Cable operators face subscribers’ anger over news blackout
KARACHI, Nov 7: Most cable operators in the city have been facing great hardship in collecting the monthly subscription for their service as subscribers, perturbed over the blackout of news channels since the imposition of an emergency across the country on Saturday last, are reluctant to oblige them.
A survey conducted by Dawn revealed that cable operators have to convince their subscribers that the closure of the news channels had nothing to do with their service as the restriction had been slapped by the authorities concerned and they had to follow the rules. According to the cable operators, people do realise that the service providers are helpless but they are visibly perturbed over the blackout of information.
“Our subscribers know very well that it is the government that has imposed the ban but we have to make a lot of effort to persuade them to pay the monthly subscription,” Mohammad Zahid, a cable operator having a network in Lyari said.
He compared the situation with an earlier ban imposed by the Pemra (the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority) on the Indian entertainment channels a few years ago, and recalled that most subscribers had stopped paying their monthly subscription.
“That situation at that time was quite different because Pemra had asked us to observe the ban and deny certain channels to our subscribers. And the directive had been conveyed to us very late,” Zahid said.
Abdul Karim, who operates a cable network in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, said his clients did not resist when asked to pay the previous month’s subscription but they would ask the questions we could not answer. Many people would indulge in arguments also, he added.
“I receive scores of calls from my clients every day asking about when the news channels would be restored,” he said, adding that whatever he could tell them was “as soon as the government lifts the ban.”
Mushtaq Ahmed, a cable operator in Keamari, has little complaints about news channels but the local entertainment channels that have also been removed from the list of permitted channels. Such channels are owned by the owners of the banned news channels. A couple of them have been blocked because they present some news-oriented programmes.
“My customers wonder why these channels have been removed and I find it really hard to explain,” Mushtaq said.Similar situation prevails in the rest of the city, besides the other parts of the province.
Khalid Arain, vice chairman of the Cable Operators Association of Pakistan, said the association had not received any complaint from its members about refusal by subscribers to pay their subscriptions.
“We have not received any such complaints as yet and it has left us wondering,” he said, adding that the ban was perhaps being taken as a matter of a few days. However, the situation might change to worse if the ban stayed longer, he apprehended.
The subscribers interviewed in the survey said they had been getting news and fresh developments promptly through the news channels but the ban had created a big gap.
“The government is bent upon depriving citizens of their right to know, which is very difficult in this era of technology and live broadcast,” Aneela Siddiqui, a local business executive, said.
“Unlike past, we have enough sources to get information and it would be the government which would find itself at the losing end in future,” she remarked.
Radio sales up
Like newspapers, the old medium, radio, has also registered an increase in its sales since the imposition of emergency and blackout of the news channels. There have been reports that transistor radio, which is still widely used in the backward and rural areas of the country, has registered a remarkable sale over the past week.
“I would sell not more than ten radios in a week but now I sell 20 to 25 radio sets daily,” Mushtaq Khan, a trader having a shop in Saddar Bazaar, said.
He said most people would opt for cheaper China-made radio sets but the sales of branded sets had also gone up.
“Our sales are going high since the emergency (rule) was declared,” Mohammad Rafiq, another shopkeeper, said.
“I have to purchase radio to listen to programmes of BBC and Voice of America to know what is happening in Pakistan,” Ghulam Mohammad, a private security guard, said.
Source: Dawn
Date:11/8/2007
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