Star, Sony bouquets still on top in Mumbai CAS market

Mumbai April 26

Is there a difference in viewership patterns before the introduction of the conditional access system (CAS) and post its launch in the three metros? The Mumbai CAS market with its highest level of adoption (accounting for more than 50 per cent of the set top boxes sold across the three metros) does not immediately reveal a major shift.

While there has been an increase in the shares of the free-to-air channels, the ranking of the channels in their respective genres remain more or less unchanged. The preference for the Star and Sony bouquets continues, while individual channels from the Zee stable such as Zee Cinema and Zee TV have had adequate takers.

"Star is still the leader although the shares of ESPN Star Sports has declined since Doordarshan is showing the same matches for free,'' states Mr K. Jayaraman, Managing Director & CEO, Hathway Cable & Datacom. Consumers are exercising the `buffet' option comprising channel bouquets rather than the a la carte packages where they are expected to pay Rs 5 for every channel subscription.

Mr Anuj Gandhi, President, SET Discovery, said, "When consumers pick and choose, it's mainly the general entertainment channels (GEC) and sports channels which tend to do well in the CAS markets. Now that CAS has settled in, the mainstream channels continue to be neck to neck." The trend across the metros shows that all the three GECs — Star TV, Sony and Zee TV — have been recording almost equal shares and so have sports channels such as ESPN and Ten Sports, claim the multi-system operators (MSOs) in Mumbai.

contd on page 2...