Cable Games

AUGUST 2003 - It wouldn’t be foolish to assume that even on its best days, the government of Pakistan, has simply no clue what half of it is doing – and worse, they don’t even know which half. If going round in circles is now the done thing, Islamabad is setting new standards that are going to be hard to beat. Somehow, irrational, whimsical and stupid behaviour characterizes many of the orders that flow and affect the lives of millions. The on off game that has gone on for months between the government and the cable operators is comical if it wasn’t for the fallout which is anything but comical.

The ‘Indian’ channels are the bane of Pakistan’s policy planners. Either they are being taken off the air or being put on and this cat and mouse game is played without any rules whatsoever. PEMRA – and what it stands for I am not quite sure anymore, is the watchdog body that was created to streamline the cable business but it seems to function erratically all the time. The ‘Indian’ channels are identified as Star, B4U and Zee, which are dominated by India but are actually international networks. They lean towards India because that is where their revenues and their software comes from – software being the new buzz word for programming. Indian dramas that project middle class conflicts and social issues attract large advertisers because in simple terms of numbers, they command large viewership. Any marketing person, who can tell the difference between a horse and an ass, will not put his company’s money into a channel or a program that no one is watching. The marketing trends dictate largely the content of the channels – it’s a two way street but perhaps that is too complex an equation for the muddle heads who view this in an altogether different way.

They call it a cultural invasion and by banning them seem to be doing their bit in fighting this insidious propaganda from across the divide. Such inane thinking has been our undoing in the past and surely will continue to hurt us in the future as well. Indian lifestyles such as joint family living, worship rituals, mannerisms, social customs and indeed the language feature heavily in some of the soaps that run on the ‘Indian’ channels. Do they promote an Indian way of life? Sure. Are these converting Muslims into Hindus? The answer is too silly to be given any space. The analogy is somewhat akin to another popular fallacy, namely that those who studied in convents and missionary schools have been brainwashed to think and act in a decadent westernized manner. This is quixotic thinking and Islamabad has developed it into a refined art. The ‘Indian’ channels are listed on the NASDAQ and are just as Indian as the Pakistani channels like ARY and Geo that operate out of Dubai and are therefore ‘Arab’ channels. When satellite channels started giving out programme timings, it was a bit humiliating to see that Pakistan times were never mentioned, but Indian times were. The truth is that the market dictates everything and tomorrow if Pakistan commands the kind of clout India has, the changes will come fast. Pakistan’s estimated Rs 7 billion advertising market stands nowhere against India’s Rs. 97 billion sweep – and that too in Indian rupees. So as Wendy Burgers asked many years back, ‘Where’s the beef?’

In reality the rumours and theories point the finger at those channels, which seek official protection to remain in business and use the cultural invasion syndrome to good effect knowing that there are enough loony bins in Islamabad to buy that kind of tripe. This is precisely the same argument that was advanced by the film industry when the country was starting out and their plea for ‘protection’ against the culturally offensive and hostile Indian industry received official sanction. The local industry thus assured of a playing field that was 100% tilted in its favour, spent the next 50 years producing the worst garbage on celluloid the world has ever had the misfortune to see. Today, our film industry is dead and buried and there is little point in telling anyone where its Indian contemporary stands. Chalk and cheese would be a poor description. Dung cakes and cheese may be more like it. Successive industries shy of competing have used the same argument to mint money and fleece the public. Today, we all know that for the price we pay for an automobile, we get zilch. Cars which are priced at over a million are truly not worth that price in terms of features, performance etc yet consumers pay through the nose, then suffer the humiliation of waiting like ration card holders for delivery or fall, victimized by ruthless middlemen who hoard the goods, extract premiums and go for Umrahs. People in the cable business say that a few government favourites with clout at the center are responsible for the periodical bans so that they don’t go under, unable to stand the competition. The ‘Indian’ channels were attracting advertising revenues from Pakistan for reasons that are obvious. Our answer is to change the goal posts. This way, the whining, weeping and moaning channels will receive the protective patronage they need.

In any event, the age of blocking communications sadly is over and the new technology alas makes no special concessions for ideologies and twisted thinking. PTV which has lived far too long on a very precarious heritage has refused to come out of its cocoon. Its mainstay, the family dramas died a few decades back and the new fare it churns out daily is so poor and revolting that people prefer to watch something else. As a medium with a national coverage that cable cannot match, it is still a force to contend with and were it to spend more time improving the quality of its production than planning the downfall of the competition, some good may still emerge. But then, quality is hard to come by and requires many virtues and no compromises. Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel and this is true of those who use this much-abused term to save their skins. For weeks now, letters have been appearing criticizing the government’s ill-advised move of banning certain channels but predictably, there is no response. On the one hand, there is talk of an enduring peace and burying the hatchet but the contradictory behaviour leaves everyone confused. As for the poor people who have little to choose from in terms of entertainment, banning this channel or that, simply adds to the growing frustration and economic deprivation. Someone must begin the long journey to understand that such actions lead to catastrophic upheavals and when those unfurl their fury, then little can stand in the way. We may have stacked a few million in our foreign exchange piggy bank but that money is useless until it finds its way down into the lives of ordinary folk who want work and wages. Bans like the cable one, are short lived and dangerous. Instead of spending days poring over the effects of ‘Indian’ propaganda, perhaps their lordships might turn their fleeting interest to something far more serious than Madhuri Dixit dancing provocatively.

Pakistan is now one of the world’s largest producer and exporter of pirated CDs. In fact the entire country is overflowing with pirated CDs, DVDs, VCDs, films and cassettes – books too but only a few dozen read those. There is nothing on the horizon which remotely looks like tackling this big daddy. The goods are produced and marketed openly across the length and breadth of Pakistan. The companies which have installed expensive equipment to produce the illicit goods are publicly known, yet the long arm of the law seems to have shriveled and died. Thousands of artists, foreign and local are losing hard-earned revenues because some mobsters are making a killing. Instead, all that the GOP and its PEMRA are doing is looking the other way and chasing the wrong thieves.