When NTO (New Tariff Order) came into effect in December 2019, our startup CableNine was ready to hit the market. Our startup makes a complete Subscriber Management System for cable TV operators and we started developing this software in early 2018 and had enough time to test our product with a leading cable TV operator. This test run helped us to identify and fix all the problems our software had. When the TRAI regulation came into force in 2019, we were able to outrun our competition by immediately offering a product that gave zero headaches to the cable tv operators. 

Many believe that cable TV is a dying business due to the arrival of more modern alternatives like DishTV and OTT platforms like Amazon Prime, Netflix etc. In our research, there are close to 180+ million cable tv subscribers and more subscribers are getting added every year from rural parts of India. These new subscribers often come from Tier II and Tier III cities where stable internet penetration is still a distant dream. When I interviewed some of the cable tv subscribers from tier III cities, it was clear that a good rapport was maintained between the cable tv operator and the subscriber. They had a trust between them and they are happy with the current offering, showing little interest in switching to an alternative. The current cable TV market stands at  $10 billion globally and we are trying to achieve 1% of that market.

Our software was designed with only the essential features that are required for a cable tv operator making the interface straightforward and easy so that their field representatives can operate the software without any confusion and quickly complete the transaction.  We launched our software for mass adoption in September 2019 and so far 2 lakh invoices have been generated through our platform. Our first client was Galaxy Vision Network, Thrissur and now we are serving over 80 LCO’s (Local cable TV Operators) from Kerala and neighboring states. The CableNine is now a complete package that includes software for all key touchpoints in cable tv business. These include software for customers, field executives, support staff, office managers, etc. We are looking to expand into countries like Srilanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Somalia, and Bangladesh post-corona.