Till now the city was witnessing a cable war with cable operators in cut-throat competition. But now, powerful competitors have emerged.

And this time, the fight is not so easy for the cable operators as the attack is directly from the sky with little chance for them to escape.

There were three major players in the DTH arena- Tata Sky, Dish TV and DD Direct till December last but this January, Sun Direct, the offspring of Chennai based Sun Network- too has ventured into the market.

As if this was not enough, two more telecom giants- Reliance and Bharti- are set to make a dent in the DTH industry.

While Reliance is coming with a brand name Big TV and is likely to launch it by April end, Bharti is entering into the channel battle with its brand Bharti Telemedia in July this year, if sources in this field are to be believed.

The killing competition has already begun among the DTH service providers. At an average of Rs 6,500 a year, including the hardware package and installation fee, the DTH operators are luring their customers to have access to 42 to 250 channels.

Presently Dish TV is offering the maximum number of channels, 180, under its Maxi Plan, which costs Rs 300 a month but the challenge is now from the giant rival Big TV, which is learnt to be offering 250 channels with monthly subscription of Rs 325.

The cheapest, however, among all the six will be the DD Direct whose 42 channels are free of cost. The only expense is the one-time installation of its hardware package, which costs around Rs 2,000.

Enhancing technology

With competition set to intensify, the DTH service providers are enhancing their technology. Dish TV is planning to provide mobile antennas and VGA set-top-boxes for PCs. On the other hand, Tata Sky plans to offer Digital Video Recorders (DVR).

A win-win situation indeed, with these enhanced technological services, customers, however, appear to be 'Santusht' (as Dish TV's brand ambassador Shahrukh Khan asks the viewers in an advertisement to switch over to his brand) with the blur and hazy picture with poor sound quality of cable network.

According to A Jagadish, Editor, Cable Varthe, there are around 13 lakh multi-channel connections in the city of which around 12 lakh have cable connection while around 1 lakh are DTH users in Bangalore.

The question, however, is what is making customers Santusht. "We cannot afford putting Rs 3,000 at a time and Rs 300 every month for 180 channels when we can watch more than 100 channels by paying Rs 200 per month," says Yashoda V. She says there are around 45 channels of her family's interest, while rest are not required.

"Even if I have an access to 180 channels, why should I go for it when my requirement is fulfiled with merely 40 channels. And I don't know whether I will get all my preferred channels even if I go for the cheapest plan of DTH service providers," she says.

As a matter of fact there are seven major players in cable industry in the city: Amogh, Siti Cable, Kable First, In Cable, Hathway, U Telecom and Ice-2.

Jagadish claims Amogh is providing 143 channels, Siti Cable- 138 channels, Kable First- 151 channels plus 30 radio channels, In Cable 140 channels, Hathway- 147 channels and U Telecom- 154 channels. Figures are not available about Ice-2.

Threat looms large

Like at any other cities in India, the cable industry in Bangalore is shaken with the advent of DTH. With major players entering into the fray, a threat is surely looming large. The biggest fear among the cable operators is what kind of technology DTH service providers may introduce in future that may rip their business apart.

With the threat to their business, cable operators have girded up their loins and joined together to counter the attack from DTH service providers. The cable operators are offering digital set top box at somewhere between Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,500.

The president of Karnataka Cable TV Chamber of Commerce and Industries Amruth Kumar asserts the set top box enables not only a DVD quality picture and stereo-phonic sound, it also offers at least 30 radio channels and video games to the subscribers.

As this is not enough, the Kable First is introducing the Internet Protocol Television (IPT). Claimed to be the first experiment in India, the IPT will be an interactive service where the user will have multiple options. "Yes we are set to launch IPT," says Mohan Raju of Kable First.

The IPT will have a box and a telephone line that will convert TV into a multiple utility device. "You can send emails through it, you can interact with your service provider, you will also have video conferencing facility in future and can make calls from the telephone line. The scope is wide," says Jagadish.

With IPT the cable industry is ready to counter their rivals coming from the sky.