Activating her poll promises, the Jayalalithaa government on Friday announced the revival of Arasu Cable TV Corporation. Arasu Cable was formed by the previous government but was later defunct. The move is expected to revamp the cable distribution in the state which is primarily under the control of DMK-backed and Kalanithi Maran-owned Sumangali Cable Vision (SCV).

Addressing the state assembly on Friday, governor SS Barnala said: ?There has been overwhelming demand for the immediate revival of Arasu Cable TV Corporation for providing cable TV services at reasonable rates, and that will be done without affecting the interest of the last mile local cable operators.? He added that the state plans to nationalise cable TV operations.

This is in line with what FE reported on May 23.

Sources said the newly-elected government in Tamil Nadu had also finalised a strategy to not only benefit the state?s 12 million cable consumers, but also to destroy the cable distribution empire of the DMK-backed and Kalanidhi Maran-owned Sumangali Cable Vision (SCV).

?Next, they will slash cable rates by half,? a cable industry executive from Tamil Nadu told FE. This means that the monthly cable bills of consumers will come crashing down from an average of R180 to R54-70. As a result, the annual cable subscription revenue generated in the state will come down from R1,400 crore to less than R450 crore, thereby severely denting SCV?s profitability.

Sun Direct, the DTH venture of Sun Network that is currently involved in the 2G controversy, is also likely to suffer as its 4 million-plus strong subscriber base may opt for the new cable service.

Apart from the revival of Arasu Cable, the state government also plans to set up another cable distribution platform in a dozen TAM (Television Audience Measurement) towns, sources said. The move is aimed at strengthening AIADMK?s own Jaya TV network. TAM scores are used to study TV viewership patterns.

It is estimated that of the R1,400-crore subscription revenue generated in Tamil Nadu, over R900 crore goes to the DMK-backed SCV alone. And of the R2,300 crore of advertising revenue generated on television, nearly 90% goes to the Sun network.

The AIADMK government also announced a slew of measures for the common man on Friday. They include setting up a price stabilisation fund with a corpus of R50 crore to extend interest-free financial support to the cooperatives to procure select commodities showing abnormal price rise and sell them to the public through cooperative outlets at the cost price.

As a long term measure to control prices of essential commodities, the government will take up intensive measures to increase production and productivity of commodities facing demand-supply mismatch. ?The state will prepare a Vision 2025 document to identify and remove the bottlenecks in development, prioritise critical infrastructure projects and work assiduously to place Tamil Nadu at the forefront of development once again,? the governor said.