chennai Television

Latest News – Cable TV Tamilnadu

Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation Limited (ACTCL)

Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation Limited (ACTCL), representatives of the firm expressed confidence that it would start business from four centres - Coimbatore, Tirunelveli, Thiruvannamalai and Thanjavur, in June, 2008. However, the announcement skipped Madurai, an important centre, where Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s son M K Azhagiri is likely to establish his Royal Cable Vision. A decision to this effect was taken at the meeting of the Advisory Committee to the ACTCL held at the Secretariat. However, members of the Federation of Cable TV Associations (FCTA) have charged that representatives of its member associations, constituting 80 per cent of the operators in the State, were not invited for the crucial meet while those belonging to the Tamil Nadu Cable TV Operators General Welfare Association, who attended the discussions, denied this. Representatives of cable TV operators reporters at the Secretariat that the ACTCL had recently called for global tenders for supply, installation, testing and commissioning of digital cable TV head-ends at four centres. The tenders will be opened March 12, 2008.

Once the tenders are finalised, works establishing MSOs will start and the services gradually extended to other parts the State, operators said. So far as Chennai is concerned, ACTCL will start its MSO once it gets the necessary permission from the Centre.

SCV Sumangali Cable Vision

Lok Sabha Member of Parliament Dayanidhi Maran lodged a complaint with the Commissioner of Police on Feb 16th 2008, stating that police had taken into custody cable television operators belonging to Sumangali Cable Vision late on Friday night “without assigning reason” in parts of South Chennai. He had come to the police headquarters giving prior information. But there was no top officials in the office when he came.

On Feb 15th, a cable operator Prakash, who runs Sai Ram Satellite System in Nandanam, had lodged a complaint with the Pondy Bazaar police station that consumers were not receiving signals because cables had been damaged. He had alleged that cable operators Muralidharan, who runs Sriram Cable Network and Kishore Kumar of Sivasakthi cable network, had damaged cables thus preventing signal reception. Mr. Prakash supplies transmission signals to Ashok Nagar, Mambalam and K.K. Nagar areas through Hathway. The accused receive transmission signals through SCV.
Based on Prakash’s complaint the Assistant Commissioner of Police had picked up Muralidharan and Kishore Kumar around 11.30 p.m. and questioned them and later let them off. The Commissioner said no one else had been detained in this regard.
Vaiko, VijayKhant and Jayalalitha surprisingly sang the tune of Dayanidhi by telling Government should not take sides.
Dayanidhi was seen sitting in Treasury benches during Budget presentation. in the Loksabha.
He also met Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and immediately it was headlines.
Earlier His newspaper carried many advertisements from AIADMK on the eve of Jayalaitha’s Birthday celebrations creating shock among DMK loyalists.
Stalin’s birthday on March 1st was more news. Kalanidhi turned up to greet Stalin and it was told that he also met Karunanidhi and a trice is in offing.

Hathway

In a Interview to a Tamil weekly web site last week, Senthilkumaran of Hathway said the following [excerpts]

Hathway Started in Chennai from 1994
· 70% share till 2000.
· SCV started in 2000. By money and political power Hathway share drops to 40%
· 2003 CAS introduced. Sun did not offer sun music, Ktv, Gemini TV etc to other operators. So many operators switched to SCV.
· Now Hathway is giving set box worth 3000 free to all TV owners.
· Hathway’s senthilumaran says that it has welfare of operators foremost. Two lakh families are in this trade.
· The set top boxes offered will provide Digital quality and stereo sound free without rentals.
· Rates fixed by government 5 Rs per pay channel.
· DTH is costlier and same quality.
· Hathway provides its cable TV services in 12 cities across the nation, namely, Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Nasik, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Vijaywada, Chandigarh and Mohali
· Mr. Rupert Murdoch’s Star TV acquired 26 per cent stake in Hathway Cable for $75 million. In 2000
· The Raheja’s are also present in Kerala cable TV industry acquiring the business from Asianet group.
· We are a very professional company with no politician in our Board. We follow professional ethics and do not indulge in unfair trade practices.

