Broadcasters stay out of CAS rollout talks

The meeting called by the information and broadcasting ministry for sequencing the rollout of the Conditional Access System (CAS) ended without any result with the broadcasters staying out of the negotiations.

Even as the ministry is trying to tie the loose ends before the April 10 deadline set by the Delhi High Court, there are differences among th broadcasters.

"While Indian broadcasters are fine with individual pricing of channels, foreign broadcasters want a bouquet of channels," said NP Nawani, executive director, Indian Broadcasters' Foundation. "The association is breaking apart," Nawani said.

The broadcasters, who also stayed out of an earlier meeting, have been unable to reach an agreement on the pricing and the government has stepped in to fix a maximum retail price for each channel.

The ministry, on its part, is keeping its cards close to the chest. "We are trying to work towards that (HC deadline). We will take appropriate action", Information and Broadcasting Secretary SK Arora said.

The cable operators' alliances see this as an effort to shelve the rollout of CAS in favour of the Direct-To-Home service operators.

In a letter to the I&B ministry, Cable Operators Federation of India had requested that the licence of TATA-Sky DTH be withheld till CAS was implemented so that the two technologies get a level-playing field.

"This is just to provide a comfortable entry to the DTH which is owned by broadcasters", said Vikki Chowdhary, president, National Cable TV Association. NCTA has also asked the ministry to remove the freeze on subscription rates as it is hurting the cable industry.

"Direct channel broadcasters ought to be instructed to stop collecting subscription per month from the cable operators till the implementation of the conditional access system. That is illegal", Chowdhary said.