DTH having better of CAS for now

In the battle between the conditional access system (CAS) and the direct to home (DTH) services, the latter seems to be edging ahead, having witnessed a 30-40 per cent rise in sales in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata since December 31, 2006, the day CAS came into effect.

DTH players like Tata Sky and Dish TV have managed to seed over 1.3 lakh DTH set top boxes in CAS areas as against 1.2 lakh CAS boxes seeded by cable operators.

According to industry estimates, around 1,75,000-200,000 set top boxes have been ordered in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata whereas a little over 1,00,000 boxes have been seeded so far by cable operators.

On an average, 8,000-9,000 DTH connections are being activated by Tata Sky and Dish TV in a day, with the three metros accounting for 2,500-3,000 connections, industry sources said.

In Delhi and Mumbai, 1,500-2,000 CAS connections are being activated daily, though there is a huge backlog of consumer requests.

The shortfall in set top boxes for CAS and the aggressive marketing by DTH players had led to consumers opting for DTH over CAS in several areas, an industry observer said.

"We had anticipated the demand to surge post CAS and we made preparations accordingly. At the moment, we have captured 30-35 per cent of consumers in CAS areas," Vikram Kaushik, CEO, Tata Sky, told Business Standard.

Due to huge demand for DTH services, Tata Sky will cross the five lakh subscriber base by this month. Dish TV will also touch the two million subscribers mark shortly, from its consumer base of 1.75 million in December.

The surge in demand for Zee backed Dish TV has come from Delhi and Mumbai. "After CAS, we have seen a huge increase in the demand for Dish TV," Anjali M Nanda, vice-president, marketing, Dish TV, said.