By IANS,
Chennai : The Tamil Nadu government Tuesday launched its own cable television network through the Arasu Cable Corporation in four districts.
Launching the operations through a videoconference from the state secretariat here, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi said: “The subscription rate for end-customers will be Rs.100 per month which would include, apart from free-to-air channels, some pay channels.”
According to him, the corporation will offer signals to those cable operators who have registered with it and there will be another option for unregistered operators to get themselves enrolled with Arasu Cable Corporation.
He said the corporation will offer only select pay channels that find favour with the public and not all that currently exists in the country.
“While many pay channels have agreed to offer their signals to the government company, strict legal action will be taken against those pay channels that deny signals,” he warned.
The network will be available in Thanjavur, Tiruchirapalli, Thiruvarur and Nagapattinam.
Interestingly, the Sun bouquet of channels is absent in the Arasu corporation’s offering. The Sun Group promoted by Kalanidhi Maran, grand nephew of Karunanidhi, also runs profitable cable TV operations under the name Sun Cable Vision (SCV).
Arasu Cable Corporation will be a direct competitor for SCV.