“Kalanidhi and Dayanidhi Maran may be trying to build bridges with Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and Stalin, but Azhagiri is not relenting. He is preparing to launch Royal Cable to take on the Marans’ Sumangali Cable Vision. Expect the fight to get dirtier Azhagiri’s stronghold Madurai, Theni, Dindigul, Virudhunagar, Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi” – This is what is claimed by New Indian Express in their Today’s edition.

The following are the excerpts of their article written by Gokulvannan, and Titled Cable War set to hot up.

A.RULING THE AIRWAVES
1. 10crore -Total population of Tamil Nadu
2. 2 crore estimated total number of cable connections in the State
3. 40,000 total number of cable operators in the State
4. 50lakh cable connections in southern districts
5. Average charge per connection 100-150 Rs
6. MSO’s share of the revenue 90per cent Cable operator’s share 10per cent

B. The State Government, which recently created its own cable operations company, Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable Television Corporation, significantly omitted Madurai from the list of places where it plans to set up MSO head-ends. This leaves it virtually open for Azhagiri to mount a challenge to SCV’s near monopoly in the region. According to cable industry sources in Madurai, he has already roped in some of key persons managing the SCV operations in the southern dis tricts and is working hard to wean away cable operators from the SCV fold.

C. Several senior members of the Cable Operators Guild, who were eagerly awaiting the launch of operations by Arasu Cable, now fear that they may get caught in the crossfire of the cable war between Azhagiri and the Marans.Operators in Madurai already had a taste of it a few months ago when a section of cable operators got together, allegedly at the behest of Azhagiri, to set up their own MSO and offer 50 free-to-air channels at Rs 50 a month. This was seen as a move not only to counter SCV but also the direct-to-home (DTH) offer by the Sun TV Group.A potentially explosive situation had developed with the cables of some of the Operators being cut but was defused due to intervention of the ‘powers that be’ in Chennai. The plan for the rival MSO was also dropped at the time.

D. KEY PLAYERS IN SOUTHERN DISTRICTS
1. Sumangali Cable Vision (SCV) : Run by the Marans.Has near total monopoly in Madurai and Tirunelveli; 60 per cent market share in other places
2.Akash Cable Network: Strong in six major centres, including Dindigul, Theni, Tirumangalam and parts of Kanyakumari. Now reported to have thrown in its lot with Azhagiri
3. TV Ramesh: In Thoothukudi, Kodaikanal and parts of Dindigul. Is an SCV loyalist
4.Others: Dozen independent MSOs in places like Rajapalayam, Tenkasi and Virudhunagar

More…..

The surprise meeting between the Chairman and Managing Director of Sun TV Network and Dinakaran Tamil daily Kalanithi Maran and DMK president Karunanidhi and MK Stalin has created hope that the meet may signal a new thaw in the relationship between the Marans and the Chief Minister’s family.

Saturday’s birthday bash of Local Administration Minister MK Stalin proved to be a catalyst and Kalanidhi met both Karunanidhi and Stalin.

Sources in the DMK, said most members of Karunanidhi’s family desire a reconciliation to happen. Interestingly, Stalin is said to be showing keenness in ending the sense of alienation among the larger family.

However, the road block to rapprochement is said to be the overlapping business interests of Marans and the political aspirations of the DMK president’s immediate family members.

Also how Azhagiri the elder son will digest this new episode is a moot point. The Sun TV still operates from Arivalayam and No doors are closed as yet. The cross overs and the people who took sides are bound to get jittery. Dayanidhi Maran was seen sitting in treasury benches during budget presentation and has also met Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi recently. Karunanidhi wrote a provoking Poem and the marans are said to have responded that they know how to retaliate if stretched beyond limits. But all this was before the birthday of the Youth wing president, 56 year old Stalin, the heir apparent.

