Chennai: Like many others in Chennai, 22-year-old Anand Kumar, had to get a set-top box to watch his favourite channels.
He pays about Rs 350 a month to get all the pay channels against about Rs 100 for the free-to-air channels. But he says it's worth the extra cost.
"There was this phase when people were saying that it's going to be removed, but when they realised that it's going to be there forever, they went out and bought set top box. I find a distinct improvement in picture quality when you compare it to non-Set Top Box," he says.
But Anand's grandmother doesn't care about a set-top box. She enjoys soaps on Tamil channels that are beamed free-to-air. And, in Chennai, she's in the majority.
Out of about 12 lakh cable and satellite homes in the city, only 60,000 have set-top boxes.
A TAM survey says this isn't surprising because more than 70 per cent of audiences in Chennai watch only Tamil channels, which are free-to-air.
"It is clearly due to the non-existence of any driver channels. Except for some sports events, all the regional channels are free to air," says DGM Operations at Chennai, Hathway, P S Lukshmanen.
Here's how a set-top box works. Pay channel signals come in encrypted and locked.
The set-top box is programmed to unlock those pay channels that the consumer has subscribed to and barring others. All this is in digital quality audio and video.
Consumers say they love the near DVD quality audio and video, even though it costs more.
But they complain there are only two multisystem operators selling set-top boxes in Chennai. And the lack of competition sometimes leaves much to be desired in the service.
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