Sristi cable group in films foray

Kolkata-based Sristi Cable TV Network, one of the multi-system operators (MSOs) in the city, has identified strategies to grow its business from close to Rs 25 crore right now to Rs 300 crore by 2009.

For one, Sristi is planning to foray into digital film production.

Its first Bengali feature film, 'Abhimanyu', is expected to be released by November.

The 90 minute movie is currently being shot with a budget of close to Rs 50 lakh.

It also plans to produce at least two digital films and two documentaries every year.

As of now, Sristi has taken up documentary projects on eminent filmmakers such as Tapan Sinha and Tarun Majumdar.

Speaking to Business Standard, Rajnarayan Roy Chowdhury, director of Sristi Cable TV Network, said that to grow its business, it decided to make a foray into digital cinema production after a survey indicated huge demand for quality Bengali movies.

The company plans to promote young talent as directors and actors.

The first film is expected to be released with a limited print run in movie halls and depending on its success, Sristi would produce more feature films.

To nurture young talent to tackle the technicalities of digital film production for future movies, Sristi is scouting for land in West Bengal to set up a film technology school with estimated investment of Rs 2 crore. It expected to get land by March 2008. Initially, it would accommodate around 100 students, said Sylvester Marcel, technical consultant of Sristi.

Courses offered would be in digital media, data encoding, devices and their handling.

It would be a part-time training centre for professionals working in related fields too.

Sristi is also planning to launch IPTV in Kolkata by October this year.

"We are technically equipped and prepared to launch IPTV service which would also make Sristi one of the first MSOs to launch IPTV service in Kolkata," claimed Chowdhury.

Sristi's IPTV would offer internet, cable channels, intranet, video conferencing, VOIP, etc, for a one-time down-payment of Rs 5000 and monthly rental of Rs 100 to Rs 750 depending on the number of services availed.

Sristi is also planning to launch a free education channel on its cable network in response to demand for education related content based on subscriber feedback.

The education channel would aim at the secondary and higher secondary students and would have teachers imparting online education and tutorials.

Sristi expects growth in carriage fee to fetch higher revenues. "With new channels being launched every other month, carriage fee is likely to go up to Rs 100 crore by 2008-2009 from Rs 66 crore right now," Chowdhury claimed.

Sristi also recently rolled-out its conditional access system (CAS)-based cable services network covering central and south Kolkata stretching from Kidderpore to Behala to Joka.

Nearly 50 cable operators in central and north Kolkata were under the umbrella of Sristi to form an MSO covering the city's most densely areas.

Currently Sristi had subscriber base of approximately 50,000 of which nearly 3,000 subscribers had opted for CAS service network in the past three months, but this segment was growing at 10-12 per cent per month.

"We got delayed by some four months in rolling out CAS because set-top boxes had not arrived. We placed orders with Bharat Electronics but because it too has to import from places like Taiwan, Korea and China, the whole process got delayed," claimed Chowdhury.

The state IT minister, Debesh Das, said in their defence, "Since these set-top boxes have to be imported, consignment delivery could take up to four-six months. I did speak to Bharat Electronics and other private players for setting up an STB assembly unit here. I was ready to offer them adequate land in West Bengal but nothing worked out".