Hullabaloo over package system for cable viewers has subsided as Cricket World Cup fever gripped the city and lured otherwise belligerent customer towards the imposed schemes under the Conditional Access System. The wave of anguish has turned into acceptance and customers are coming forward this time to opt for a package than to register their protests.
The package system was introduced from January 10, 2015 onwards amid the intense opposition from cable operators. “Package system is going to stay as there is no alternative to the cable television. Acceptance is the only choice left in the scenario so there is no point in clamouring over it and miss cricket world cup,” said, resident of New AG Cooperative colony, AK Raut.
The mouth-watering clash between India and Pakistan has taken sheen of the protest as most of the cable operators confide however issues remain for the local cable operators. Operators rue non-standardised payment for packages of similar contents. Notably, three Multiple System Operators — Manthan, GTPl and DEN — are currently offering channels in packages however there is great deal of variation in the prices charged for packages.
“Customers have shown inclination for package system only because of world cup. However, we stand to lose because charges for similar packages vary from MSOs to MSOs. This needs to be standardized to the extent possible to keep all cable operators in business,” maintained owner of Richa Cable, Satish Sinha. Nonetheless, the change in format of broadcasting is still causing heartburn to cable operators who are silent because of the World Cup but vow to take up the matter with the administration and entities directly involved in broadcast of channels.
“Although we have been told how much to charge a customer for a particular package of channel but we are still in dark about how much we will be charged by MSOs for channels. Unless we know how much it will cost us we cannot leverage benefit of the system and cannot extent the benefit to the customers,” added owner of Pasa Cable, Pavitra Tarapdar.