HC asks for CAS roll-out by year-end

The Delhi High Court today asked the Centre to implement the Conditional Access System (CAS) in Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai before December 31 this year.

A division bench of acting Chief Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Kailash Gambhir directed the Centre to issue a notification within a week and granted a time frame of 22 weeks to the ministry of information and broadcasting to implement the scheme.

The Centre, in its affidavit filed through N Baijendra Kumar, joint secretary, information and broadcasting, stated that after several round of talks with stakeholders the consumer-friendly scheme has been revised. It has been decided to implement CAS in a time-bound manner.

According to the government, the revised scheme will be notified by the end of July. A suitable regulatory environment would be created to facilitate investments by stakeholders, especially broadcasters and multi-system operators (MSOs), in order to provide improved quality of viewing at affordable prices.

It had been proposed that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) ensure broadcasters did not arbitrarily declare high prices for their channels besides eliminate the system of offering bouquets at heavy discounts, it added.

As per the proposal, MSOs would offer set top boxes on a rental basis with a refundable security deposit. Thus consumers would be able to return the set top box if they moved out of the CAS-notified area.

During the period of transition, consumers would receive pay channels signals through both set top boxes and directly, the Centre said.

Trai would also fix an overall ceiling on price of individual channels so that consumers would not have to bear high prices.Subhash Chandra-owned Wire & Wireless India Ltd (WWIL), has welcomed the implementation of CAS by the year-end.

Jagjit Singh Kohli, chief executive officer, WWIL said, "We are fully prepared to roll-out set top boxes not only in the notified areas but throughout the country. The value-added services with the set top boxes would enable subscribers to browse the internet, chat, send and receive mails, on their TV sets."

According to a company release, WWIL has also embarked on a major expansion-cum-acquisition spree in preparation for CAS next year.

With the set top boxes being priced at Rs 999, plus a monthly rent of Rs 30, WWIL would also be introducing value-added services such as movie on demand, pay per view, interactive games and e-banking.

CUTS International has stated that to ensure success of CAS this time, bouquets should be banned and there should be a maximum retail price for pay channels.

By introducing the concept of bouquet, the government was moving away from the very rationale of CAS, which seeks to provide consumers a tool to choose individual channels.