The cable industry has undergone a sea change over the years. There have been many ups and downs during this more than two and a half-decade of the journey. Every experience has been a lesson and the industry continued to forge ahead. Still, we faced many challenges and learned many lessons. As the Corporates strengthened and spread their wings, we were forced to learn the new trends and tried our best to catch up with the pace of the changing times.
The need was felt more during the digitization of cable television. Everybody was keen on knowing what the TRAI was saying, what regulations were being imposed and how to save themselves from the draconian rules. Though there are a few national magazines, they were confined to technical issues rather than the regulation. Moreover, they were either in English or Hindi.
The situation has driven us to have our magazine catering to the needs of the cable industry in both the Telugu states. That was how the monthly magazine Cable Samacharam, a monthly was launched during the period of digitization. The cable industry expressed its happiness by bringing out this magazine with a flowery Telugu language. With all your support we were able to bring out the issues regularly with the latest information and analyses. You are all aware of this.
At one stage, we had to rethink. Since Cable Samacharam was a monthly magazine, we had to keep you all waiting to be informed about the happenings during the month. At times, when there is a regulation or when there is a consultation paper seeking the opinions of the stakeholders, the readers were made to wait for the full month and the news becomes stale. Apart from this, the time and money required to print and distribute were also on a higher side.
When the whole TV industry was digitized, it was natural for us also to think of going the digital way. This helps us provide information daily, minute to minute. That was how our web portal cablesamacharam.com was ideated. When political and film news is popular among the people, it was our need that propelled us to have our own website. The idea is to provide television industry-related news to both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh so that around 25000 people involved directly or indirectly in the industry get information. That is how the cablesamacharam.com is before you attractively and uniquely.
This has son become a forum to discuss the problems of the cable television sector, the issues interconnected with the broadcasters, regulations of TRAI and the orders of MIB, court judgments, Tariff Order, NTO 2.0, and the related court cases apart from the ground-level issues. The website is in no way inferior to national level portals while it also discussed local issues. It has also proved its uniqueness by way of offering news in both English and Telugu. The site is being maintained in such a way that the cable fraternity feels that they must check the site at least once a day. The success lies in creating such a positive opinion among the people.
Recently TRAI has issued a Consultation paper seeking the opinions of the stakeholders. Since it is aimed at imposing serious restrictions on the local channels carried by the MSOs and LCOs, the website has successfully created awareness among the cable fraternity on the impending dangers of the proposed regulation and requested the stakeholders to respond to the TRAI’s consultation paper. The website has also guided to LCOs by giving a model letter to be sent to TRAI., This has given such a positive response that out of the 30 responses from all over the country, 9 are from Telangana and AP only. cablesamacharam.com is proud to claim its role.
Within six months of launching the full-fledged website, we have moved closer to the television industry. While the LCOs and MSOs are primarily the patrons, broadcasters and journalists are the passive browsers. We expect your cooperation and affection towards us in the future also, We assure you best of our services to provide you more and in-depth coverage and analyses. We hope the new year will bring us more happiness,
With heartfelt New Year wishes
Sincerely Yours
Subhash Reddy
Chief Editor, cablesamacharam.com
Managing Director, Brightway Communications Pvt. Ltd.
President, Telangana MSOs Federation
