Chennai’s cable war
The row between the Karunanidhi family and the Marans of Sun TV over Tamil Nadu¿s lucrative cable television services market has taken a new turn. Days after Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi¿s son M.K. Azhagiri prevented the Maran brothers from meeting the 84-year-old patriarch on his birthday, it is now advantage Maran with the Telephone Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) Saturday asking Azhagiri¿s Royal Cable Vision (RCV) to reveal its subscriber base.
Azhagiri, Karunanidhi¿s Madurai-based son, set up his Royal Cable Vision, a multi-service cable TV operating service (MSO), in April hoping to provide cable TV service in the southern districts of Madurai, Theni, Ramanathapuram, Sivaganga, Dindigul, Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari, Thoothukudi and a few other districts in Tamil Nadu.
Cable service in these districts have so far been provided by Sumangali Cable Vision (SCV), the MSO wing of the Sun Network, a television channels and services group owned by Kalanadhi Maran and Dayanidhi Maran, Karunanidhi¿s grand nephews. DMK watchers see the setting up of RCV as a direct fallout of the political and business rivalry between Azhagiri and the Marans since May 2007, with Azhagiri hoping to hurt the business interests of the Marans through RCV. However, the irony is that TV viewers will not be content with a cable service which does not offer SunTV channels, so in attempting rivalry the new cable network will extend the reach of the Marans¿ Sun TV.
Observing that RCV had not demanded decoders from Sun TV, owned by the Maran brothers, in a proper format according to the Interconnection Regulation, 2004, the TDSAT rejected its contention that "interconnectivity regulations stipulated for every broadcaster to provide on request, signals of its TV channels on a non-discriminatory basis".
"It is clear that the petitioner has failed to make a request for supply of decoders and activation... this petition is accordingly premature and is disposed of as such," said TDSAT Chairman Justice Arun Kumar. However, Justice Kumar also directed the MSO to approach Sun TV "as per the rules which the respondent (Sun TV) will consider in accordance with the rules".
According to the Interconnection Regulation, 2004, an MSO has to furnish a list of local cable operators who will be getting signals from its network along with their subscriber base to the broadcaster/channel owner. The regulation also says that the MSO and the broadcaster should enter into an agreement while taking into account the subscriber base of the cable operators of the MSO.
Azhagiri and the Marans have been on the warpath since May last year, when a Tamil daily newspaper owned by the Sun group, Dinakaran, published a survey whose results declared that 70 percent of the people of Tamil Nadu favoured Karunanidhi¿s younger son M.K. Stalin as his likely successor and only two percent favoured Stalin¿s elder brother Azhagiri.
This triggered anger among Azhagiri¿s supporters, who burnt down the office of Dinakaran in
In the second week of June Azhagiri complained to the local media that the Sun Network (owned by the Marans) had refused to give RCV its bouquet of 14 pay channels. Azhagiri and his son M.K.A.D. Dayanidhi, who is the managing director of RCV, took their complaints last week to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
RCV complained that Channel Plus-TN, a unit of Sun TV network, had been refusing to provide decoder boxes for all the Tamil channels on its network. SCV in turn pointed out that RCV had not given Sun Network the number of its subscribers and cable operators "which is a pre-condition for giving signals".
It alleged RCV had attempted to cut out Sun network¿s regional channels from its transmission bouquets, but public demand for the Sun channels had made it seek signals from the Maran¿s Sun Network group.
Telecommunications Minister, A Raja of the DMK, is now said to have instructed TDSAT to hear RCV¿s petition under the Free Airway Policy. TDSAT judge and chairman Arunkumar Saturday directed Royal Cable Vision to file details about its subscribers.
RCV counsel K.K. Mani urged TDSAT to direct Sun Network to provide their signals immediately. Sun Network¿s counsel Sarabjit pointed out that RCV was too new an enterprise and "the law stipulates that a minimum of three months is necessary to provide the signal".
Arunkumar then posted the case for further hearing in July. All eyes are now on Azhagiri to see if RCV reveals its subscriber base to the rival SCV¿s Sun group. (IANS and PTI)