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He also claims that at present a survey is being carried out amongst
his cable subscribing base of approximately 6,000. "My equipment
for CAS is in place as is the subscriber management system," claimed
Vikki Chowdhry, owner of Home Cable Networks and the president of
National Cable & Telecom Association.
Chowdhry said that an investment of one million rupees has already
been made on servers and other head-end equipment until now.
According to Chowdhry, the technology for CAS has been supplied
by a Singapore-based firm called SPL, which also does R&D work in
this field. The company would also be supplying the digital boxes.
Chowdhry, who services cable subscribers in some of the upmarket
residential areas of Delhi, feels that SPL is designing a chip from
his network that would enable tracking of time spent by a cable
subscriber on each channel accessed at the home end. "If this technology
is successfully implemented, the firms doing the ratings might as
well shut shop," he claimed.
Currently 10 channels are ready to be put on Home Cable's network
through CAS. Chowdhry is trying out a business plan to sell the
digital boxes to subscribers that may cost slightly over Rs 3,000
to a consumer. But unless the consumer buys the boxes, the monthly
rent for the box would be around Rs 180, he said.
How serious is Chowdhry? He claims that a form has been sent out
amongst some of his subscribers to list out their preferences where
various channels are concerned.
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