World Class Satellite Cable TV. Review on Tata Play

CAS ka Curse or CAS Ka Karishma ?

( Conditional Access Service )

TATA Sky charges Rs.3000/- for the STB (Set Top Box) and the mini dish antenna atop your terrace facing the south to catch the Geo Stationary Satellite positioned there.

Rs.1000/- is for the activation and warranty for 12 months

(What warranty ? Whatever has to go wrong will happen after the 12 months only)

Current scheme entotles you to 6 months free subscription worth Rs1,800/- with every package (of Rs.4000/-)valid upto 10th. Jan 2007. For every subsequent package (meaning every 2nd TV in the house) you pay Rs.500/- for activation and only Rs.100/- per month per extra TV.

Rs.300/- per month is the rental for all the channels beamed on Tata Sky at present (almost 120)

You get scratch cards similar to the prepaid recharge vouchers for mobile phone services. As long as you have sufficient balance in your account, you will recieve the telecast. Your depleting balance is available 24 hrs on your TV screen at the press of a button. Reminders are sent to you on screen well in advance.

24 hrs. on screen help is a click away on your remote and a cute kid along with the bubbly Raageshwari will guide you through the help topics on how to access the various services of Tata Sky.

DVD Qualityy picture and CD quality sound ? - YES !

My old dabba 29 " TV is now suddenly spanking new and sounding fabulous too (after the drab and grainy picture of the earlier Cable services)

Being portable, it becomes easier to take it along with you when you change homes or cart it along with you to your country side holiday home/farm house that you just bought in an obscure location.

TATA Sky, DISH TV etc are doing what mobile telephony did to India's monolith Telecommunications. They are waking up to world class services and quality performance with responsiveness and accountability.. No longer do the cable guys act callous and all their ' dadagiri ' and ' bhaigiri ' is slowly changing over to polite requests and beseeching you to stick on with them while they revamp their services to keep up with compettion.

Another interesting feature in TATASky is that its a sim card based service. What it means is that tomorrow in the future you have the option to take any other service provider's subscription just by changing the SIM Card (akin to BPL, Hutch, Airtel, etc) .. Get the IDEA !

Moreover you will all be interested to know that TATA sky(and DISH TV) is being bought here in various parts of India and being carted off to DUBAI and the UAE where its is being gleefully lapped up by our NRI's who were paying almost 1500/- per month there (in Riyals and Dirhams) to watch our popular STAR, ZEE and SONY networks.

You see, basically all you need is a dish atop your premises (which is already installed in these countries) and you have to just point it in the direction of the satellite transmittingt the signal with the Set Top Box (STB) purchased in India and activated here. All thats left to do is connect it to the dish there and you are on. No Rocket science at all. More than 30% of theses Tata Sky subscriptions are actively viewed in Dubai and other Middle East countries. And that too at a measly Rs.300/-per month payable here in India (scratch card-Call Tata Sky 24 hrs. Help Line and renew your subscription.) Many users have already subscribed for the entire year package to avoid increas in rates later (when Tata Sky was launched they were offering it at Rs.200/- per month)

With more and more service providers (like RELIANCE Blue something) readying to launch their services, the future looks bright and the consumer will have choice. We also have MTNLwith their IPTV servcies in their nascent stage already up and kicking ( and with their reach they will be quite a match for the current big wigs)

A Revolution is taking place in the Indian Televison broadcast and distribution industry. And the consumer is the greatest beneficiary with dramatically improved clarity of picture and sound to match the HDTV and LCD Plasma TVs of today's generation.

CAS is implemted to harness the siphoning off of the rentals pocketed by the In Cables, WINCables, SITI Cables and 7 Star Networks in Mumbai. TV networks have invested heavily into programme content and technology without having a slice of the actual consumer payouts. They are surviving on cut throat competion amongst themselves for sponsorships and advertisements and commercial air time to cover their costs.

I hope this (CAS) curse turns in to a blessing in disguise...because there is a remarkable improvement in the quality of reception of the telecast before and after the installation of a set top box.

Do leave your views and comments.

Happy 2007 !

Regards

Raja