Sun, Star and Sony groups are dragging their feet without offering their channels Government cable was launched to offer more channels at lower rates without cheating people.
It is popular among people. There is a feeling that there is no need to knowingly cheat individuals by paying high rates without any other option.
However, the number of DTH TVs is increasing and they are also announcing many attractive offers to face the competition from cable TVs. They are also announcing a reduction in fees.
Sun DTH has gone a step further and announced many offers and has been advertising relentlessly to attract more people.
Tata Sky is highly popular in Chennai (reduced by Rs 50 on South starter pack). I think middle people will buy Dish TV and Sun DTH.
As far as I know Tata Sky is more in Chennai and Sun DTH and Dish TV are used by more people in Kopi area of our town.
Now to compete with all these comes Reliance Big TV, which has jumped into the competition with many modern technologies.
Its current target is to capture 40% share in DTH services.
It is said that grand plans are being prepared for it. Hopefully this will further reduce the fees.
This is good news for customers. Only if there is competition can you expect a fare reduction.
The major strength of government cable TV is that it can offer many channels including pay channels in high quality for less money.
Electricity is a major problem in villages.
When we have electricity in our house there is no electricity in the cable control room and when we come there we have no electricity in our house.
There are some practical problems, but since most channels are available at a low cost and cable operators offer many separate (local) channels (including many films and new songs), many people are satisfied with this.
Even though the payment is delayed by a month, they talk to each other. So, I don't know if DTH will be taken from them.
According to the news, many private cable TV operators have drastically reduced their monthly rent due to the arrival of government cable.
Govt Cable charges Rs 100 per month (as it also offers pay channels).
It remains to be seen whether they will be satisfied with cable TV or whether all houses will have DTH antennas like the old way of having aerials.