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Mr. Sudhir Agarwal is the Chief
Executive Officer
Wire and Wireless (I) Ltd (flagship of the Essel Group)
Prior to joining Wire and Wireless (India) Ltd., Mr.
Agarwal has held senior management positions with
leading MNC's & Indian Corporates including
Director-Sales, Motorola (South-East Asia), COO at
Bharti Airtel, Regional Director at Xerox and Head -
National Sales at Philips India. With 18 years of
commercial and marketing management experience from
important Industry sectors like Telecom & Electronics,
he firmly believes in employing innovation and
flexibility for attaining market leadership.
Widely acknowledged for his leadership qualities, he
enjoys great respect from fellow Industry veterans for
his innovative and supportive working style. With the
vision of making a success of every project undertaken,
he has proven to be just the right leader to head the
WWIL business across India.
Mr. Agarwal attended Delhi Public School, Delhi and St
Xavier's Patna. Graduated from the University of Delhi
and PGDBM from IMT Ghaziabad, he is also an alumnus of
Advanced Management Program from the Wharton School,
University of Pennsylvania.
A complete family-man, he is an avid supporter of
sports. However, in his free time it's either reading or
music that takes precedence over all. (He has also
worked as a DJ with youth division of All India Radio
during college days).
WWIL-hitting with HITS
Wire and Wireless India Limited (WWIL), India's leading
Cable Television Company is the second company in Asia
to launch Headend-in-the-Sky (HITS) Technology and has
been eagerly waiting for the Government of India's
approval on HITS policy. Now when the policy is
approved, Cable-Quest spoke with WWIL CEO Sudhir Agarwal
about the company's
plan for HITS.
CQ. HITS policy has been approved by the Government. How
do you respond to it since you have been waiting for
long as you have already got the license for HITS?
SA. We are quite pleased that finally, the
HITS policy has been approved by the Government. The
launch of HITS is a major milestone in the Broadcasting
Industry, which will benefit a large number of cable
operators and will pave the way to digitalize cable
homes, especially in rural areas across India. With the
launch of HITS, the cable operators will be able to
offer digital cable services at significant lower cost
and attract new customers.
CQ. How will you go about now?
What would be your short-term and long term strategies
to tap the market with an early-mover advantage against
your competitors?
SA. Through HITS, we plan to roll out digital
services and a sophisticated service network all over
India. Using this technology, we will provide digital TV
services across India. Local Cable Operators do not need
separate Subscriber Management System (SMS) and
conditional access arrangement. We already have both of
these in place.
CQ. Are you going to provide
any kind of financial assistance to the cable operators
in setting-up HITS system at their ends or they have to
bear the entire financial burden on their own? Since
they will carry your services, your channels to the
subscribers what benefit they would get in terms of
revenues?
SA. We will support the LCO completely in
technical roll out and managing his subscriber base
effectively. We have already invested in setting up
Subscriber Management System (SMS) for superior customer
management and an attractive model in place where we are
providing STBs to LCOs at subsidized rates so that he
can retain existing customers and attract new customers.
CQ. Since TRAI has not formed
any guidelines/instructions for interconnection and
revenue-sharing model for HITS, have you worked out any
formula or plan to attract cable operators to join your
platform?
SA. We have introduced a policy to attract
Local Cable Operators (LCOs) to join our platform. A
complete HITS set-up is available to the LCO against a
nominal deposit. We offerdealsthatare a combination of
equipments and Set-top-Boxes.
CQ. What modifications are
required in the distribution network on the part of LCOs/MSOs?
SA. As such no modifications are required.
Only the dish needs to be placed from C band to Ku band
if Ku band signal is used.
CQ. What is your strategy to
distribute the Set-Top-Boxes (STBs) to consumers in
terms of rental schemes or direct sales, servicing in
remote areas and investment made by consumers and by
cable operators?
SA. We have introduced two options for
providing Set Top Boxes. The first option is a rental
model and the second option is the outright purchase of
the STB by customers. However the STBs are highly
subsidized with the objective to increase digital
penetration across India.
CQ. Are the STB for HITS
supplied by you interoperable? How do you support a
consumer who wants to migrate to another HITS operator?
SA. No. The STBs are used by Local Cable
Operators who are on WWIL network.
CQ. How many channels will you
provide on your platform? Is there any scheme for
a-la-carte service like in CAS notified areas?
SA. We are offering 180 digital channels
(audio and video) which includes almost all the channels
provided on other digital and analogue platforms. We do
have a -la-carte options.
CQ. What impact the Ku-Band
HITS is likely to have on existing cable operators?
SA. We see more growth of the cable industry
through digitalization.
CQ. Any other point which you
may like to emphasize to our readers and to the common
public?
SA. The cable industry has entered an era of
ever-intensifying competition for the home entertainment
consumer. Competition is vigorous for cable's core video
business, and advent of new technologies will bring even
greater competition between different players.
Making a commitment to introduce HITS is in itself a
decision to grow our business by bringing a new level of
products and services to our customers. To achieve
market leadership, we aim to be leading television
content provider by harnessing the latest technology.
Secondly, we will continue to reinforce our competitive
edge through sustained efforts in value-addition, strive
to deliver differentiated and attractive value
propositions for our viewers and stakeholders in days to
come. |
