Being a Guinea Pig…

I always wondered how it felt to be a Guinea Pig. Wonder why? Guinea pigs are animals which are always used for experimenting (too sad,rite?). But the topic of this post is in present continuous, which means I am a Guinea Pig (not literally). But it is not only me who is a Guinea Pig, if you are a local resident of Chennai, then you are a Guinea Pig too. Amazed?

Before you read any further, I would like to tell you something. If you are a guy who sits in front of the TV and you are well satisfied with the number of channels you get and if you are content with paying just Rs.75 for it, then this post isn’t for you. But if you are still curious to find out whats below, go ahead

By now you would have guessed what I was speaking about. Yes I was speaking about the Set Top Box system. How this all happened? Some four or five years ago, there was some problem with the cable TV operators ( I dunno what it is). They demanded extra money. Lets skip what actually happened.

One fine friday night, on one channel, they were showing one of my fav movie(JP III). If you had seen this movie, you would know the scene where they first fly in the plane to Isla Sorna. I was enjoying the movie when exactly at that thrilling moment, a message displayed on the screen (“Due to some problems, we are shutting down this channel”) and like magic, the channel was gone. I was like “What is this all about?”

After a few controversies over this, the channels (some other channels behaved had behaved in the same way) were brought back. Later they finally made an agreement and then came this Conditional Access System (CAS) by which one can access channels only via payment (payment means extra payment rather than the usual cheap payments).

Most of the channels agreed and then they were made as the paid channels (as they were started to be called so). By this, one has to buy a Set Top Box (quite expensive) to access view to paid channels and also they have to pay for each channel. There were some free channels which people can enjoy free of cost.

Unfortunately, this system was implemented only in Chennai (outskirts of Chennai not included (was shocked to see them in a town outskirt of Chennai)). Obviously, this system wasn’t a big success (was a success to only those who brought this system). I will call it a mega flop. This was mainly due to the free channels. They provided more than enough entertainment and the rent was less.

Many people thought that the CAS system would be taken back. But unfortunately, the answer was a big “NO”. The paid channels didn’t bother about this, as they gained a lot from all the other cities. The citizens of Chennai didn’t bother about this either. Even the introduction of DTH services weren’t able to shake the citizens of Chennai. :p

But viewing all this from the outside perspective, why was this system implemented only in Chennai? Actually, this system was supposed to be implemented in other metropolitan cities as well, but following the flop of this system, this wasn’t implemented in other cities. The wait for the CAS system to become a success began. The wait is still going on (for four years or more) and there isn’t any sign of success. Finally, they (the ones who brought CAS) decided to implement this in other cities. But as far as I know, this statement was said six months back and was never implemented and now there has been another statement.

As it then turned out, we, the Chennai-ites, are Guinea pigs, used for testing the success of CAS. Ofcourse these Guinea Pigs aren’t tired. They have got adapted to its conditions. I had even sent an article about this to a famous News Agency. (I wonder what happened to it) Well anyway, we are Guinea Pigs, aren’t we?

Being a Guinea Pig…

I always wondered how it felt to be a Guinea Pig. Wonder why? Guinea pigs are animals which are always used for experimenting (too sad,rite?). But the topic of this post is in present continuous, which means I am a Guinea Pig (not literally). But it is not only me who is a Guinea Pig, if you are a local resident of Chennai, then you are a Guinea Pig too. Amazed?

Before you read any further, I would like to tell you something. If you are a guy who sits in front of the TV and you are well satisfied with the number of channels you get and if you are content with paying just Rs.75 for it, then this post isn’t for you. But if you are still curious to find out whats below, go ahead

By now you would have guessed what I was speaking about. Yes I was speaking about the Set Top Box system. How this all happened? Some four or five years ago, there was some problem with the cable TV operators ( I dunno what it is). They demanded extra money. Lets skip what actually happened.

One fine friday night, on one channel, they were showing one of my fav movie(JP III). If you had seen this movie, you would know the scene where they first fly in the plane to Isla Sorna. I was enjoying the movie when exactly at that thrilling moment, a message displayed on the screen (“Due to some problems, we are shutting down this channel”) and like magic, the channel was gone. I was like “What is this all about?”

After a few controversies over this, the channels (some other channels behaved had behaved in the same way) were brought back. Later they finally made an agreement and then came this Conditional Access System (CAS) by which one can access channels only via payment (payment means extra payment rather than the usual cheap payments).

Most of the channels agreed and then they were made as the paid channels (as they were started to be called so). By this, one has to buy a Set Top Box (quite expensive) to access view to paid channels and also they have to pay for each channel. There were some free channels which people can enjoy free of cost.

Unfortunately, this system was implemented only in Chennai (outskirts of Chennai not included (was shocked to see them in a town outskirt of Chennai)). Obviously, this system wasn’t a big success (was a success to only those who brought this system). I will call it a mega flop. This was mainly due to the free channels. They provided more than enough entertainment and the rent was less.

Many people thought that the CAS system would be taken back. But unfortunately, the answer was a big “NO”. The paid channels didn’t bother about this, as they gained a lot from all the other cities. The citizens of Chennai didn’t bother about this either. Even the introduction of DTH services weren’t able to shake the citizens of Chennai. :p

But viewing all this from the outside perspective, why was this system implemented only in Chennai? Actually, this system was supposed to be implemented in other metropolitan cities as well, but following the flop of this system, this wasn’t implemented in other cities. The wait for the CAS system to become a success began. The wait is still going on (for four years or more) and there isn’t any sign of success. Finally, they (the ones who brought CAS) decided to implement this in other cities. But as far as I know, this statement was said six months back and was never implemented and now there has been another statement.

As it then turned out, we, the Chennai-ites, are Guinea pigs, used for testing the success of CAS. Ofcourse these Guinea Pigs aren’t tired. They have got adapted to its conditions. I had even sent an article about this to a famous News Agency. (I wonder what happened to it) Well anyway, we are Guinea Pigs, aren’t we?