Govt may seek more time for CAS rollout

The government is likely to file a review petition in the Delhi High Court seeking more time to roll out the conditional access system (CAS). The Delhi High Court has asked the government to roll out CAS in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata in four weeks.

"Four weeks will not be sufficient to roll out CAS in its complete form. The government is looking at options including a review petition to seek more time," said an information and broadcasting ministry official.

The I&B ministry also wants to involve local governments in rolling out CAS. The government is exploring ways to roll out CAS in Kolkata as West Bengal will be going to polls shortly and take the state government into confidence before going ahead with the exercise.

As per a rough concept prepared by the government, the initial 15-day period of the roll-out will be used for generating consumer awareness, deployment of set-top boxes by cable operators and for broadcasters of pay channels to conduct promotional campaigns and come out with rates for individual channels. The complete rollout in each of the four metros will take place in three months.

Each of the metro cities will be divided into four zones for the rollout. After the initial 15-day period, within a one-month time-frame, pay channels can be watched only with the use of set top boxes in zone A in each metro. Pay channel consumers in this zone will be charged, in addition to the price of the basic tier plus taxes.

From the second month onwards, CAS will take full effect in zone B in each metro, while in zones C and D subscribers will pay only for the basic tier plus taxes for all channels. And so it will follow in zone C from the third month onwards and zone D from the fourth month.