[icernet] Are we ready for CAS?

[Arul Selvan]

 What is common to the telecom and the cable tangles? A regulatory regime
that is short-sighted, inconsistent, and fails to take into account market
realities. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States
is guided by very simple doctrines— consumer interests, prevention of
monopolies, lower prices, and choice. What such spirit guides our
government? Protecting our culture just does not cut ice when FTV is free to
air, readily accessible to millions of young minds, and Zee English can show
the foul-mouthed mob hit Sopranos at 8.30 on Sunday nights.

It is much easier to uproot a sapling than to uproot a tree. And in India,
the current cable system is a tree that has grown wild because the
Government did not do anything about the industry when it was young and
budding. Indian viewers simply do not have a choice of pay-TV providers. We
are stuck with cable, which is accountable to no one, and has very poor
transmission quality.

Those who can afford it should be able to have an alternative — DTH. The
Government should encourage the rise of DTH to provide competition to cable
TV. As the American experience shows, only competition from satellite can
prod cable operators to do better, and lead to rapid evolution of enhanced
TV services.

Source:
http://www.hinduonnet.com/bline/2003/06/05/stories/2003060500060800.htm