If a satellite dish seemed to be the ultimate solution for an entertainment starved populace then why did this dish phenomena begin to fizzle out by the mid 90’s? People say that there were a multitude of reasons; the foremost being their providers decision to encode so many favorite channels. For many, opting for a Cable connection seemed to be a more viable option than getting a decoder and then there were the added benefits of an easy installation, an independent connection for each TV set, an excellent variety of channels and all this for a fairly reasonable amount. Over time different cable companies mushroomed all over the cities from SUN TV, to World Call and Hawk Net to name a few, scrutinized along the way by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority-PEMRA. However, there was a small catch; one had to be in an area where the cable connection was available, to subscribe to this wonderful new cable phenomena.

EVOLUTION- And it was at this time that colonies /apartments became the envy of many because a higher number of potential subscribers attracted cable operators to extend their cable network to these areas. Still, these initial years were trying times for some subscribers. Entertainment was a plenty but this was before the introduction of fiber optics and for 3 odd years frustrated consumers had to content themselves with the saddest of receptions. “Ma’am/sir can you wait for a little while longer?”, came the mechanical reply to every complaint. . and so they patiently waited it out.

Some years passed and Fiber optics arrived. With more and more local channels hogging (pardon the expression) the airwaves, quality entertainment channels got pushed out. Favorites like the Turner Classic Movies, Mbc 2, Mbc 4, Fox News and Movie Time were taken off the air for months at a time. It was galling to see that many of these channels remained available in certain sections of the city like Defence but the high demand for crappy channels was given as the primary reason for the disappearance of these particular favorites in others.

THE VANISHING- 2 years ago MM and MM-2 disappeared in Ramazan and magically reappeared afterwards. No harm done, only, both showed some great watchable films in the daytime. I said daytime.  Eventually the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority – PEMRA, emerged and banned both the MM’s & Series channel. People comforted themselves with the thought that as long as they got replacement channels, they’d be ok, for there were still plenty of quality entertainment out there.

One fine day, all the frivolous across the eastern border channels, which are immensely popular with the masses, got banned. Oh joy for the more sophisticated viewers!  But wait! Cinema 1-2-3-4 came up making up for the loss...oh woe! Even then an uneasy truce reigned between subscribers and cable operators as some good options had been reluctantly made available for the time being. A year passed. But it was too good to be true.  Various local channels going by the names of color, light, fervor, fire, us, (they don’t sound half so ridiculous in Urdu) sprang up and occupied the slots of good channels. And if that wasn’t bad enough, these new born channels offered nothing new to the subscribers.

DISRUPTION- The cutting of fiber optics is an issue the cable wallahs are helpless against as their fiber run through 10-20 km through the city and such a large area is difficult to monitor.  Often times K.E.S.C itself cuts off the fiber when it allegedly comes in the way of their wires (which it doesn’t, insist the operators). These frequent cuts result in monthly losses for the operators and have become a nuisance for their client.

Giants like World-Call also have some issues with their service. They have expanded their network with the result that the complaint department has deteriorated to an extent that they no longer can service a complaint within 24 hours and it takes 20 minutes just to log one. Also the subscribers need to go to them to make payment whereas some reps from certain other companies go door to door to get paid and these other companies don’t also charge for shifting of their cable when their subscriber moves from street X to street Y.

MONOPOLY - is still the ultimate game - SUN TV came amid much fanfare but phased out in time as their reception was clear but transmission faulty. These days the major providers are MPC & KCS and they cover a vast area of Karachi; all big networks come under PEMRA. Both have decided not to interfere in each others territory which leaves the subscribers vulnerable. If they’re un-happy with their chosen service then there’s little chance of a better one coming to resolve the problem.

