across the three metros of New Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai have finally woken up to the reality of the Conditional Access System (CAS). Resisting huge discounts and aggressive marketing from DTH operators, viewers had so far been waiting and watching.

But now, consumers are dashing off their requests for set-top boxes (STB). The demand has shot up drastically says, Mr A. Mohan, Executive V-P, Essel Corporate. The cable division of Essel, Wire and Wireless India Ltd (WWIL, formerly Siti Cable), has deployed an additional 10,000 STBs overnight, taking their numbers in the market to 35,000 in about a weeks' time, and is expecting demands do grow.

"The delayed consumers' decision is understandable, considering their past bitter experiences with the implementation of CAS, which was always postponed at the last minute," says Mr Mohan.

A blurry of choices, with falling prices, special introductory offers and aggressive marketing may have also left the consumer completely stumped for choices. With digital cable television promising greater interactivity, IPTV and DTH's special services, customers are a little confused about what would be the best value for money.

According to agency reports, consumers have been complaining about being confused between DTH and CAS and the difficult new equipments. They have also been reports of consumers being charged Rs 6 per pay channel as opposed to Rs 5 as prescribed by the Government.

The 70-odd free-to-air channels that most cable operators are offering for around Rs 70 which include many news and children's channels, Doordarshan's offerings and a few music channels, is a small consolation before the prospect of missing one's favourite soap on a Monday evening.

An agency report quoting Mr Ashok Mansukhani, Vice-President at Incable, said: "The demand has been pretty good for the last 4 to 5 days and is expected to increase further in the coming days, especially as pay channels have been encrypted." While InCable, which operates in Delhi and Mumbai, is seeing a conversion rate to digital cable of 25 per cent, WWIL expects to deploy about 3 lakh STB's by the January 10 (with 1 lakh for New Delhi alone).