Arasu cable TV launched

[alpeshpatelk]

Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Tuesday launched the Tamilnadu Arasu Cable Corporation in four Southern districts (Thanjavur, Tiruchirapalli, Thiruvarur and Nagapattinam) through video conferencing facility.

However, the cable TV services kicked off without the Sun TV bouquet of channels.

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Sources say that the Sun Channels would be beamed in a couple of days time. The channels are off due to some technical issues, sources added.

The new government-backed cable corporation has confused the public more than give them any clarity at a time when the Marans (the hitherto behemoths in cable distribution) and M K Azhagiri (the wannabe giant).

Many cable operators in the districts of Trichy and Thanjavur also allege that they have been kept in the dark on various issues including the monthly rentals and service tax.

But from the government side, the effort was to convey a mood of bonhomie.

‘The corporation has been formed to help people, who had been paying monthly charges ranging from Rs 150 to Rs 300 per month.

As the government got a lot of complaints about being charged excessively, it decided to start the corporation’, Karunanidhi said.

He also added that those channels which were not ready to part with their feeds would be severely dealt with.

Control rooms have been set up at Thanjavur, Tirunelveli, Coimbatore and Vellore. They would provide signals to the cable operators.

Several cable TV operators thronged the District Collectorate office in Thanjavur for the launch.

However they were denied entry as the inauguration was done within a closed door with Collectors from Thanjavur, Nagappatinam, Thiruvarur and Thiruchirapalli participating.

According to a cable operator in Tiruchirapalli , ‘Sun TV is missing from the bouquet of channels. No explanation has been given as yet. We are flooded with calls from customers’.

The officials in the Arasu Cable Corporation have expressed confidence that Sun TV will be made available within the next couple of days’.

If the Sun TV is not telecast by the corporation, it would result in unhealthy competition and situation would go from bad to worse, he added.

Among the 55 channels offered to the customers by the corporation, a majority of them are free-to-air channels.

A section of operators accuse the new Corporation of not providing them details on revenue sharing between them and the corporation and also on service tax.

‘We have urged the government to provide us Rs 70 per connection. However they are still tight-lipped’, cable TV operators said.

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