Arasu Cables plans for 'Free to Air channels' on all districts

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CHENNAI: In a further move to take control of the television cable operations in the state, the government has given an ultimatum to paid television channels in Tamil Nadu to be a part of the bouquet of channels to be offered by the state-owned Arasu Cable Corporation on its terms. In a meeting held by the chairman of the Arasu Cable Corporation with the representatives of the various television channels on Tuesday, the corporation demanded that media networks provide free airing of their channels in the districts too or be excluded from the bouquet.

Currently, free airing is only done in Chennai while the subscribers in the district have to pay for their channels. With the government all set to relaunch the nearly defunct Arasu Corporation to take on the Sun Cable Vision of Kalanithi Maran, the industry expects a change in the cable network dynamics. At the meeting held at the office of the Arasu Corporation in Chennai, chairman K Radhakrishnan told representatives of the channels that they must either air their channels for free (without a subscription fee) in all the districts or be excluded from the bouquet of channels. Most channel representatives attended the meeting and among those which accepted the deal are Raj TV, ESPN, Star Sports and Zee TV.

Sources said the Sun Network group was not invited for the meeting. This is the latest in a series of moves made by the government to wrench the monopoly of cable distribution from Sun Cable Vision and Sunnetwork. Beginning with an announcement about the relaunch of the near defunct Arasu Cable TV Corporation, the government also reopened cases of sabotage of the cables.

The free airing of channels has been a big bone of contention among cable operators as well subscribers in the state. Currently, free airing of channels is only done in Chennai whereas subscribers in the other districts are forced to cough up money. "It is unfair to have one set of rules for people in Chennai and another for people living in other districts," said N Yuvaraj, president of Arasu State Cable Operators Association. "But earlier, there was little choice as only one private cable network was doing the distribution. But we don't intend to have a system like this any more. This was one of the first issues that we took up with the government."

While all such matters are to be settled before the relaunch of the Arasu Corporation, representatives of the various channels have asked for time to mull over it. "Policy changes have to be decided by the company board members," they stated at the meeting. "We'll need some time for that." However, the channels now seem to be boxed into a corner. Matters have been made worse for them as the cable operators in the state too have threatened to blacklist them and stop all subscriptions to their channels unless they toe the line of the government. "This is an unanimous decision taken by all associations in the state," said Yuvaraj. "We have already passed on the word to all operators in our associations." vasundara.

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