In 2006, the cable industry was the 12th highest revenue contributor to the government. Thimphu city alone paid about Nu 2.5 million as entertainment tax.

Getting a Dish TV connection is easy. All one needs to do is get in touch with an Indian supplier in the border town of Jaigaon and pay Nu 3,990 for the dish and the receiver.

The purchase is registered in the name of a fictitious Indian buyer and one can choose between packages, which cost between Nu 180 a month to Nu 300 a month. These days, with the Puja months on in India, buyers also get five months of free-viewing and can call a hotline number to help with installing the dish.

The dish and the receiver pass through the police checkpoints with no hassles at all, according to several people who recently got a DTH connection.

But the (illegal) growth of Dish TV does not bode well for cable business. “It is threat to the cable industry and in contradiction to content and license regulation that the cable industry has to follow,” said the secretary of the APCO (Association of Private Cable Operators) Kinley Dorji. He estimates that more than 2,000 homes in Bhutan have DISH TV today, since the first ones came in 2004, of which more than 200 are in Thimphu alone.

“We have repeatedly written to BICMA to do something about it or otherwise do away with the regulations that cable operators have been subjected to,” said the APCO secretary. “We want something enforced not just notifications on paper.”

BICMA responded last week with a notification in the media on October 17 warning any organisation or individual using DISH TV to remove the equipment immediately within 15 days of the date of notification. “Failure to comply will be viewed seriously and dealt with in keeping with the provisions of the Bhutan Information, Communications and Media Act 2006,” the notification states.

This time BICMA officials are serious about doing something. “We will form a task force and get a court warrant to make people comply,” said BICMA director Kinley Wangchuk. “We don’t want to make a mockery of this rule.”

Kinley Wangchuk said that cable TV paid taxes, was licensed and its content regulated but there was no such thing in place for DISH TV. All the money was flowing out and no taxes whatsoever were paid to the government.

On whether DISH TV could be legalised, the director said that the authority was aware of the need and that the rules would be revisited but until such time, it was illegal.

Without any regulation on the endless channels and advertisements coming through the DISH, Kinley Wangchuk said that there was the danger of hastening the process of changing Bhutanese from “needy customers to greedy consumers,” which was against GNH philosophy.

But regulation, content in particular, seems to have backfired and whetted the appetite of Bhutanese for the dish. Many viewers point out that the banning of TenSports because it aired World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) was a joke because more violent and bloodier programmes were aired on other channels that were not banned.

With the pace of advancement in technology and demand for greater entertainment variety, some Bhutanese argue whether content regulation will ever be possible in Bhutan. BICMA officials, however, believe that some regulation is better than none at all.

Another strong argument for DISH TV is that, in many parts of rural Bhutan where cable operators do not exist, DTH was the only option for those who could afford it.

When BICMA (formerly Bhutan communications authority) issued a notification in April 2004 that DISH TV was not permitted, some people in rural Trashigang dzongkhag protested that they should not be denied the services people in urban areas enjoyed.

A lot of people feel that legalizing and regulating the dish may be the answer.