Home Cable to challenge MIB revoking its registration

Home Cable has, in a press statement, protested the revocation of its registration by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) for not furnishing DAS information as part of the process to implement digital access system by October 31, 2012. The MSO has said it will now approach the Delhi High Court to appeal against this “arbitrary order issued with mala fide intentions by the I&B Ministry” and will also raise the issues that “we have pointed out numerous times but which have been conveniently ignored for reasons best known to the ministry officials”.

The MSO has claimed that various communications have been sent to MIB in reference to the digitisation of cable TV and DAS information has also been duly furnished. “This action is completely arbitrary after the ministry has failed to respond to our queries,” the statement added.

Alleging that the Minister for Information & Broadcasting is being misguided by the Secretary, I&B in a hurry to implement the DAS Regulation and thus overlooking the interest of the consumer at large, the statement points out that the MSO has repeatedly pointed out during the entire digitisation consultation process that:

1. Domestic Manufacturing of the Set Top Boxes should be encouraged so that we are not completely dependent on the Chinese import, when there is requirement of billions of these STBs to be supplied/ installed at very consumer home in the country depending on the number of TV sets owned by a household.

2. What will a consumer Pay in order to obtain this Digital Set top box? what about the warranty and after sales service? How much to charge for repairs / replacement of the parts like power supply adapters, remote controllers and smart cards?

3. How much will the Pay channels / service cost per month to the consumers. The former TRAI chairman had deliberately kept this issue under forbearance and did not fix any tariff / rates for the pay TV channels as he was to retire within 15 days from the day he had to issue the tariff notification of forbearance for the pay TV channels. This may result in consumers end up paying 3-4 times more for the Cable TV subscription each month.

4. The LCO/ LMO s are an integral part of this Cable TV distribution chain. However, they are not being brought under the ambit of this DAS regulation. Though they are the people who are solely responsible for convincing the subscribers, install STB, collection of subscription and servicing 24x7 with some QoS at the consumer homes. At least they should also be asked to get registered for longer duration and some norms for providing Quality of Service to the consumers be defined for them, otherwise we will see the consumers being put to exploitation and undue hardship.

5. Why the DTH is also not being brought under the DAS regulation when it’s the same content/product that is being provided to the consumers? Are the present Government and the Ministry officials are bent upon making the business of already bleeding DTH companies by making the Cable TV services costlier for the consumers so the DTH companies to increase their subscriptions too consumers , giving opportunity commercial viable. Today DTH has to meet up with the prevailing Cable TV rates in the Country when offering their packages. Cable Operators cannot increase the rates to keep them affordable by the masses.

Home Cable will now be evoking the jurisdiction of the Hon’ble Delhi High Court to appeal against this arbitrary order issued with malafide intentions by the I&B Ministry and will also raise the issues that we have pointed out numerous times but they have been conveniently ignoring for reasons best known to the Ministry officials.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/cable-news/item/307-home-cable-to-challenge-mib-revoking-its-registration.html
Source: http://cablequest.org/news/cable-news/item/307-home-cable-to-challenge-mib-revoking-its-registration.html