We had predicted earlier that some day this could happen. But we never thought so soon.
The following is what we wrote in the posting Break the remote or stop the breaks

“There are also many who feel the fight is not real. And even if so may not last long. Sun TV still operates from anna arivalayam and the marans are not flexing their muscles. Before their split it was a weopen in hands of opposition that because of sun TV DMK is going slow in cauvery and mullaiperiyar dispute. Now that is forgotten. Was the split a melodrama to get this result? Now eighty percent of kalaignar TV staff is from SUN TV and may be soon kalaignar TV will gobble Raj TV. And then it is monopoly”

Notorious for irritating frequent and long commercial breaks, the television channels are good taxpayers giving to the exchequer more than one-third of their pre-tax profits, much higher than the industry average of about 20 per cent.

The television channels have paid 36.37 per cent of their profit as tax compared to the industry average of 20.60 per cent, said finance ministry’s data of the corporate tax paid by 3.28 lakh companies during 2006-07.

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The data pointed out that during the year 167 television channels on a profit of Rs 788.9 crore paid Rs 286.9 crore as tax to the government.

The 36.37 per cent tax paid by television channels was only next to forest contractors, security agencies and courier services, which paid 39.33 per cent, 37.80 per cent and 37.64 per cent respectively, of their profits as tax to the exchequer.
Source: Newstoday

VIjay TV will start the most awaited Ippadikku rose from February 28Th, every Thursday at 10.00 PM. This is the first television program in the whole of India to have a Transgender as a host.

The show’s director is Anthony Thirunelveli The half-hour talk show had been conceived as a program suitable for family viewing but would discuss issues of sex and sexuality, confronting “hush, hush, under the carpet subjects.” The first nine episodes will tackle, among other things, divorce, sex and relationships among the mostly young employees in India’s call centers, and sexual harassment.

The main attraction will be Rose herself, who now goes by only one name. A poised, 28-year-old, American-educated former Web site designer with a master’s degree in biomedical engineering, she started wearing women’s clothes full time four years ago and is still waiting for acceptance from her family and society at large.

‘Ipadikku Rose’ is an interactive programme inviting participants to talk about the social issues that affects our society. The show is one of its kind in the talk show genre that will stir emotions, awaken conscience and set the audience thinking. While dealing with human emotions, Rose brings to light the problems faced by people who come from different strata of society. She deals with issues which have not been discussed in a public forum ever before. Some of the topics that would be debated are ‘Domestic violence in foreign countries’, ‘Sexual harassment in colleges’, ‘The life of models’, ‘The rise in number of divorces among celebrities’ etc., as people affected open their hearts out to Rose. A Panel of experts would be present on the sets to throw more light on the topics discussed.

Her birth name is Ramesh venketasen. Click Rose to know about her.

Vijay TV, a pioneer in launching shows with an unique twist comes up with another high-energy music show in Gold Winner Isai Kudumbam from February 24, Sundays 10 am onwards.

This show brings together, singers who form the teams or in this case, families. These families compete against each other for the coveted “Gold Winner Isai Kudumbam” title.
On Isai Kudumbam: Week 1
It is Josh Fire vs Cute Rhythmn

Josh Fire Team members:
Muhammed Aslam
Padma Latha
Kannan - (Super Singer Junior)

Cute Rhythmn Team members:
Prasanna
Megha
Kaushik - (Super Singer Junior)

Popular Singers like Devan, Vinaya, Sangeetha, Sathyan, Ujjaini, Benny, Reshmi, Mukesh, Preethi, Krish, Roshini, Rahul, Prasanna, Krish, and Mohammed Aslam would be captains of their respective family. Judges for this show are Music Director Vijay Antony, Rehana and Film Director Saravanna Subbiah. Yugendran, an established playback singer along with his wife Hemamalini will be the host’s for Gold Winner Isai Kudumbam.

Jaya Tv is starting Little Masters season two from February 23rd. Anchored by Balaji. The winners of the second season too like season one will walk away with one year performance contract, cut an album and get opportunities to perform in various shows worldwide. Watch Little Masters, Season 2 on every Saturday and Sunday at 9 pm on Jaya TV.