Tomorrow Sony Entertainment Television joins Star India and Zee TV as a completely pay-driven bouquet with its flagship channel becoming fully encrypted.

The channel will be available at a sticker price of Rs 12 while the whole bouquet of Sony Entertainment, Set Max, AXN and CNBC India will cost Rs 22, Shantonu Aditya, senior vice-president, franchise channels & distribution, says. In the two main metros Delhi and Mumbai the price has been fixed at Rs 12 but the rate is lower in the smaller centres, Aditya revealed.

Aditya said a total of 10,000 set top boxes would be rolled out across the country over the next 15 days. Four thousand set tops had been distributed so far, with another 2,000 expected to be in place by 3 September, Aditya said.

Sony uses the more expensive Scientific Atlanta box that will put back the cable operator by Rs 12,000 initially and with a balance of Rs 8,000 to be paid after six months. Sony is subsidising the box to the tune of Rs 15,000 with the actual cost being Rs 35,000, Aditya said.

Queried as to how cable operators would respond, Aditya said most had signed on to the new dispensation.

While Sony‘s going pay has been on the cards for some time, how the move will impact on its viewership at a time when it has been losing cachet with audiences will be watched closely.

Information & Broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj has scheduled a meeting today evening at 5:00 pm with cable operators where major issues impacting the industry are to be thrashed out.

The meeting is to be held at the Shastri Bhavan (I&B ministry headquarters) in New Delhi.

In a note sent to all major MSOs and cable operators, Swaraj has set down two main topics for discussion - conditional access systems and the rampant piracy prevailing in the cable industry. Piracy is an issue which has come to the fore with the measures taken by the producers of two recent blockbuster movies - Gaddar and Lagaan - to ensure that their films were not shown own cable. That the effort - in spite of a high court ruling in the producers‘ favour - was largely a failure is another matter.

Representing the Hinduja-promoted INCablenet is its president Rajiv Vyas while the Rajan Raheja-promoted Hathway Cable (in which Star India has a 26 per cent stake) is being represented by its V-P North SN Sharma.

Four days into Zee Television‘s journey to reinvent itself and the news is good for the Subhash Chandra-promoted channel.

According to Partha Sinha director-marketing Zee Network, its new interactive programme was "Aap Jo Bolein Haan to Haan, Aap JO Bolein Naa to Naa" captured 90,000 calls on Day 3 (Wednesday) despite clogging of the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd‘s exchanges. This was even after the phone lines were substantially enhanced.

An obviously elated Sinha said that such was the demand on Day 2 that people were using STD lines to Mumbai because it was easier to get through. The show debuted on Monday with a staggering 50,000 calls. Zee estimates indicate at least four times that number failed to get through. Speaking on this Sandeep Goyal Zee Network‘s Group broadcasting CEO was quoted as saying: "We are thrilled by the success of the show. We have a sure winner on our hands."

Touted as India‘s first audience participation fiction show, the daily live drama on morals, ethics and emotions has had executives from rival channels admitting that Zee may well be onto a good thing. Produced under licence from GloboTV of Brazil, it is called "You Decide" in its English avatar.

All in all, a show which appears to have potential. So long as good scripts are maintained. One complaint though. The anchor, Sohail Seth, hasn‘t got quite the as enthusiastic a response as the show itself.

Because of the sheer number of shows on offer some have called the new line-up a "Gujarati Thali" and how the rest of the package has been received has not been ascertained as yet. But even if four or five of the 24-show lineup hits bulls-eye then the current top gun channel Star India may well have a dogfight on its hands.