THE LIST - Shockingly, with more than a 100 channels, 35 odd are English, less than 20 are of entertainment and the rest, in my opinion, all crappy. Even more shockingly, almost none of the low quality but popular channels exist on the official PEMRA list and the ones included, few care to watch. Either the good channels have no landing rights or their rating poses a problem. Since information takes a backseat to entertainment (seriously all information all the time is not what subscribers pay for) many favorites make their way to the cable illegally and PEMRA turns a blind eye; till one fine day the order comes to crack down on these illicit transmissions and then the favorites are taken off; but several big network may continue to run them still.

It’s interesting to note that the across the border channels are also not on this PEMRA list but since they are high on the subscribers wish list, so who cares. The Showtime package is also conspicuous by its absence. Ironically TCM is on this strange list; even so, MPC takes it off unceremoniously whenever it gets the urge. This list is there for all to see – only the cable TV section in PEMRA website has been ‘under construction’ for some 6 months so the information cannot be verified. An over sight or negligence, who knows?

Operators who run the Head-end(“A cable head-end (or headend) is the facility at a local cable TV office that originates and communicates cable TV services and cable modem services to subscribers.”) allegedly pay PEMRA a substantial amount on a monthly basis to run cable movies on their channels and therefore the cost of running this Head-end escalates. To cover these rising costs, they have to resort to placing additional ads in many popular channels.

TERMINATED- Every month a new channel pops up and an old favorite suffers a premature death. TCM, FOX news, MTV English, Travel & Living, MBC2 and 4 get hijacked by test transmissions such as Peace TV’s and V’s??? PEMRA itself made the rules that no channel shall be taken off their designated slot by any operator without their knowledge and permission. New channels realize that for them to make a place in the market; they must be in the top 10, 20 or 30 slot, for few subscribers will make the effort to go up to the 80th channel and what’s worse, some TV’s are not even tuned to receive these high frequencies; so these new channels allegedly offer monetary incentives to both PEMRA and the cable operators. As a consequence, some regular favorites must now be removed altogether.  Upon desperate phone calls by subscribers, the operators simply claim that sorry jee, channel MBC 2 and 4 are not on the PEMRA list. When were they ever on this sorry list?

Channels normally come together in a card which means that if a substandard (read lousy) channel is part of a good deal, the operator will not go out of his way and pay additional for a requested favorite. Unfortunately, with 95% of subscribers in a certain colony happy with the current service, the educated 5% have no where left to turn. It’s highly regrettable that these 95% are the educated illiterates and across the border channels is all it takes to satisfy their limited tastes. The question arises that if certain factions demand crap they’re serviced on a priority basis; agreed that there is no accounting for taste but then others right to quality entertainment  is denied. This is not true for World Call though but their service presently is limited to the Defence Authority and not available in other parts of the city.

What some people won’t say to get out of making a small PAYMENT to the operators-

“Our favorite channel doesn’t come so why should we pay you huh?”

Some one who hasn’t paid for 10 months: “your guy doesn’t come so we won’t pay you”.

Another one claims, “Yes I’ve taken an illicit connection since I’m the only one who watches this news channel and that too without the knowledge of my family. …well then guess I won’t pay you”.

And then

“The reception was kinda bad for 2 days so I won’t pay you…for the whole 30!”

And my personal favorite:

“Cable is not coming on our TV”

“Ok sir may we check?”

“Go right ahead”.

“But sir cable is not ON only on your 6th TV”

“Yes but that’s the only TV we watch…& so...we won’t pay you”.

Since some operators do not have late surcharges and therefore they have no other way to make up for the losses suffered.

REVOLUTION- Technologies like DTH and NGN will soon make their way to Pakistan. With DTH-Direct to Home Technology, there will be no more cable networks but a small dish/receiver installed in the subscribers home, linked to a satellite where a happy subscriber can enjoy the selected favorites. The second option will be NGN-New Generation Networks; this supposedly high tech system is already in place with PTCL lines laid over Karachi area. With its many inherent advantages, the one foreseeable disadvantage can be the high cost of securing their cable wires. Still, while the new technologies will benefit the viewers, the same cannot be said about the future of cable operators and they are likely to meet the same fate as their predecessors, the Dish.