|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Business Standard [ May 7, 2003 ]
See how CAS works
SUDIPTO DEY / AN ECONOMICTIMES.COM EXCLUSIVE
A cable operator in New Delhi has implemented CAS. Shuchi Bansal provides a sneak preview of what it will mean to cable connected homes.
Cable & satellite homes in the posh Maharani Bagh area of Delhi are in for surprise this week. Two sports channels – ESPN & Star Sports – will suddenly disappear from their television screens.
The blank screen will not be a result of either the broadcaster or the cable operator switching off the signals but of the local cable operator having decided to give Maharani Bagh a taste of the much-talked about conditional access system (CAS).
 Basically, now I can address each of these houses individually, without moving out of my Sukhdev Vihar office 
Home Cable managing director
Vikki Choudhry
Vikki Choudhry, managing director of Home Cable, claims to be the first independent cable operator to have implemented CAS much before the government's July 14 deadline. To test his system, Choudhry has installed 10 set top boxes in and around Maharani Bagh and New Delhi's upscale Friends Colony area.
And he has written to ESPN and Star Sports that he will route the two channels through CAS. This means that unless cable connected homes acquire a set top box, they will not be able to view the two sports channels.
To be sure, thanks to CAS, Choudhry is in complete control of the 10 households where the set top boxes have been installed. Sample some of the things that Choudhry can manipulate through his ordinary personal computer where the subscriber management system has been installed.
At the click of a mouse, he can "lock" the signals of any pay channel that the house with the set top box is receiving. He can block one or all the pay channels in one particular household without causing any disruption to the neighbour' signals.
That is not all. Viewers will also get a flavour of true "addressability" (where a cable operator addresses each customer individually through the set top box) when Choudhry reminds his customers that they've not paid him for cable connections by sending messages from his PC to their TV screens.
Of course, the subscriber management system also allows him to build relationships with customers: a viewer could also get a pleasant "Happy Birthday" message on his TV screen without the world knowing that it's his birthday. "That is the kind of flexibility and control that the subscriber management system allows," points out Choudhry.
"Basically, now I can address each of these houses individually, without moving out of my Sukhdev Vihar office," he adds.
Choudhry can control the cable TV homes with the unique ID number that has been given to each of the set top boxes.
However, a senior official of SPL Innotech Pte Ltd, the Singapore company that has provided the subscriber management system to Home Cable, says that Choudhry can access the system even through the browser.
"That means he need not even move out of his home to manage his operations as he can access the system on the Net," he says. SPL has also provided the chip for the set top box as well as the billing server to Home Cable.
The system provided by SPL also allows the individual broadcaster, say a Zee or a Sony, to access the subscriber management system. "We will give them a password with the help of which they can see details on their viewer base.
However, for them the access will be akin to "read only" files and they will not be able to "edit" or tamper with the information. But it will ensure transparency as they can look at the numbers themselves," says Choudhry.
SPL has also installed a voice automated data entry and billing system for Home Cable. Customers, who will be given a separate pin number (similar to what credit card companies give), could punch the number from their mobile or land line phones to make complaints.
The box could be bought, leased or rented according to the convenience of the customer
Home Cable managing director
Vikki Choudhry
The billing system is even more intelligent. When a customer subscribes to a cable connection, details about his billing
cycle are fed into the system.
So if your payment is due on the first of every month, the billing system will automatically flash a message on your TV screen. And if payment is not made, it can automatically block your signals.
Choudhry is not complaining about the additional money he's shelled out to acquire the automated complaint and billing system. "Eventually, I will save on manpower costs. All I need to do now is to get a few phone lines to handle the complaints," he adds.
However, what excites Choudhry even more is the ability of his proprietary set top box to capture the television viewing habits of his customers. "The chip can register even the minor details – the channels being watched, the duration and even the channel surfing pattern," points out the SPL official.
If other chip manufacturers also follow suit, set top boxes could give TAM Media, the TV viewership monitoring agency, a run for its money.
In Delhi, Home Cable and SPL have roped in Air Vison, the Rs 100 crore Delhi-based company that makes television sets for LG Electronics and Videocon, to manufacture set top boxes.
For starters, Home Cable expects barely 15 per cent of its 28,000 subscribers to opt for the set top box once CAS is officially in place on July 14. A set top box that meets the Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) specifications laid down for analogue boxes is likely to cost a subscriber Rs 3,000. "The box could be bought, leased or rented according to the convenience of the customer," says Choudhry.
SPL officials say that the technology used in the CAS system has adequate safeguards against hacking. "Also, we've made a provision to track whether one box is being used to transmit signals to two or more homes," he says.
With the cable TV industry beginning to implement CAS, pay TV broadcasters like ESPN and Star Sports will have to to ensure that their viewers get to see their channels.
CAS will offer huge advantages
- At the click of a mouse, the cable operator can "lock" the signals of any pay channel that the house with the set top box is receiving. He can block one or all the pay channels in a household without causing any disruption to the neighbour' signals
- The cable operator can remind his subscribers that they've not paid him for cable connections by sending messages from his PC to their TV screens
- The cable operator can use set top boxes to capture the television viewing habits of subscribers – the channels being watched, the duration and the channel surfing pattern. So set top boxed could give TAM Media a run for its money
- Broadcasters can access the subscriber management system through a password. So they can verify the subscriber numbers, leaving little room for under-declaration
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
