Chennai, Jun 4, DHNS: The Jayalalitha government has nationalised cable television business in Tamil Nadu, a measure that her predecessor M Karunanidhi proposed but could not execute.

Governor S S Barnala, delivering his first address to the newly constituted 14th Legislative Assembly here on Friday, made the announcement of the nationalisation, dealing a body-blow to private monopoly in the cable TV field.

Among other major measures announced in the Governor’s address on behalf of the new government were replacement of the previous government’s Chennai metro rail project with a monorail project and the Kalaignar health insurance with a ‘comprehensive public health insurance scheme.’ A ‘green housing scheme’ envisages construction of houses with solar power supply, to be allotted free to the rural poor. It will replace the current Kalaignar housing scheme.

Jayalalitha’s AIADMK government has scrapped certain unviable schemes of the previous DMK regime. Though the previous government had created the ‘Arasu Cable TV Corporation’ to break the stranglehold of the Maran (junior) family-controlled Sumangali Cable Vision (SCV) that controlled over 60 per cent of the cable business, not much headway could be made.

Then Karunanidhi’s elder son, Madurai-based M K Alagiri’s family floated their ‘Royal Cable Vision’ to take a slice of the southern market when the DMK strongman fell out with the Maran brothers.

All this will now hopefully become a thing of the past, as the Jayalalitha regime will revive Arasu cable TV corporation as a state-owned ‘multi-system operator (MSO)’ giving signals to smaller cable operators and conferring benefits to the ultimate consumers with slashed cable TV charges.

This nationalisation of cable TV being done in ‘public interest’ will mean less manipulation of a powerful technology reach by just one or two families close to a ruling party.  The new regime has said it would ensure that this did not “affect the interests of the last-mile local cable operators.”

They are mostly unemployed youth at the bottom of this pyramid, connecting each household. The state takeover of the cable TV will also negate private monopolistic MSOs controlling the channels offered to viewers.