MUMBAI: Here’s another cable TV consortium looking to provide digital cable TV and broadband services to eastern state of Kolkata. Under the umbrella of Bengal Broadband & Cable TV Services, the MSO is focusing its operations on Kolkata, North and South 24 Parganas, Burdwan, Birbhum, Nadia and Murshidabad markets.

Promoted by four cable operators as its directors Surendra Kumar Sancheti, Mrinal Chatterjee, Avit Sinha and Sagar Sengupta, the company launched its services in Kolkata last week. Said managing director Mrinal Chatterjee at the time of the launch: "DTH operators have been capturing the market bypassing us. Other MSOs have also making it hard for local cable operators to function. Our business has suffered after digitisation and therefore to secure our future we are launching our digital services.”

Bengal Broadband will come head-to-head in competition with well-established national and regional MSOs such as Siti Networks, GTPL, Manthan and Hathway.

Chatterjee however believes there is opportunity for more players as Phase IV digitization has been progressing very slowly and a huge number of set top boxes are needed to move it forward. And the deadline of 31 March 2017 does not perturb the new MSO at all. Said he: “Within March, we will capture a sizable market share.”

The MSO will be targeting Phase I, II, III and IV areas of the state and will offer both analogue and digital services including HD channels. The plan is to also migrate to broadband delivery in the not too distant future.
Bengal Broadband has been signing on both subscribers and other local cable TV operators as its partners.