Despite stringent laws which should discourage cable piracy, lakhs of consumers in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata continue to access cable channels without installing the mandatory digital set-top-box (STB). With just R5,000 worth of technical equipment, the local cable operators in the three metro are pushing over a dozen analogue channels to ?select? consumers despite mandatory digitisation coming into effect from November 1. Digitisation bans access to cable channels without a set-top-box (STB). Any violation can lead to cancellation of licence, imprisonment and financial penalty. Then how is this being done?
According to experts, the pirated cable channels continue to coexist with the legitimate digitally encrypted television signals via a device called ?modulator?. This device can convert a legal digital TV signal into the analogue cable pipeline (without detection by MSOs or broadcasters). The pirated signal can then be connected directly to the television set (without a STB). ?In this way, there is no trace of the piracy as these ?illegal signals? are not routed through the digital head-end (system which keeps record of all legitimate signals). So the MSO cannot track it, the I&B ministry can not know about it and the broadcaster will take weeks to discover the leakage. This is being done at the level of local operators,? said an executive in a cable company.
Estimates suggest the pirated channels are pushed in at least 4-5 lakh homes in the metros. Under the provisions of the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, this is illegal. However, the enforcement of law in the case of local cable operators lies with the district administration and not with the central government. ?MSOs can lose their licence if they are involved in piracy. But the licence of local operators comes under the purview of the local administration. Considering the large spread of cable networks, it is difficult for police to act which the operators know fully well,? the cable company executive quoted above said.
When asked why local operators are indulging in piracy, Roop Sharma, president of Cable Operators Federation of India (COFI), blamed the I&B ministry instead for forcing digitisation on consumers without giving them sufficient time to procure the STBs. ?Where are the STBs? Media reports say STBs are being sold in the black market. Operators have been forced to take certain steps in order to protect consumers interest when government have let them down by forcing digitisation. Let the local administration conduct raids and find out themselves,? she said. Sharma, however, clarified that, in-principle, COFI supports digitisation but is opposed to the manner in which it has been implemented.
Sources said there are several pockets in East Delhi, Najafgarh, North-West Delhi, parts of Mumbai and Kolkata where the illegal feed is rampant. ?Broadcasters will take time to detect the leakage but such feeds can be stopped,? said a chief technical officer of a leading television company.
But why is this being done? ?Two reasons why piracy exists. One: Protection of monthly income from the ?undeclared? households. Two: to show the government that rules can be by-passed and they cannot do anything,? said a broadcaster. In order to trace and remove pirated signals, pay-broadcasters have decided to increase digital fingerprinting, a time-consuming mechanism by which leakage and piracy can be checked.
?We know such things are possible. Give it some days, piracy will also be tackled. Rather, consumers will reject it because through piracy, only a handful of channels can be pushed whereas by installing a digital STB, hundreds of channels and other services can be enjoyed,? said a senior government official in-charge of digitisation.
