Bengaluru : The Karnataka state government had decided to follow the model of Tamil Nadu governments state owned Arasu Cable TV Network due to its unhappiness over the Cable TV Operators charging the public with exorbitant monthly subscription charges.
In order to free the people from the menace of private cable television network operators in the Karnataka state, the Information and Public Relations Minister Roshan Baig, had conducted a preliminary meeting with the senior official of Arasu cable to understand the model.
Information and Public Relations Minister Roshan Baig, who also holds the Infrastructure and Haj portfolios, while speaking to media here on Sunday stated that “during his visit to Chennai recently to participate in an exhibition, he had held preliminary discussions with the senior officials of the Tamil Nadu government about the working of the Arasu Cable TV network”.
“The government wanted to provide cable TV connections to individual homes at an affordable cost. Now cable TV operators are not regulated, he said. The State government wanted to streamline their functioning, he added.
Minister R. Roshan Baig added that the Chief Minister will hold a meeting on launching a State-owned cable television network on the lines of Arasu Cable network launched by Tamil Nadu government, on 28th August.
The government would provide cable TV connections to households at an affordable cost. “We have studied the scheme launched in Tamil Nadu. We will design it in such a way that individual houses get cable network at less than Rs. 100 a month,” from the existing level of Rs 200 to 300 per month he said.
The Private Cable Operators in Karnataka haven’t reacted to it yet, However, it will be interesting to see how the government is going to overtake, the Cable Industry without any resistance from the private players. Because, unlike Tamil Nadu, where the Cable Operators overwhelmingly came forward to support Arasu Cable by surrendering their control rooms to operate under Arasu Cable on a contract basis, the scenario in Karnataka is somewhat different and the state government may have to compete with the existing private players in terms of quality, cost and need to face tough bargaining from the pay channels.
It may be noted that Tamil Nadu government is pioneering the initiative of state owned cable TV network and recently it has announced the plans of launching cheaper Broadband service through Arasu cable shortly.
