In a new twist in the conditional access system (CAS) roll out, leading cable network companies and cable operators led by Siti Cable today said they would come out with a price list of the pay television channels in 48 hours.
As per the rates being worked out, the prices of all the pay channels and the free-to-air channels will be within Rs 200 and will include the margins of cable operators.
Cable network companies and cable operators today claimed that the regulations based on the Cable Television Amendment Act gave them the power to do so.
According to one of the recent notifications by the government, it is the responsibility of the cable operator to notify the rates of all the pay channels.
"We are working on the pricing. If the pay channels do not agree with the pricing, they can stop broadcasting to us," said Jawahar Goel, vice chairman, Zee Telefilms and head of Siti Cable.
Industry sources said major cable network companies were part of the talks and pricing would also include the margins for cable operators.
However, sources in the broadcasting sector said the rival broadcasters of Zee, such as Star and Sony, were likely to reject the prices. Zee had rejected the prices of all channels circulated by Star in a meeting with the government on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, accusing broadcasters of trying to "derail" the implementation of CAS, cable operators today asked the government to take stern steps against channels which did not disclose their rates.
"It is now evident that Star TV, Sony TV and ESPN Star Sports channel broadcasters want to derail the implementation of CAS and have no intentions of complying with government directives," the National Cable and Telecommunication Association said in a letter to Pawan Chopra, secretary, information and broadcasting ministry.
It said broadcasters were still not prepared with the final details on the channel rates and had devised a "super tier aimed at forcing the entire lot of pay channels down the throat of the Indian cable TV viewers".
Describing the practice as undesirable, it said this would not enable the cable operators to declare rates of individual channels as required by the June 6 notification.
It urged the government to strictly implement the notification saying channels which did not disclose their policy or pricing by June 15 would not be carried by cable networks after July 14 when CAS rolled out in the four metros.
"This will be the most effective step in protecting the consumer interests and it will compel these channels to either go free-to-air or declare their standalone individual pay channel prices," it said.
