CAS ready for implementation; demand yet to pick up

New Delhi, Dec 19 (UNI) The Conditional Access System(CAS) is ready to be ushered in on the night of December 31 but there were few takers as of now.

The reason had been ascribed to lack of adequate information to consumers about the new system and doubts about the date of implementation as the matter was sub judice.

However, the Delhi High Court today rejected the plea of Star Broadband Services Pvt Ltd, an MSO, seeking more time to implement the CAS, ending an element of uncertainty.

So far not many applications had been received by cable operators for installation of the set top boxes in south Delhi where the CAS regime will be introduced with the New Year.

Also not much enthusiasm has been reported from notified areas of Kolkata and Mumbai which will usher in a CAS regime from the same date.

''With today's court order, the demand for set top boxes will pick up as the prevailing uncertainty about the arrival of the new system has been removed,'' said senior vice president of the ZEE Network Arvind Mohan.

An official of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said all arrangements were in place for introduction of the new system.

The agreements between cable operators and Multi-Service Operators(MSOs) had been concluded barring a few cases, he said.

''Those MSOs who have failed to reach any agreement will be left out, as we have asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to arrange signals from alternative sources in these cases in south Delhi,'' he said.

He said the Ministry had launched an awareness drive and asked the cable operators to intensify their awarenss campaigns too.

However, service providers were reporting that so far the demand for the set top boxes, which will be required to watch the pay channels, was not picking up.

Asked whether they had started installing set top boxes in their areas, a cable operator in south Delhi replied,'' How can we do that unless we are asked for.''.

Cable Operators Federation of India President Roop Sharma said there will be spurt in the demand of set top boxes once the CAS is in place and people stop getting most of entertainment channels, most of which are pay channels in their connection.

Cable operators, by and large, do not seem to be enthusiastic about the issue, mainly because they cannot hide their income from MSOs under a CAS regime.

Moreover, under the existing system, there was no choice for the consumer as the local operator became one's service provider by default. The absence of any competitor had resulted into poor quality of service.

Residents in the CAS areaa feel that the operators had been hiking monthly charges arbitrarily and giving more than one connection from one point.

They will not now have to pay for the channels they do not want to see.

However, there are several opinions on whether the monthly bill will go up or down in a CAS area.

Presently, Cable TV subscribers get both free to air (FTA) and pay channels at a rate fixed by the cable operator.

Rates vary from city to city and even in areas and localities within a city ranging from Rs 150 to Rs 400.

The broadcasters have bunched their channels into bouquets and the subscriber is forced to pay even for those channels, which he does not want to view.

The Multi-System Operators (MSOs) and cable operators blame the Broadcasters for hiking the price of their pay channel bouquets resulting in frequent raise in subscription rates.

The Broadcasters blame the cable operators for under-reporting the number of subscribers resulting in loss of revenue to the broadcasters and also evasion of entertainment tax, service tax and even income tax.

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