8 Lak Cable Connections In Coimbatore For ACTC
The Arasu Cable TV Corporation (ACTC) is here to stay for long years and will provide service to viewers through high definition technology, its managing director C Umashankar said on Friday. At a press conference here, Umashankar said the corporation had fixed a target of getting 50 lakh connections in the next one year. In Coimbatore alone, cable TV operators, who had eight lakh connections, had expressed their intent to affiliate with the ACTC.
The ACTC would appoint consultants to undertake field verification to ensure whether the number of connections mentioned by the cable operators were true. As ACTC was a public sector undertaking, the whole business with the cable operators would be brought under an accounting system. There were discrepancies in the number of connections in some cases, he said. Hence, the government had made it clear that only those who were willing to come under the 100 per cent accounting system needed to apply for the ACTC.
Umashankar said the ACTC had plans to introduce Conditional Access System throughout the State. He listed a number of benefits of CAS, including high-definition picture quality, to bring subscribers tariff per channel. Once the Fibre Optic Cables (FOC) are laid throughout the State, the ACTC would provide a number of people-oriented services including high-speed internet service. Depending upon the profit of the ACTC, the corporation would try to provide free internet connections to government offices and schools,Umashankar said. At present, there were one lakh connections with the ACTC, he said.
Around 425 operators were affiliated to the corporation and 100 more had applied for it. In Chennai, the ACTC was trying to start its services from Pongal. To start with, 80 channels, including pay channels, would be on the list. Stating that Sun, Sony and Star networks were yet to give their signals for the ACTC, Umashankar said he had discussed the issue with Dayanidhi Maran of Sun network on November 7. Marans response was positive.
Till now, the Arasu Cable TV Corporation had invested Rs.60 crore in the venture. For laying Fibre Optic Cables and other works, it would require Rs 100 crore, he said. The projected profit of the corporation on getting 50 lakh connections was Rs 100 crore per annum. To a query, Umashankar said there was no question of sharing the expertise with rivals operators as it is pure business and we are here to take the slice from them.
