New Cable Operator.

I hve got new feed from a new cable Operator. It doesn't have any popular channels.(yet) It has all those channels whose combined viewership will not be more than 5%. :) It has couple of irritating evangeical channels, few news channels and those punjabi musical channels and ofcourse few channels whose only job is to dish out inane family dramas.
But why does it lack popular channels?
Reason no 1: All of them are encrypted paid channels.
no 2: These channels don't want to encourage 2nd operator in any town.

It's sort of mafia. Not many operators will be allowed in drug business. It's mostly politicans are indrect owners of networks. Or network operators get transformed into politicans after they make money.
Murders happen in cable distribution business. Ofcourse since technology has become cheap, any reasonably rich & enterprising person can become a operator provided channels cooperate.
Do we want 100s of paraller wires compting to plug in to your TV? Hmm, perhaps no. At the same time, do you want to be dependant on a single service provider who decides what you must see at a price he decides?
Shall we go for licensing by govt? With it coms license fee and increase in subsription fees. :(
DTH or IPTV? Hmm, we indians are so poor that only 10% of households can afford these systems where you have relative freedom of paying only for what you want to see.
These popular(and hence pay) channels furst such half of your blood through monthly fee and half of your brain later with ads interspersed with content.
To sum it up, it's a muddy field.

A useless fact: I am the second operator. :)