A Catty rival

The trial run of a new channel named CAT[ Cable Art Television] is on Hathway and may also find place in Arasu. This is started by a group of cable operators who are in ire with the Sun group.

CAT is attempting to take on Sun DTH with a veritable mix of film songs and scenes but don’t carry an extra USP.

There are many local channels all over Tamilnadu as in other states and almost all of them do not have proper license. It is however not illegal for an MSO to transmit them who get good carriage fees. In fact most of these channels exhibit new films obviously under copyright violation. So may be it will not be ethical for an Government run MSO to carry them. May be CAT is an attempt to regularize and a conglomerate of all local channels which is not a bad idea. But when they get license they cannot violate rules and hence will have to compete against the giants.Will local news be enough to get them the TRP?

According to Kayal Ilavarasu, president, Tamizhaga Cable TV Urimaiyalargal Sangam, ‘at a time when we are fighting for our survival from the onslaught of DTH, we needed a cogent and cohesive arm to take on the rivals’.

‘CAT is an attempt to interact with our customers directly and educate them on TV Network. It ate away the local channels run by us. They threatened to cut signals if we continued to run the channels. However things have changed drastically and today we have regained our self-esteem thanks to the operator-friendly State government’.

Some cable operators expressed their displeasures at these developments. They feel that they are unnecessarily being made pawns in the on-going war between the Marans (owners of Sun TV Network) and the family of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.

According to Newstoday, A prominent cable operator, on condition of anonymity, said, `With technological developments, no doubt there would threat for any business. But venturing to fight giants like Sun TV Network is no good.’

As per Newstoday, Rumours are agog that a prominent State Minister is instrumental in the floating of the local cable channel predominantly against the launch of Sun DTH facilities. A few operators allege his hand in the entire episode cannot be denied.

One more indication that may be Tamilnadu will become the first state to have a Minister for Television, soon.