Jul 06, 2006 10:05 AM
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I watched India - West Indies Series in Ten sports . If you 're from somewhere in north , you might just think whats strange in it ? But if you are a chennai guy ,you will ask me , "oh ! Did you have a Set Top Box ? "
Chennai has the dubious distinction of being the only place in India along with metro cities of Tamil Nadu , where the Conditional Access System (CAS)has been implemented by SCV (Subamangala Cable Vision ) . CAS was implemented in Chennai some two years back and since then neither has it been rolled out to other parts of India / Tamil Nadu, nor has it rolled back from Chennai.
Do you know, if you go to the outskirts of chennai they get all the 100 channels to watch…… strange isnt ? Really ita a dumb system ...
I first thought , when the system was first introduced "Surely they're joking ! Ha, the thing definitely can't last " . They've finally touched the common man where it hurts the most. Then the second thought arrives " Nobody is going to spend on Set Top Boxes. There'll be riots and they'll scrap it! Haha! "
Now I realise, what the common man.... no, ok the common woman.... ok the chennai woman... make that the chennai middle aged house-wife, actually cares about is the slot between 8.00 and 10.00 when she can happily contemplate how the next 200 episodes of a tamil serial gonna turn out. Its the poor souls like me, who miss watching the HBO,Star Movies and ten sports.
If you think I could have bought the set top box instead of grumbling, thats the point here...What I mean to say is why should we alone pay so many overheads when everyone else isn't. I have waited for some change in the CAS system .
I felt so bad after I missed India's Tour of Australia ,so I decided to buy the Set Top Box. It costs around Rs 3,600 and I have to buy the smart card deposit for that for Rs 400. I subscribed for SCV platinum , it comes Rs 230 per month and now I can watch all the pay channels and free air channels, but somehow I cant watch RAJ DIGITAL PLUS , WIN TV, TAMIZHAN TV . They are purposely blocking those free air channels .
But one thing with CAS is that it requires a one time investment on a set top box , but the clarity of relay is very good and people dont pay for channels that they otherwise wont watch. I think very few among my circle got Set Top Boxes. I feel pity for those who missed the historical chase of south Africa against Australia ,famous Ashes series in England . Somehow they relayed FIFA world cup with their courtesy tag.
After I got the SET TOP BOX , I seem a problem I have with my Television compatibility . Every Time when I mistakenly used my old remote , the relay goes off . Then I have to press the AV button to get back to the channel . I cant able to watch FIFA world cup matches through Set Top Box , because iam getting hindi commentery coupled with english in the background while the match is going. I just pulled out the cable point from the Set Top Box and just thought " What the damn thing is this. iam paying for every month for this . I just cant see a good relay .." . Chennai viewers might have experienced this...
After all, we have seen a change of Government, but the policy hasn't changed. Hoping the change will be optimistic to the point of foolishness.
While the intent of CAS was good.. Shoddy implementation has it made it worse for Chennai vaasis.
Someone stays 50 km away from the city gets all benefits , while you have to watch the free air channels .
Why does the Government impose such rules to Chennai city residents alone? If there is no need to buy Set Top Box for the entire country, what is the need for Set Top Boxes only in Chennai? For SCV's personal loss due to the import of Set Top Boxes why is the residents of Chennai punished?
Want to find a solution ? Just go and buy one for you...Coz you have no other option.
Mohan
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