In a sudden turn of events, state Arasu Cable TV corporation (ACTV) has signed a pact with media giant Sun TV to air all its channels across the state from Monday.
Since the inception of Arasu Cable TV, set up to eradicate monopoly in the business, Sun TV channels had gone off air causing a huge setback to Sun Group.
As per the agreement, the government would pay Rs 3 crore a month to Sun Group towards airing bouquet of all its 37 channels in analog mode. In the initial stages, the negotiation started with Sun Group expecting Rs 17 crore to allow Arasu cable to use its channels.
“Though the negotiations were held for over a year, the pact was signed between Sun Group and ACTV, after arriving at an amicable solution, only last Friday.
This would enable ACTV subscribers across the state to see Sun channels from Monday. Though they have proposed a bouquet of 37 channels, only six channels – all Tamil, including Sun TV and KTV – will only be aired as ACTV can only accommodate 100 channels,” sources in the government told DC on Tuesday. The corporation will pay Rs 3 crore every month to the Sun Group.
However, all 37 channels would be aired in Chennai when ACTV launches its digitised services in Chennai.
Soon after assuming power last year, ACTV services were revived by chief minister Jayalalithaa to eliminate the domination of private players in the business.
After the launch of ACTV, 90 channels were made available for Rs 70 per month. Following this, Sun channels were blacked out across the state, barring Chennai, where conditional access system (CAS) is in force. However, a few private operators were sneakily airing Sun channels, acceding to viewers’ request.
cable tv offers 500 channels
Arasu Cable TV Corporation is set to launch its digitised services in Chennai with only a few weeks left for finalising the supplier of set top boxes and commissioning the service.
The corporation will air 500 channels in Chennai from day one of its launch. “We have received bids from six companies from which one will be finalised to procure one lakh set top boxes.
The bidding process will be finalised in a few weeks, after which the company will start supplying set-top-boxes (STB) to us,” sources in ACTV told this newspaper. They added that the chief minister would announce the launch date soon after the tendering process.
STBs will enable consumers to view all channels in high quality and will also create a level playing field for broadcasters.
For this, subscribers will have to purchase STBs from their service provider.Viewers will have to pay as per the packages they opt for though the charges would be nominal, said an official.
“Irrespective of the popularity and bandwidth, all channels would be aired with equal signal quality,” he explained.
Though TRAI had set a deadline of July 1 to launch digital cable services , it had agreed to extend it till October after the CM had written to the Union government.