nomdeplume
New Member
Hi All
A couple of months ago, our local Cable provider in South Delhi shifted lock, stock and barrel from Hathway to DEN. We got new set-top boxes, and cable packages became somewhat favorable.
Last Sunday, Hathway employees (direct from Co.) came all over our locality, and offered us FREE connections for 3 months at least, if we were to replace the DEN boxes with theirs.
I got to talk to them in detail. This is the gameplan:
1. Cable companies are under pressure to get as many subscribers as possible before May 2012.
2. They are willing to acquire customers at any price - as long as customer pays for new box, they can give service free for 6 months (if u ask nicely).
In markets where Digitization has already happened, they are willing to give away the boxes too.
3. Hathway has a plan to hit back at DTH with HD, and HD+ offering (he showed me a press release, and offered to give me a demo at his office this week).
4. Hathway local franchisees expect the HD box prices to come down in the near future (currently its about Rs. 6000+ tax for the entire year for 9 HD channels).
5. They expect DEN to upgrade their offers in the next few days too.
Evidently, DEN knows that Hathway is sniffing - they called us to tell us that Dec, Jan, Feb bills are waived off for our existing service !!
So, all members of HFV - hang on before committing to annual packages with DTH. There could be positive surprises - at least in compulsory addressable markets where these guys have a market-share problem.
I intend to go to their office on Saturday to check out the HD STB, and will update the community on my first impressions.
Cheers,
Aman aka Nomdeplume
A couple of months ago, our local Cable provider in South Delhi shifted lock, stock and barrel from Hathway to DEN. We got new set-top boxes, and cable packages became somewhat favorable.
Last Sunday, Hathway employees (direct from Co.) came all over our locality, and offered us FREE connections for 3 months at least, if we were to replace the DEN boxes with theirs.
I got to talk to them in detail. This is the gameplan:
1. Cable companies are under pressure to get as many subscribers as possible before May 2012.
2. They are willing to acquire customers at any price - as long as customer pays for new box, they can give service free for 6 months (if u ask nicely).
In markets where Digitization has already happened, they are willing to give away the boxes too.
3. Hathway has a plan to hit back at DTH with HD, and HD+ offering (he showed me a press release, and offered to give me a demo at his office this week).
4. Hathway local franchisees expect the HD box prices to come down in the near future (currently its about Rs. 6000+ tax for the entire year for 9 HD channels).
5. They expect DEN to upgrade their offers in the next few days too.
Evidently, DEN knows that Hathway is sniffing - they called us to tell us that Dec, Jan, Feb bills are waived off for our existing service !!
So, all members of HFV - hang on before committing to annual packages with DTH. There could be positive surprises - at least in compulsory addressable markets where these guys have a market-share problem.
I intend to go to their office on Saturday to check out the HD STB, and will update the community on my first impressions.
Cheers,
Aman aka Nomdeplume