Broadbandindia Magazine

With the Union Cabinet approving the HITS policy, Sudhir Agarwal, CEO of Wire and Wireless India Ltd. (WWIL) speaks to Broadband India on his take on the new guidelines and digitization of Cable TV services in the country. Here are some excerpts :

Q. HITS policy has been approved by the Government. How do you respond to it since you have been waiting for long as you have already got the license for HITS ?

A. We are quite pleased that finally the HITS policy has been approved by the Government. The launch of HITS is a major milestone in the Broadcasting Industry, which will benefit a large number of cable operators and will pave the way to digitalize cable homes especially in rural areas across India. With the launch of HITS, the cable operators will be able to offer digital cable services at significant lower cost and attract new customers.

Q. What kind of advantages consumers will get from HITS services?

A. HITS will help a subscriber with a wider choice of digital channels, better picture quality, and value-added services at affordable price. It will also allow a cable TV viewer to receive more channels than what they get through the current system. HITS, is the fastest way to digitalize cable TV distribution across India at one go. It offers state of the art digital technology, superior entertainment experience picture and sound quality, content of one’s choice and value-added services to varied consumers.

Q. How will you go about now? What would be your short-term and long term strategies to tap the market with an early-mover advantage against your competitors?

A. Through HITS, we plan to roll out digital services and a sophisticated service network all over India. Using this technology, we will provide digital TV services across India. Local Cable Operators do not need separate Subscriber Management System (SMS) and conditional access arrangement. We already have both of these in place.

Q. Are you going to provide any kind of financial assistance to the cable operators in setting-up HITS system at their ends or they have to bear the entire financial burden on their own? Since they will carry your services, your channels to the subscribers what benefit they would get in terms of revenues?

A. We will support the LCO completely in technical roll out and managing his subscriber base effectively. We have already invested in setting up Subscriber Management System (SMS) for superior customer management and an attractive model in place where we are providing STBs to LCOs at subsidized rates so that he can retain existing customers and attract new customers.

Q. Since TRAI has not formed any guidelines/ instructions for interconnection and revenuesharing model for HITS, have you worked out any formula or plan to attract cable operators to join your platform?

A. We have introduced a policy to attract Local Cable Operators (LCOs) to join our platform. A complete HITS set-up is available to the LCO against a nominal deposit. We offer deals that are a combination of equipments and Set-top-Boxes.

Q. What is your strategy to distribute the Set- Top-Boxes (STBs) to consumers in terms of rental schemes or direct sales, servicing in remote areas and investment made by consumers and by cable operators?

A. We have introduced two options for providing Set Top Boxes. The first option is a rental model and the second option is the outright purchase of the STB by customers. However the STBs are highly subsidized with the objective to increase digital penetration across India.

Q. How many channels will you provide on your platform?

A. We are offering 180 digital channels (audio and video) which includes almost all the channels provided on other digital and analogue platforms.

Q. What is your vision for the Cable Industry?

A. The cable industry has entered an era of everintensifying competition for the home entertainment consumer. Competition is vigorous for cable’s core video business, and advent of new technologies will bring even greater competition between different players.

Making a commitment to introduce HITS is in itself a decision to grow our business by bringing a new level of products and services to our customers. To achieve market leadership, we aim to be leading television content provider by harnessing the latest technology. Secondly, we will continue to reinforce our competitive edge through sustained efforts in value-addition, strive to deliver differentiated and attractive value propositions for our viewers and stakeholders in days to come.